First World Problems and Refugees
10:12 PM
First world problems:
- I want to eat my chips…but I can't hear the TV.
- My laptop is dying…but the charger is in another room.
- My shampoo and conditioner never run out at the same time.
- I poured cereal into my bowl without checking to see if we still had milk…we didn't.
- There are so may un-popped kernels in my microwave popcorn.
- My diamond earrings keep scratching my i-phone.
- My soda fizzed too much when I poured it into my glass that I had to wait for the fizz to go down before I continued pouring.
I remember the first
time I heard a radio show joking about first world problems and I laughed right
along with the hosts. I still laugh, but there is a sense of sad irony to the
joke. The only reason these first world problems make us laugh is because we
are aware of the greater world of real problems that afflict people in more
desperate situations.
Just as there are
physical first world problems, there are also spiritual first world problems.
Isaiah wrote prophetically about a future day where those in prosperous
situations would, because of their blessings and the forgetfulness that such
blessings bring, reject God, his prophets, and ultimately his salvation:
How many of these
sound familiar? People that "call evil good and good evil"?
Individuals who are "wise in their own eyes"? People who
"justify the wicked" because they earn a "reward" and
subsequently seek to take "the righteousness of the righteous" away
from humble people trying to do good? Hecklers who say to prophets and
apostles, "see not . . . Prophesy not unto us right things, but prophesy
unto us smooth things"? People who through their criticism and
condemnations say to those who simply want to follow God, "Get you out of
the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from
before us"?
We had some friends
visit recently from Germany. We asked them what the response was in their country to
all of the internet clamor criticizing Church leaders and their words and
decisions. We asked what they thought about those angry voices arguing about
women and the priesthood, the Church's support of traditional marriage, those
who vocally oppose sustainings in conference, writers and bloggers who are
fixated on Church history or supposedly troubling issues.
Their response was twofold ignorance of the topics and bewilderment that people actually get caught up in such trivial matters. They explained that in Europe, people struggle simply to find happiness in a world filled with cheap and depressing imitations. They seek to keep their standards amidst an overwhelmingly vulgar and debaucherous majority. They try to help their children have correct views of marriage and family in a place where pornography is openly displayed on billboards and newspapers. They want to stay close to God when their entire school or neighborhood or even city leans away from Him. And for them, the gospel as taught in scripture and expounded upon by modern prophets and apostles provides them practical answers to real problems. They looked at our first world Church problems in the same way someone in an economically disadvantaged country might look at our bag of un-popped popcorn kernels.
The point is this,
despite what seems to be such a vocal opposition to the Church, these
viewpoints are, as Jesus said in accusation of scribes and Pharisees, like
"strain[ing] at a gnat" instead of focusing on "the weightier
matters of the law" (Matt 23:23-24).
It's as if the whole world is a
hospital with every person, to some degree or another, in need of some kind of
help or healing. Because the doctors and nurses are outnumbered by the sick and injured this worldwide
hospital uses a system of triage to discern who is most in need of help. This
process divides those with paper cuts and headaches from those who need
immediate and serious attention. However, and unfortunately, there is a small
army of blustering voices who are running around the hospital causing greater
hurt instead of helping with the healing. They stand next to those with minor
injuries and yell at the doctors to cease their efforts in saving lives to
address this woman's stubbed toe or that man's bruised shin. They criticize the
doctors of the past, focusing on how the principles and practices used almost
two hundred years, like using leeches to draw out diseases, seem so wrong today.
Indeed, they seem so bent on stopping the work that they will look or any
flaw, any miscue, any perceived injustice as proof that the whole hospital
should be abandoned. They would have the men and women in critical condition
get out of bed, rip off the monitoring equipment, and walk out of the
hospital. They never suggest a better alternative, interestingly enough, which
belies further the selfishness of their plans. It makes me wonder if they even want to help or if they
just want attention.
To anyone seeking to sow doubt
and distrust in the Church where the only goal is help and healing, I say with as
much fervor as I can put into words, "knock it off!" Either you
believe the claims of the Church or you do not, which means either you worship with us or you do not. But despite difference in our personal beliefs,
can we not all use our time and our tactics, our questioning and questing to help solve real problems? Can we quit quibbling over the social or historical problems of the
first world and help reach out to the serious and spiritual problems that really plague people's souls? And if anyone can't do that then can they at least quit bugging the doctors?
The most recent
General Conference was filled with directions that, whether someone believes
the Church's history or sympathizes with its stances, could be followed to the
betterment of an individual and the healing of the world at large. For example,
Church leaders have directed our attention to reaching out to refugees (see iwasastranger.lds.org) and called for everyone to help. Think of the power
we could have if just a few, famous internet detractors used their resources
and the followerships to help in this great cause. I fear their desire to be
heard will overpower any desire to hear and help, but the invitation has come
to all nonetheless.
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