Just watched an interesting, but sobering movie named “Noble“. It’s about an Irish woman whose tough background prepared her to make an enormous contribution to the welfare of the orphans and abandoned children of Viet Nam.
Several scenes in the movie show the brutal abject poverty, which of course, isn’t isolated to Viet Nam but is seen in most countries.
While the credits were running, I was reminded of several quotes by Apostle George Q. Cannon. The first was from a General Conference talk he gave in 1869. He spoke of how “the incorrect organization of society” creates “degradation and poverty” and how the poor are “utterly unable to obtain the blessings and comforts of life.”
Then over a decade later, as a member of the First Presidency, Cannon reiterated in another General Conference talk his belief and tied it to Zion:
“…when Zion is organized properly, it will be found to be as admirably adapted to the wants of the children of men as the organization of the Church is today to the wants of the people. There will be nothing lacking. In every particular it will be found adequate to the wants of humanity. The evils under which mankind groan today, are attributable to the false organization of society. The evils under which we groan as a people and from which we suffer are not due to any lack of knowledge as the method or the means that will correct these evils, but they are due to the fact that we ourselves fail to conform to the organization which God has prescribed, which God has revealed.”
Then yet another decade later he said, “What is it, then, that produces the misery that we read about, and that we sometimes see? What is it that produces the destitution among the nations of the earth, and, to some extent, among us? It is because there is something lacking in the organization of society.”
I believe that the “false organization of society” is what we call Babylon, Zion’s “antithesis and antagonist”. The separation of Capital and Labor creates a false social dichotomy which affects everyone. This division, where those with Capital hire others to do their work, creates great wealth for some and soul-grinding poverty for others. Were Capital and Labor to be united, such as is done in worker-owned cooperatives (which the early Brethren saw as a “stepping stone” to the United Order), and if that unity were widespread in the world, crime, poverty, and the corruption of religions, education, and government would all be a thing of the past.
How long until we are so sick of the filth-sodden baggage that comes with Babylon’s false organization of society that we will reject its hollow promises of glitter and gold and unite with others to bring about its prophesied end? Baby steps will get us there, eventually. God is willing for all his children to be happy — we only have to value the happiness of others as much as we do our own. We must esteem our neighbor as ourselves.
“Who’s on the Lord’s side, who?”