The Moral Concept of “Fair”

There are many Gospel topics with meanings related to the concept of “Fair”, such as just, merciful, kind, understanding, loving, gracious, forgiving, equal etc. All of these appear in the scriptures in the context of actions, where God relates to His children.

Yet nowhere in the section of Study Helps of the scriptures was I able to find a reference to “Fair” except in the context of describing the beauty of an individual or a group of people.

Could it be that the human concept of “Fair” is simply not a part of the Divine Dictionary?

Let me illustrate the problem by comparing a present-day work situation with the parable Christ gave of the laborers in the vineyard.

Two men are hired by a company to do a certain job. Both are happy, they like the work situation, they like the fellow workers, they are happy with the salary until one discovers that his friend, doing the same job as he, earns twice as much. He is upset with the unfairness of his salary.

In a parable, Christ compares the Kingdom of Heaven to a householder who hires workers for his vineyard. He hires them at different times of day and in the evening pays each a penny as agreed.

The murmuring on each case is the result of selfishness. The main difference is the fact that the first situation is based on human values, the second relates to eternal values. The ultimate prize in the kingdom of Heaven is Eternal Life, a commodity which cannot be earned. Try as we might, we can never meet a divine standard on our own, “by grace are we saved after all we can do” (2 Nephi 25:23). Christ makes up for the difference between where we are, and where we need to be, for all who accept Him and His atoning sacrifice by making the sacrifice of a broken heart and a contrite spirit, with all that means in terms of repentance, love of God, love of fellow men and serving Him with all our heart, might, mind and strength, as well as accepting and obeying the principles and actions associated with saving Gospel ordinances.

The question of fairness never enters the picture. Paul, in the first epistle to the Corinthians lists the characteristics of charity, the pure love of Christ. Among them he states “Charity seeketh not her own”. In other words, if we have charity, we do not insist on receiving that, to which we are entitled, but rather step back to give an opportunity to someone in need.

The fact, of course is, that in view of eternal issues, the two are not that different. The Kingdom of Heaven represents the purpose of life, and unless we apply eternal standards to our earthly values, we will not have done “all we can do” and we will not “be saved by grace”.

In the spring General Conference of 1978 President Kimball suggested three fundamental things needed to build “Zion”. “First, we must eliminate the individual tendency to selfishness that snares the soul, shrinks the heart, and darkens the mind”. (General Welfare Session, General Conference April 1978, Becoming the pure in heart, Spencer W. Kimball)

If we truly learn to cease being selfish, we will begin to love our “neighbors” and a concern for fairness will no longer be an issue in our personal relations, racial or otherwise.

My Personal Attitude about Race,

And the Priesthood for Blacks

in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

I had always considered myself as color blind  until some personal experiences made me realize that there were still areas of improvement for my attitudes. I had my first experience with deep seated racial prejudice and unreasonable hatred while serving on the Army in the fifties. I had a serious leg injury which placed me in the hospital. For a few days, a fellow soldier from the deep South and I were the only occupants of the ward. He had majored in English, in college, and we had some stimulating discussions. Eventually a black trooper was added to our duet, and the following morning, while only the white GI and I were in the bathroom, he went into such a vicious and unreasonable diatribe about this blankety-blank n****r that it was impossible for me to identify the intelligent young man with whom I had had interesting conversations. I was literally shocked.

At the same time there was a black orderly serving our ward. He and I had become good friends, so that after I was released from the hospital, we spent quite a bit of time together. In fact, he went to Church with me on several occasions. On one occasion I sked him if he had a girlfriend. He did. I sked him if he had a picture. He showed me the picture of lovely, black girl, and I as awakened to the fact that my conception of beauty was far from color blind. I was rudely awakened to the fact that my racial attitudes had definite limitations. 

While teaching at Indiana State University I experienced another awakening. Three black students came to class with, what seemed to me, was an obvious chip on their shoulder. They dared me to “learn them something”. I braced myself for a challenging semester. It turned out that those three students were intelligent and hard-working and came to be among the top in the class, in fact their contributions added much to the learning atmosphere for the entire class. Again, I realized that I had to overcome some limitations in my racial attitudes.

That same semester I was preparing material for my class in the preparation room adjacent to the large theater-style classroom. A black colleague was using that classroom as a meeting place with a student group he was advising. I eavesdropped. At first, I just heard a word or two, without really paying attention. After a while it was obvious to me that he helped the students understand, that racial tensions can be moderated when both races learn to understand each other. This was much like Booker T. Washington in “Up from Slavery”. I stayed until long after I had completed my preparation, and introduced myself to my colleague, and we became good friends.  He taught a Sunday School class in a black Baptist Church, and on one occasion he invited me to come to his class to introduce the class to Christian teachings as understood by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I mention these details to help you understand how he responded when President Kimball announced the revelation opening access to the priesthood to all worthy male members of the Church, and participation in temple ordinances to all worthy members, regardless of race. He knew how I felt about my black brothers and sisters, and he also knew that I would rejoice, and, out of respect for me, he wanted to share my joy, so, when he heard the announcement on TV, he called me on the phone to express our shared joy.

A neighbor, who at that time served as the judge in the local juvenile court, approached me one day: “How can you, as an intelligent human being, associate with a church which discriminates against the black race”?  My response: “What the Lord does with His Priesthood, is His business. How I treat my black brother, is my business, and if I treat my black brother and my black sister in any way other than with deep love, my Father will hold me responsible.

Repentance

Among the many gifts our Heavenly Father has prepared for us are His love, the atoning sacrifice of His son, Jesus Christ, Eternal Life, the scriptures, full of divine guidance and prophetic messages, the restoration of the fulness of the Gospel, and many, many more.  

The scriptures tell us that the greatest gift, of all these, is Eternal Life; and so it is, yet, without the Love of our Heavenly Father, none of these would be possible. With that in mind, I love the hymn we sing: How great the wisdom and the Love, that filled the courts on high and sent the savior from above, to suffer bleed and die. 

Of the multitude of gifts, two stand out in relation to our every-day actions: Agency, and Repentance. Without agency the entire creation would have been for naught. Not one of us would have the opportunity for spiritual growth, and thus become prepared to meet our Heavenly Father, and there become divinely creative in His presence.

Tied to the opportunity of free choice, is the consequence that as apprentices we make mistakes, with the result that our progress would be limited and prevent us from fulfilling our divine potential, unless an opportunity were given to learn from our mistakes, overcome them and be forgiven, and thus again become pure in preparation for a divine future.

The infinite Atonement of Christ gives us the possibility to accept that sacrifice through our sacrifice of a broken heart and a contrite spirit. Included in that repentance is our willingness to give him the only gift which is truly ours to give: Our will. That obedience is a commitment of subjecting our will to His, with complete trust resulting from having experienced His love.

The principles of Agency and Repentance are thus inseparably connected through the Love of our Heavenly Father.

A broken heart and a contrite spirit comprise the most concise definition of repentance I can imagine. In the context of the Gospel, a broken heart indicates the depth of sorrow coming from a realization that I have offended my Heavenly Father. Thus, the scripture in the sermon on the mount: “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted”  becomes a message of repentance and forgiveness.

A broken heart suggests full recognition of transgression and willingness to make repairs where possible as well as a commitment to avoid future wrongdoing. The term contrite spirit includes confession to God, to individuals wronged and willingness to be subjected to appropriate priesthood authority to complete the repentance and receive forgiveness. By this ye may know if a man repenteth of his sins – he will confess them and forsake them. (D&C 58:43)

The joy of forgiveness is one of the great gifts of our Heavenly Father, made effective through full repentance as we accept the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

The Love of our Heavenly Father for His Children

The question arises: What must we do to qualify for God’s love?

Clearly that is an absurd question, since the scriptures tell us that God loves all of His children, and you and I are among His many children.

Because of His love for His children, His plan of Salvation included the opportunity of spiritual growth which is only possible with free choice coming through the blessing of agency. This in turn results in inevitable mistakes requiring payment. While we cannot make full payment, repentance is required to access our Father’s grace through the atonement of Jesus Christ. (John 3:16, 2Nephi 25:23)

The question, therefor, is not what can we do to earn His love, but rather: how can we think, feel, and behave to recognize His love for us? 

Let me illustrate this with an example from music. Consider a piano. A piano has many strings. Each string is made to vibrate by a hammer which hits the string when the key, attached to that hammer, is hit by the hammer when the key is depressed. When the key is depressed, a damper is lifted from that string, so only that string vibrates. The lowest frequency with which that string can vibrate corresponds to vibrational motion which looks like one loop, since the string is tied down between two fixed points. This looks a lot like a jump rope. When you wiggle the jump rope twice as fast you end up with two loops, with a point in the middle, that point doesn’t seem to move. Thus, when one side moves up, the other side moves down. The same double loop picture applies to the piano string when hit by the hammer, the string vibrates with frequencies corresponding to multiple loops. So, for the A in the middle of the piano, A4, we have a frequency of 440 Hz (cycles per second) and the string actually vibrates with all whole number multiples of that frequency, that is A5 = 2x440m, E6 = 3x440, A6 = 4x440, C#7 = 5x440, E7 = 6x440. These notes are called harmonics, and a string hit by a hammer will vibrate only with those frequencies. On one end of the string the string is fixed on the bridge, which transfers the vibration to the sound board which amplifies the sound so we can hear it. The lowest frequency is the loudest, but all the other frequencies are present. If I depress the A5 string so gently that the hammer does not hit the string, and then play the A4 string and then release it, I will be able to hear the A5 note, because the soundboard vibrations will make the A5 string vibrate. The same will happen for all the other harmonic notes. Only the notes whose frequencies are in a harmonic relationship with the note struck will be heard.

So, it is with us. If we want to feel the love of our Heavenly Father, we need to be in harmony with Him. We feel the love of our Heavenly Father when we truly love Him. How do we show Him that we really love Him? There are many ways. The following comments are certainly not exclusive, nor are they listed in order of importance. 

We need to be sincere in our prayers. While concerns occur repeatedly, they cannot be rote memory, they must come from the heart each time. Gratitude for the blessings of the gospel is always appropriate. Thanks for love by and to friends and family always helps us to understand and feel the love of our Heavenly Father. We need help in our repentance. Awareness of specific shortcomings, and a plea for assistance will help us to do better in the future. Any effort to relieve someone’s burden will bring us closer to our Heavenly Father, and we feel the warms of His love penetrate our souls.

As we experience that, we feel a calm peace fill our heart despite the turmoil of illness, injury, animosity, material loss, and all the ills the world can provide. He tells us that “. . . . in me ye might have peace. In the world you will have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

With my nearly 90 years of living I feel more joy associated with the love of my Heavenly Father, and the values of alternatives increasingly fade in significance.