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On Faith Diana Mahony |
Mormons prepare themselves
for the possibility of teaching
the Gospel in ChinaDuring the summer of 2002, it was my good fortune to spend six weeks with colleagues and students from Brigham Young University-Hawaii on a study-abroad program in Xi'an, site of the terra-cotta warriors in the center of China's agricultural heartland. We knew we would be seen as unofficial ambassadors for the United States, Hawaii and our university.
But at BYUH, university and church are virtually inseparable, and in a communist country that prohibits the teaching of religion, this required some mental adjustments. Our director, Tim Richardson, gave us strict and repeated instructions: We could bring our own scriptures for personal use, but no extra copies or pamphlets to give away or "accidentally" leave in a restaurant or on a park bench. We were permitted to give short, simple answers to questions about religion but not to elicit questions or to elaborate our answers.
This goes against the grain for many Mormons -- Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints members -- and especially for the members of our group who had recently returned from full-time missionary service. But our 12th Article of Faith states, "We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers and magistrates, and in obeying, honoring and sustaining the law." We wanted to make friends in China and be welcomed back. We gave away postcards of Hawaii and tried to explain aloha in broken Mandarin.
Part of the perversity of human nature is to desire most the things that are forbidden. I, who am so dilatory in inviting my Kaneohe neighbors to attend church with me, suddenly desired to teach the Gospel in China. I may yet have the opportunity. Given the rapid pace of China's maturation, I would not be surprised if tomorrow's headlines announced a change of policy regarding religion.
China is low-hanging fruit being watched, I am well aware, by all denominations with a missionary bent.
Occasionally, I hear pessimistic comments by people who contemplate the work in China with a calculator in one hand. How many of our young missionaries and retired couples, serving the standard two years, would it take to individually teach and baptize more than a billion people? How many meeting houses and temples would we need to build? Even if we put all other publication on hold, how long would it take our presses, running around the clock, to print enough copies of the Bible and Book of Mormon to provide even one set per household? The magnitude of the task numbs the mind.
Tim shared an insight that set my thoughts straight on this matter. He said that one of the things that stands out in his mind from his study of astronomy is that the Lord is accustomed to dealing with large numbers. How elegantly simple and sensible. The inevitable conclusion is that if we individually do our parts and prepare ourselves, the Lord will take it from there and provide us with the means -- the water from the rock, the parting of the Red Sea.
Diana Mahony is an associate professor of psychology at Brigham Young University-Hawaii.
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