The Book of Mormon

In the past year, I've recognized like never before why the Book of Mormon is so relevant to our times. It is basically a spiritual account of the history of a Christian people and how they came to be destroyed. Besides being an important testament of Jesus Christ and his atonement, it provides an eloquent explication of the ways in which a free people can destroy themselves, many of which are apparent in our modern world and range between exterior enemies to subversion from within. Ultimately, however, it came down to Sodom and Gomorrah. It is a panorama of the various attacks on faith that we see around us today. Fortunately, America has responded to creeping immorality by supporting more conservative leaders, but most likely because of the threat of terrorism.

The passivity toward such "enlightened" trends as gay marriage, abortion, pornography and materialism has not been overcome. Some of the lessons of the Book may be considered liberal, such as the need for equality and helping the needy, but the way to achieve them is not. What counts most is that such changes come from the bottom up, not the top down. You can't change people's hearts by edict.