I woke up this morning with Mosiah 29:26-27 in my head. In this chapter, King Mosiah is proposing that, instead of a hereditary monarchy, the Nephites shift to some level of democracy. Hereditary monarchy, after all, would require forcing one of his sons to be king, and none of them want that. Governing by the vote of the people, he says, would be better for his sons, but would also protect the people from unrighteous government.
But King Mosiah also sees a potential dark side to elective government:
Now it is not common that the voice of the people desireth anything contrary to that which is right; but it is common for the lesser part of the people to desire that which is not right; therefore this shall ye observe and make it your law—to do your business by the voice of the people.
And if the time comes that the voice of the people doth choose iniquity, then is the time that the judgments of God will come upon you; yea, then is the time he will visit you with great destruction even as he has hitherto visited this land.
Yesterday, the United States elected as its next president a man who has been convicted of 34 felonies, is potentially facing four more criminal indictments, who has been impeached twice, has so little respect for the Constitution and the rule of law that he supported a violent insurrection, and who ran a campaign based largely on demonizing and attacking his perceived enemies and vulnerable populations.
So what now?
Are we going to face the judgments of God? That’s what King Mosiah foresaw, and I can’t deny that as a distinct possibility. A Trump presidency promises, among other things, increased disease and rampant inflation.
If we face the judgments of God, we face the judgments of God. But in the meantime, there are a couple things that we need to do, individually and institutionally. I’m sure there are more, but these are the things I’m thinking:
(1) We each individually need to take care of ourselves. Last night I was planning on going to the gym this morning. This morning? I’m still planning on going to the gym. I’m planning on continuing to play saxophone, read, and work. None of these things will fix the country, but they will help to fix me.
(2) We each need to take care of our families.
(3) And critically, we need to take care of the people who will bear the brunt of Donald Trump’s hatred and vengeance. An immigrant neighbor. A transgender relative. Will that create systemic change? No. But it will make life tangibly better for that person. As my friend and law school classmate emphasizes, we need to work, even knowing that work won’t “solve the problem.”
(4) Demand that the institutions we’re part of—including, and perhaps particularly, the church—push back against his bad policies.
And I’m not saying that the church needs to be part of the #Resistance. But also, it needs to live up to its ideals. Sternly (or not-so-sternly) worded press releases aren’t going to protect immigrants or the rule of law. The church has disavowed the White Horse Prophecy. And that’s right: we’re not in a world where one superhero is going to save our country and our rule of law.
But the church has the institutional power, alone and in conjunction with other powerful institutions, to push back against those who would hang our Constitution by a thread. And the church needs to put itself in the position that it is both willing and prepared to do so.
Either way, we’ve stepped into King Mosiah’s vision of the dark side of democracy. The question is, how are we going to come out the other side?