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In his first address as the president and prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, President Dallin H. Oaks chose to focus on a message that’s long been a focus of his teachings as a leader in the church — that peace and democratic freedoms, especially in times of conflict, require believers to extend Christ’s love to their opponents, even across vast differences in values and beliefs.
President Oaks also continued the theme of his predecessor, President Russell M. Nelson, calling believers to be peacemakers — those who “seek to reduce human suffering” and those who “work to promote understanding among different peoples.”
President Oaks described the current climate as “toxic” and “a time of contempt or hostility toward adversaries.” This kind of “hostility,” he said, is spreading across society, and involves “many whose Christian beliefs should orient them otherwise.”
Christ’s teaching, which the church’s leader described as “revolutionary,” is to extend love not only to the neighbors, but also to the enemies, whom President Oaks identified as “military foes” and those in direct conflict with one another. “Today we might say that we are commanded to love our adversaries,” he said.
The church’s leader has himself demonstrated a way of finding common ground in Utah politics. He played a key role in shaping the Utah Compromise in 2015, helping broker an agreement between religious groups and LGBTQ advocates, and supported a framework that paired protections for same-sex couples in housing and employment with safeguards for religious liberty – an agreement that became a national model for balancing competing rights.
In his Sunday address, he said: “As followers of Christ, we should seek to live peaceably and lovingly with other children of God who do not share our values and do not have the covenant obligations we have assumed. In a democratic government we should seek ‘fairness for all.’ In countless circumstances, strangers’ suspicion or even hostility gradually give way to friendship when personal contacts produce mutual respect.”
In his book “Cross Purposes,” Jonathan Rauch, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, called President Oaks “the public voice of the church’s civic theology” — the idea that God calls on his followers to live by his teachings both in their private lives and in how they engage in public life.
Seeking harmony and peace in public life is a “civic commandment,” wrote Rauch, who is Jewish atheist and gay. He was inspired by President Oaks’s 2021 speech at the University of Virginia, where he advocated for finding consensus between religious and secular perspectives through “patience, negotiation and mutual accommodation,” without escalating the matters to the courts.
I called Rauch to ask him what he thought of President Oaks’s latest message. “He’s blending together how Christians treat each other in their personal lives with how they treat each other in their civic life, in their political life,” Rauch told me. “They’re the same fabric of the speech.”
In a new leadership position, Oaks is showing that there is no distinction between being Christ-like in personal life and being Christ-like in civic life, Rauch said.
President Oaks acknowledged just how hard reconciling the requirements of the church and civic life can be. “We balance our various responsibilities, this balancing is not easy,” Oaks said.
And this reminder stood out to Rauch. “This idea that it’s a civic duty to balance these commitments and that it won’t be easy is the fundamental idea of our Constitution,” Rauch said. Rauch described Oaks a “Madisonian pluralist,” a term that embodies the vision of James Madison that in a diverse democracy, we have to negotiate in good faith with people who may be our opponents or even enemies.
Religious and civic duties will not always align, and people will be up against difficult choices. “Sometimes, it won’t be obvious what to do, and yet you should strive for this,” Rauch told me.
Rauch sees President Oaks’s vision of faith in public life in contrast from the ideas of Christian nationalism, which, he argues, treats the country as primarily belonging to one group while others are relegated to the secondary status.
In President Oaks’s view, by contrast, the Constitution guarantees a shared civic space.
“Christianity charges us to share the country on equal and fair terms with everybody,” Rauch said. That message of the church, he argues, is deeply countercultural. “It’s an approach that shows people a different and better way.”
Fresh off the Press
- If you’ve missed any of the general conference, my colleagues ran a live blog that detailed the highlights on the talks and musical interludes.
- My colleague Lottie Elizabeth Johnson traveled with the orchestra performing the “Lamb of God” from Utah to New York City.
- Atlantic journalist Yair Rosenberg spoke with McKay Coppins for an episode of the Deseret Voices podcast on the recent rise of antisemitism. (You can also check out my 2022 story about Rosenberg’s fascinating hobby of blending Latter-day Saint melodies with Hebrew poetry.)
Faith in the news
- At a small Persian church in Chicago, Iranian Christians pray for the a government and freedom of worship. The congregants support President Donald Trump’s war in Iran, standing behind the slogan “Make Iran Great Again.” — Los Angeles Times
- At the end of April, JD Vance announced the upcoming release of his book “Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith,” a memoir about his conversion to the Catholic faith. The cover of the book, depicting Mt. Zion United Methodist Church in rural southwestern Virginia, caused a bit of a stir. — The Washington Post
- Israelis celebrate Passover amid war. — The New York Times
- One of the recent signs of dechristianization is not so much in the numbers but in the anti-Christian policies, including the legalization of assisted suicide happening across the globe, argues Louise Perry. — The Wall Street Journal
- Israelis and Palestinians who lost family band together to promote an end to the violence. — Plough
Highlights from Pope Leo’s Easter message
In his Easter message, Pope Leo called for peace and dialogue, warning that the world is becoming “indifferent” and “accustomed to violence.”
“Let those who have the power to unleash wars choose peace!” Pope Leo said from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica in his traditional message titled “Urbi et Orbi,” translated “To the City and the World.”
“Not a peace imposed by force, but through dialogue! Not with the desire to dominate others, but to encounter them! We are growing accustomed to violence, resigning ourselves to it, and becoming indifferent. Indifferent to the deaths of thousands of people.”
On Palm Sunday, Pope Leo said that God “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war”: “He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying: ‘Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood.’”
End notes
Now that we’ve celebrated Easter, I can personally confirm the Catholic revival that national media has been buzzing about is also underway in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
On Sunday, St. Paul’s Church, right near the campus of Harvard University, was overflowing with attendees and new converts on Sunday. Nearly 70 people were accepted into the church this year, about 20 more than last year, and a significant jump from previous years that hovered around 30. Most of the new members are students. Here’s a view of the parish on Easter morning, just before the service.