Law

Note: This is my third Holy Week post. 

3. Cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. -- Matthew 18:26

Because of Him, we know the law.

Chemotherapy. Dialysis. Debriding. These are all terms that I've used to describe the Me Too movement. We have seen that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men as soon as they get authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion. (D&C 121:39.)

And we've seen that all the attempts to cover sins, gratify pride or ambition, and exercise control and compulsion are starting to finally fail, and fail spectacularly. It is painful, it is tragic, and it is important.

I've had to ask myself why I've felt grim satisfaction in seeing people like Harvey Weinstein lose everything they had. Is it that I want to see people suffer when they've caused other people to suffer? No. I can't truly be happy about anyone else's pain, even if it is self-inflicted. 

Is it that I want to see justice? Yes, but that's not the whole answer. I feel like I can explain it better with housing than with sexual assault. We all know stories of bad landlords. Maybe we've had bad landlords. Although I have a good landlord, I see the effects of corruption and incompetence from other landlords almost every day. I hear of dishonest landlords who take money out of the deposit for no legal reason, property managers who take pride in slumlording some parts of town and racking up prices in other parts, real estate agents who sell houses with angry squatters in them, and city officials and landlords who promise to clean up the lead in backyards but quit before the job is even a tenth of the way done, rendering the whole procedure useless. I do want to see justice -- I want people to win lawsuits that they should win, I want corrupt people to spend time in prison if that's what the law requires -- but more than that, I just want the problems to be solved. I just want people to not have to devote any mental energy to housing problems, period!

And it's the same for the Me Too movement. I wish I could make a time machine and prevent any sort of abuse to start with. Since I can't, I just hope that the survivors can heal and not have it hurt their lives anymore.

But even more than that, I want a world where fewer people have to be survivors, a world where people in positions of power could not brazenly assume that they would get away with hurting people. This is why I view the Me Too movement with grim satisfaction -- it is the undoing of the secret combinations that first allowed such behaviors. It is ensuring that predatory behaviors have consequences. It means that more children will grow up knowing how to treat those around them, and that we won't tolerate corruption of any kind.

Jesus Christ did not just spend His ministry performing miracles. He taught the law and had strong words for those who disobeyed it. He called people vipers and whited sepulchres (Matthew 23:27, 33). He did not mince words about abuse (Matthew 18:6-9):

6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

7 ¶ Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!

8 Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire.

9 And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.

It is wondrous and glorious to have an Atonement to reconcile us to God, but it is also crucial that we have a clear idea of the God we are being reconciled to. Throughout the scriptures and especially throughout Christ's mortal ministry, His law is taught repeatedly. And we learn quickly that He is not a God that is patient with unrighteous dominion, with dishonesty, or with unkindness (especially toward one's spouse). When we truly follow Jesus Christ, we are not patient with those behaviors either, and we do not reward them in our laws or culture.

I don't know how long the Me Too movement will continue, and I don't know how many other important people's sins will be uncovered in the process. I do know that we can start fresh, that we can teach laws and consequences, agency and accountability.  Christ has taught us the way to go.