Maxwell Moments--August 15, 2004

In continuing tribute to the late Neal A. Maxwell:

One can be authoritative without being authoritarian; one can command respect without "commanding" others. These points should be borne in mind in an age when there is a flight from authority, a reluctance to over-see and to direct others. However much romance and psychological respite there are in the notion of everybody "doing his own thing," we must realize that the social sum of everybody's doing his "own thing" does not add up to an effective agenda of action to solve society's pressing problems.

When one's authority is properly derived (democratically in the case of secular situations or by priesthood channel in the Church), no apologies are necessary. Reluctance to lead is really a mild form of renunciation, whether the reluctance stems from fear of failure, from fear that our peers will withdraw their acceptance of us, or from ambivalence about the task which the leader must undertake. We have written and warned so much about power hungry leaders that we may have glorified the suicidal "march of the lemmings" as a leader-follower style.

(For The Power Is In Them..., 1970 pg. 13)

Faith is a gift, of course, and reason, by itself, cannot lead man out of the apparent maze. Man does not understand the mind of God and his timetable; nor do we have his perspective. The gift of faith, then, often gives form to what has been called "tacit knowledge," that form of knowledge that lies just below the level of the individual's powers of articulation, which whispers things to him that are true but which are difficult to share and can seldom be put in persuasiave form for the ears of others. Nevertheless, without the gift of faith or the perspective-giving insights of the gospel, man's reason will sweep him into sadness and cynicism.

It is little wonder some individuals may never get any nearer to faith than to be "almost" persuaded. Our response to such individuals and their view of the human condition cannot be to give them saccharine, ritualistic reassurances or to cavalierly dismiss their dismay. Without the perspective of the gospel, without the critical data God has shared with us about man and the universe, life for us, too, would be a maze without a clue, a brief encounter with just enough joy to foreshadow what might be, but which wouldn't be—because nothingness would come crashing in.

(For The Power Is In Them..., 1970 pg. 18)

This won't be a regular feature (because the sum total of all the books I have of his are 1), but here's a quote from the late Elder David B. Haight, whom I hadn't paid tribute to at all:

Marriage was meant to be and can be a loving, binding, and harmonious relationship between a husband and wife.

As we contemplate our Lord's declaration to Moses, "This is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man" (Moses 1:39), we reflect with sadness upon the present serious trend of families and homes being torn apart through divorce. A major underlying cause of divorce seems to be in not understanding that marriage and families are God-given and God-ordained. If people understood the full meaning, there would be less divorce and its attendant unhappiness. Couples would plan for a happy marriage relationship based on divine instruction. If couples understood from the beginning of their romance that their marriage relationship could be blessed with promises and conditions extending into the eternities, divorce would not even be a considered alternative when difficulties arise. The current philosophy— get a divorce if it doesn't work out—handicaps a marriage from the beginning.

The ever-increasing rise in divorce is ample evidence of how acceptable divorce has become as the popular solution to unhappy or "not-quite-up-to-expectation" marriages. But no matter how acceptable divorce has become—how quick and easy to obtain—it is tragic and painful, not only at the outset, but also in the years to come. Divorce can never really be final. How can mothers and fathers divorce themselves from their own flesh and blood children, or from the memories of days and years of shared experiences that have become part of their very lives?

(A Light Unto The World, 1997, pg.120)