An orchestra comprises of an ensemble of musical instruments of different classes. A full size orchestra can comprise of up 70 individuals playing up to 20 unique instruments. Each instrument produces unique sounds that adds to the overall composition of the orchestra. New instruments can always be introduced, like the piano or harp, and in some arrangements, certain instruments are more prominent than others. In order to produce their melodic sound, each instrument must be kept in tune, play to the same music, and follow the conductor. What’s curious is even though two instruments, like a tuba and a cello, play the same musical note, they will produce a completely unique sound.
As children of our Heavenly Father and congregations of his Church, we are very much like a spiritual orchestra. We each possess unique talents, interests, and personalities which make a unique sound to each note played. Each of the unique notes we play contributes to the overall spiritual harmony, and the holy spirit acts as the conductor, guiding us to keep our spiritual instrument in tune and playing in accordance with the same piece of spiritual music. What we as members of the Church need to remember is how the unique contributions from each member builds congregational harmony and that we will produce something much greater when we are in sync with our spiritual conductor.
Uniqueness:
One misconception is that in order for us to be one, or a uniform Church, we must adopt similar ways of thinking, acting, and even speech. These cultural conformities are mistaken for unity. A reflection of this cultural conformity is when members of the Church make judgements based on these adopted norms, making comments such as “he looks like a Mormon” or “he doesn’t act like the rest of the members.” If we are supposed to be Christ’s church we never should expect members to look or act the same.
Being a good member of the Church we may think that we must blend into the crowd of our religious community. We couldn’t be further from the truth. Christ was anything but normal to his religious community during his time and broke many cultural norms. He did not blend into the crowd, but pushed against what was socially acceptable by dining with sinners, visiting the unclean, and calling people out for their hypocrisy. He encouraged his followers to do that same, “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 5: 14).
God never intended for us to be the same. He gave each one of us unique roles to contribute to the whole, just like each type of instrument contributes to the overall harmony. Some instruments play sounds that are high pitched and ringing, windy and flightily, deep and bellowing. All to add variety and beauty to the overall musical arrangement. Paul sought to help the saints maintain unity in Corinth, a Roman trade center with diverse cultures from across the Roman Empire. In his letter he goes beyond having the saints just be accepting of one other, but to need each other as critical functions of a single body,
“For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.…And if the ear shall say, because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you” (1 Corinthians 12: 12, 16-17, 21).
This analogy of the Church to the human body shows the importance of each unique role working in harmony. Even more than an orchestra, a body is severely compromised without each of it’s unique parts operating properly and cooperatively. He makes it very clear that no one member or person in the faith is less or greater than another,
“And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked: That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it” (1 Corinthians 12: 23-26).
Paul is not just asking us to accept other unique contributions, but sincerely honor them, no matter how small their contribution. A hand may think to the foot, “I’m not like you, you can’t accomplish any of the dexterous writing and fixing I can do.” But without the foot, the hand would have no place to go to do it’s work. Again Paul admonitions to members of God’s Church is to “those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour”
The person watching over the children in the nursery is just as honorable as the bishop leading the congregation. Or in more common practice, the person who only has the experience to clean a bathroom should be respected just as much as the person who leads the company strategy. If the building is not clean or the children attended to, the leadership cannot perform their work. Beyond this, what of the person who is just a little more quirky and talkative then the more quiet thinker. Or the person who is more perceptive of how to work with people, and another who is more adept at creating executional plans. Neither are evil, neither are greater, all have a contribution in the body of Christ.
God intentionally gave us unique talents and gifts so we as a whole can bring a greater solution, ‘Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret? But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way. (1 Corinthians 12: 4 -7, 30-31). All these “gifts come from God, for the benefit of the children of God” (D&C 46:26).
Remember, this world is full of God’s children, regardless if they are baptized into his Church or not. These gifts are all good and of God, “remember that every good gift cometh of Christ. 25… For if there be one among you that doeth good, he shall work by the power and gifts of God.” We not only must learn to recognize these unique contributions, but actually include them into our congregations and communities so we become the whole of body of Christ.
Harmonization:
We must be careful of the actions which will divide people, limiting the Church and society to grow as a whole. When we think of all our unique talents and skills are we looking to use them to feature ourselves, or for it to be of service to those we work and associate? We should ask ourselves, are we working to create the perfect resume or the perfect obituary. The latter tends to focus on how a person’s life blessed those around them. If we choose to focus our efforts on expressing our individuality, than we demonstrate our purpose is more to be separate than apart of the body of Christ. We play by our own script and not that which God has provided. It is similar to the hand which said to the body, I am greater than the whole or more unique than the rest. Yes, the hand is great and incredibly useful, but it is enabled by so many other members and it also would serve better if it assisted the rest of the body in all it’s needs. So we should focus on how our skills and talents can contribute to the whole of the organizations we work with and recognize the contributions of many others which have enabled us.
Not just individuals, but groups and societies will naturally try to boost their own self-importance and superiority from others. This is manifested as condescension, abuse, isolation, and discrimination and is made tolerable through the use of labels. In the Nazi era, the film “The Eternal Jew” depicted Jews as rats. During the Rwandan genocide, Hutu officials called Tutsis “cockroaches” that needed to be cleared out. Neuroscience research shows when we dehumanize others, the regions of our brain associated with disgust turn on and the regions associated with empathy turn off. Even something as simple as labeling someone as “inactive” can change our perception of them being a contributing member of our congregation.
Labeling a fellow Church member an intellectual, a less-active, a feminist, a Utah Mormon, a conservative, or a liberal seemingly provides an excuse to mistreat or ignore that person. In addition, consider the barriers we create based on gender, age, marriage status, language, ethnicity, skin color, or education. These dividing behaviors and many more need to be addressed if we are to create a society such as that which Enoch created, where they had all things in common with each other. When all the people were in a happy and righteous era in the Book of Mormon there were not “any manner of -ites” to be found. (4 Ne. 1:17). Is it our natural state as people and societies to focus on these differences, but in order to become a more perfect union, we must resist the urge to divide and embrace the whole body of Christ and each of it’s unique members.
It is important that leaders in church and community identify these forms of dissent and be a force to drive inclusion. It can seem that the regimented order of authority in the Church is at ends with encouraging individual thought and expression. There is a vast difference in military authority which mandates conformity and church authority which should encourage cohesion. Unlike the military, Church authorities should not act as commanding officers dictating what their congregation should think and act. As true leaders in the Church of the Christ, they all are servants of the people and stewards to their well-being. They also play a crucial role to facilitate inclusion of each unique member of their congregation. As Elder John K. Carmack Of the Seventy said, “experience teaches me that we must work hard at creating unity in diversity. We must push on that door with active and strong leadership. Unity in diversity will not happen if we let nature take its course. Leaders, using stake and ward conferences and other windows of opportunity, taught doctrines of love, acceptance of all, and unity. A new spirit of excitement swept through the Saints. As Sister Pinkston, then Relief Society president of Los Angeles Stake’s Wilshire Ward, observed, “these are the days of excitement and glory, not the days when we were all of European descent.” It presents a multitude of challenges, but it is working well wherever leaders catch the vision of what is happening. “The question of whether there is a unifying force powerful enough to overcome the divisive elements of diversity is answered with a resounding yes! Inspired and energetic leaders are required. Where there is vision, the people respond. are “no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.” (1)
Unity comes from oneness of purpose. It is not oneness of thought, oneness of expression, oneness of appearance, or oneness of experience. Each person has a role, a talent, they bring to make the whole body of the church whole. One thing must exist among all these unique components, and that is a unified purpose. Just like an orchestra cannot produce classical masterpiece if each instrument chooses to play their own tune. We have to unify under a single conductor, a single driving purpose, or our unique abilities will only profit a few and not the whole. Even as part of the whole, each instrument has a part to play, a melody to add to the symphonic piece of life. “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.”
Diversity and inclusion has become a popular buzz word in media. There are minorities which have been neglected and recently have gained media attention for being accepted and celebrated. It is good to recognize these groups and accept them in society, however, embracing diversity should not be a bandwagon activity. We should ask ourselves the hard question, are we accepting certain groups of people because it’s popular and by so doing we gain approval and acceptance from the world? Also, does it make me hardened and want to shame those who haven’t evolved to the same view? If our level of acceptance is linked to that of media campaigns, than it’s likely not met for God’s expectations. The diversity that needs to be addressed isn’t the one with the most media attention, it’s the one which is keeping you most from blessing the children of God. We need to go much further than being accepting of race or lifestyle choices to bless God’s children. We should also look to the more commonly accepted forms of neglect and prejudices given to those with disparity in income and education, either with less or more. It was also the one which, when not addressed, destroyed the ancient church in the Americas.
Bringing it together:
Accepting diversity isn’t just a nice merit for Church progress, it is a linchpin to keeping it together. After hundreds of years, prophets such as Nephi, Alma, and Moroni all worked successfully to keep the ancient American church together. It wasn’t until in the final years before Christ’s first coming when all their work was undone by something so simple as the members distinguishing into ranks based on their wealth and learning as referenced in 3 Nephi 6:12. That inequality and cultural shift collapsed the Church in just a couple years, even after a long history of 500 years.
When considering ourselves where to start, go to the person who is most neglected or isolated, there is always someone. “Each of us should be fair to everyone, especially the victims of discrimination, isolation, and exclusion. Let us be careful not to snicker at jokes that demean and belittle others because of religious, cultural, racial, national, or gender differences. All are alike unto God. We should walk away or face up to the problem when confronted with these common and unworthy practices. Each should do his or her part.” (1)
What is so important when we accept our uniqueness to each other in terms and our unique strengths and challenges two great things occur to bring people together, (1) we pass less judgement, shame, and criticism to others, and (2) each one of us begins to recognize that each person does have something to contribute and should be included in our circles and societies. We become whole by embracing the uniqueness of each person, for each of us possesses a piece of perfection.
“All are needed by each one; Nothing is fair or good alone” (Ralph Waldo Emerson, 2). As we become one with God, we will become one with each other. “Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.” (Acts 10:34–35). May we move the work of God forward by playing our part in the heavenly orchestra, letting our own unique talents and traits shine and never conform to a cultural expectation. God created all the diversity of life and persons in this world and never expected from them to be the same. As well, may be we loving and accepting of the parts other people play, regardless of any differentiating factor that makes them not like us, that is exactly why you need them. It is not alone but together we make the body of Christ, is it together we make the most powerful harmonies to elevate each other and rest of mankind.
References:
(1) Unity in Diversity, 1991
https://www.lds.org/ensign/1991/03/unity-in-diversity?lang=eng
(2) Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Each and All,” in The Complete Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson.
https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/diversity?lang=eng
https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/unity-in-diversity?lang=eng –
