Rationalized Obedience

We are all aware of the dangers of rationalizing sin. Someone will say that they can get as much out of a Sunday afternoon in a park as they could get out of church services, or that one drink of wine isn’t a big deal, or that premarital sex is acceptable as long as the two people love each other. We recognize these pathetic excuses for what they are—excuses to engage in sin—and try to avoid them. However, I get the sense that we Mormons sometimes rationalize the obedience that we render to the unique commandments that we observe.

We Mormons are a peculiar people mostly because of the strict moral code that we adhere to, and which the rest of the world doesn’t. We don’t shop on Sunday in observation of the Sabbath. We don’t use tobacco or alcohol. And, as referenced above, we don’t engage in extramarital sexual relations. To the rest of the world, we are weird for doing all of these things.

These things distinguish us as a people, but why do we do them? That is what many people want to know when they first meet a Mormon. You don’t do this? Can you do that? Why? Why not? When confronted with these questions, we have to justify our behavior. We have to help these people understand. So we explain that having a day in which we don’t worry about getting work or chores done makes the rest of the week more productive, and science has shown that tobacco and alcohol are damaging to the body, and that abstinence is the only sure guard against sexually transmitted diseases and prevents the emotional stress that uncommitted sex can cause, both to the partners and to the child born out of wedlock.

All of these benefits that we cite are true benefits of living these commandments, but are they the real reasons for which we obey them? Did the leaders of our church read studies about the damaging effects of tobacco and react by prohibiting it universally for all church members? Did they command us to be abstinent in a response to the growing number of children born without fathers in the home? And how to we reconcile our obedience when the science goes against it, like when doctors say that one glass of wine a night is healthy?

These commandments that we follow are God’s immutable laws. They are not based on research, but revelation. We abstain from all of these things that the rest of the world engages in because God, through his prophet, commanded us to. We get blessings of health, both physical and mental, and strong family relationships as a result, but we would still be obliged to obey God’s commandments even without these blessings.

I’m not saying that we shouldn’t explain to people the blessings that we get from obedience, but that that is where we should finish, not where we should start. We should start with something more fundamental, like the faith that is expressed in the phrase, “Because God commanded me to.”