People sometimes assume that being a member of the Church means fitting into a mold or giving up your sense of self. But Latter-day Saint scholar Terryl Givens believes that living the gospel is about growing and embracing agency, not shrinking or passively yielding to set standards.
“Agency is about acquiring greater individuality and differentiation, not greater commonality,” Terryl says on an episode of the Out of the Best Books podcast. He discusses an analogy that helps us understand God’s true desire for how we’ll use our agency to live our lives.
A Better Analogy Than Following a Script
Terryl believes that living the gospel is more about writing our own life story than following a predetermined script.
“In an analogy I’ve invoked before, I don’t think it’s about getting the ‘script’ right,” he explains. “I think God gives us a blank canvas and says, ‘Here, paint a beautiful picture.’ And I think He’s in many cases anxious to see in what ways we can constitute a beautiful life that isn’t conformed to an exact pattern.”
This framework reminds us that we have more choices than we sometimes think. While God wants us to use our agency to make good decisions and follow the guidance of the Spirit, He also wants us to learn from our experiences and choose the kind of people we want to become.
For example, Terryl references the Lord’s counsel to the Saints in Missouri when they experienced persecution in 1833. He paraphrases Doctrine and Covenants 98 in the following way:
“Joseph is asking, … ‘How many times do we have to suffer persecution before we can fight back?’ And it’s a really remarkable answer the Lord gives him.
“He [essentially] says, ‘It’s up to you. … Suffer the first and suffer the second attack. If they come upon you a third time, well, you’re justified if you want to go to war, and you’re blessed if you don’t.’
“So, it’s like He’s asking us, ‘What kind of person do you want to be?’”
Throw Out the Stereotypes
Terryl also discusses the influence of the Calvinist religious tradition on how we sometimes limit the meaning of agency.
“My personal sense of Latter-day Saint culture is that we’re still far more Calvinist than we should be and that we assume there is this kind of prototype, this ‘ideal self,’ and God is trying to direct us to that ideal self,” he explains. “This is why I love Brigham Young for one of his expostulations in the Tabernacle, where you could almost hear him shouting out, ‘Away with stereotyped Mormons!’”
Rather than as a way of giving up our personalities, Terryl prefers to think of agency with a more active and individualistic lens:
“This is just personally more beautiful for me to think in terms of, ‘No, I have to work hard to align my will in righteous ways, not to abdicate my will and be filled with somebody else’s plans and designs and objectives, even if that other person is God.’
“So, I want to be available as an instrument. But I think He also wants us to develop in beautiful ways, where ... our will, our agency, become magnified. They grow. They become more efficacious in shaping beautiful individuals.”
Learn more from Terryl Givens on the full episode of the Out of the Best Books podcast, which is available on all major streaming platforms.
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