Speaking Out Against the Crowd

Now that I am officially a month behind my schedule for blogging about General Conference, I figured that I'd better get started by revisiting Elder Holland's Conference-opening talk, but I'm not a huge fan of the first insight that stood out to me.

Early in his talk, Elder Holland shared the story of a blind man's experience with Jesus, as recorded in Luke 18:35-43:

35 And it came to pass, that as he [Jesus] was come nigh unto Jericho, a certain blind man sat by the way side begging:

36 And hearing the multitude pass by, he asked what it meant.

37 And they told him, that Jesus of Nazareth passeth by.

38 And he cried, saying, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me.

39 And they which went before rebuked him, that he should hold his peace: but he cried so much the more, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me.

40 And Jesus stood, and commanded him to be brought unto him: and when he was come near, he asked him,

41 Saying, What wilt thou that I shall do unto thee? And he said, Lord, that I may receive my sight.

42 And Jesus said unto him, Receive thy sight: thy faith hath saved thee.

43 And immediately he received his sight, and followed him, glorifying God: and all the people, when they saw it, gave praise unto God.

It was the blind man's actions and interactions with the crowd that stood out to me. He spoke out, they told him to be quiet, and he spoke out even more. As Elder Holland said, "We smile at his refusal to be silenced—indeed, his determination to turn the volume up when everyone else was telling him to turn it down." The thing is, I'm not smiling at that. I'm worried that I might have to follow his example.

The world is headed downhill, and it needs a warning voice to help turn back the tide of Godlessness, and I worry that I might have to be part of that. I often feel like speaking out about my religious and political beliefs, but I worry what the consequences of speaking out might be. For example, if I voice my beliefs about marriage and the law of chastity, there's a fair chance I could lose my job. I know that that doesn't matter much in the grand scheme of things, but it certainly seems to matter now.

For now, I'm going to continue to be careful what I say and how I say it, even knowing that, unlike the blind man, I am allowing the crowd to silence me. Perhaps I can still support my values in gentle, socially acceptable ways. Yet, I know that several of the truths that are important to share aren't socially acceptable. Thankfully, there are still some of my values that are socially acceptable to defend, and I'll do what I can to defend them, but I'm worried about what might happen when it becomes morally imperative for me to speak out against the crowd.