"Adam fell that men might be, and men are that they might have joy." That's what Lehi says on the subject of the fall. In order for the plan to proceed, Adam had to break one rule (don't eat the fruit) in order to keep the others (stay with Eve and have children with her). I hate making concessions. In a job interview a few years ago, my prospective employer expressed his disgust with working on Sunday, or having those he employed work on Sunday. He was a night watchman, and since criminals don't take the Sabbath off, neither could he. But I could, since I felt I had other options, so I decided not to work Sundays and stay unemployed instead.
Men are supposed to "bring home the bacon," or so The Family: A Proclamation to the World states. "By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and
righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life
and protection for their families." In order for a family to exist, it must be funded and supplied with necessities of life (as well as North American luxuries that have taken their place on the list of necessities). A single mother in one of my college classes expressed a desire to earn more money, not because she and her children lacked necessities, but because she was ashamed to admit that her family survived on her meager $30,000 per year. Keeping up appearances has made it to the list of needs. Social pressure will kill you if you care about it, and since most of us are proud enough to "heed" the jeering from the Great and Spacious Building, whether real or imagined, no one ever seems to have enough money, or anything else.
Back to fathers—they are supposed to provide, preside, and protect. Will God look leniently on the man I met who works on Sundays to feed his family? I have always lost the Spirit to some degree when I have worked for money on Sundays. Adam bit the fruit anyway, defying God, doing the dirty deed necessary to bring the human race into existence, and thereby obeying God as well.
Since the advent of fossil fuel and combustion engines, the number of people with truly indispensable jobs (farmers, doctors, police, firemen, paramedics, etc.) has plummeted. Jesus' example of an ox stuck in the mire as a legitimate excuse to forgo Sabbath observance has limited applications in our world of washing machines, computers, instantaneous transcontinental digital communications, cars, and other time-saving devices. When the Great Depression devastated America, 25% of the workers were farmers. Now we feed millions more people with less than 2% of the population involved in agriculture. In an emergency, someone with a necessary job could justifiably work on Sunday. But most people do not have vital jobs. The majority of workers, as far as I can tell, have employment selling goods and services that are discretionary luxuries, unnecessary for survival. The only people who would be hurt by shutting down most businesses are the people employed by them, using them to support their families. The majority of businesses in the US (as far as I can tell) are based off from vanity, amusement, discretionary spending, luxuries, and other disposable products, trades and skills.
Working on Sunday to repair a broken leg or something like that is a very mild example of taking a job to keep the commandment of funding one's family, while breaking another commandment. My path in life has brought me into contact with some of the wealthiest wards in the Church. To be sure, many of the members of these wards were spiritual powerhouses. But the faces of a few were missing the light in the face that the scriptures promise when we set our hearts on the things of God. What rules did they break to accumulate their wealth? Perhaps I am being cynical, but it appears that the quickest way to financial security, at least to enormous streams of income, is to violate commandments. Weapons manufacturers get wealthy selling implements whose main function is to kill humans and destroy things and people, or coerce and threaten. Nephi made swords for his people; did he also get rich doing it? Salesmen warp, twist, and mutilate the truth and accumulate enormous amounts of money. A relative of mine married such a man, and they recently had their second child. They are able to afford all sorts of things I cannot. Liars are thrust down to hell; are they thrust more slowly if they pay their fast offerings and send their children to college and institute? Pharmaceutical companies make pills for pennies and sell them for hundreds of dollars each in some cases. "Your money or your life," say the bank robber and the pharma-executive. One bathes and wears a suit.
A friend said he decided to take his research and development skills in programming and electrical engineering into the medical field, rather than the military. An improvement to be sure, but by what margin? Is he still flopped over onto Satan's territory a little, or will profiteering manipulators leverage his innovations to extort money? He could develop video games, and get rich facilitating the destruction of precious time in the lives of those who play them.
I know two great men who were my leaders who made their fortunes selling candy and ice cream. Sugar oxidizes (otherwise beneficial) LDL and makes it stick to arteries, which leads to arterial plaque, heart disease, and heart attacks, the leading cause of death in the US. I know from association that they both had the Spirit with them. They would not have gone against the Spirit if it had steered them away from bad business. ("...by the Spirit are ye justified" (Moses 6:60). Nephi might build swords or slay Laban without fear of reproach from the Lord IF the Spirit prompted him to do so.) The one who sold ice cream has lost his children to the world (possibly due to the fabulous wealth he amassed by selling his business). I know nothing about the spiritual condition of the other's family.
My point in all this is, where is the line located? We must be in the world, but not of the world. How big of a bite of the forbidden fruit should I take? There is a scene in the movie, It's A Wonderful Life, where the antagonist, a wicked, wealthy Henry F. Potter, tries to bribe the protagonist, George Bailey, played by Jimmy Stewart. Stewart's character considers the offer, expresses a desire to consult his wife about it, shakes hands with the villain, and pauses, staring at his contaminated hand. He does a 180, rebuffing the offer from Satan to trade virtue and decency for money. (See Alma 11:22-25.) These, and other examples of refusing to take the bribe, have filled me with a vicarious sense of righteousness since my youth. But now I find myself in the real world, being made the same offer. I can be broke and clean from the filthiness that stains just about everything, or I can sell my virtue and get wealthy, which will allow me to afford a family. You have to be rich these days to afford to be "middle class" of yesterday. To have retirement savings, college funds for children, own one's home and automobiles, have adequate medical funds and insurance, have discretionary funds for entertainment and vacations, and be free of debt—those things used to constitute "middle class" in the US. Now they are considered signs of great wealth. Is there a third option, or will the Lord justify a little wickedness to achieve a righteous end? I wish I had an answer.
I guess it goes back to Moses 6:60, "by the Spirit are ye justified." When the Spirit lends its approval to our course of activity, it is right no matter how bad it may seem from other points of view. I cannot forget Jesus' response to the offer. He saw all the kingdoms and money in the world in an instant. Satan came, tempting Him, saying that if He would bow down and worship Him, he would give Jesus all these things. Jesus quoted the scripture: "Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve" (Matt. 4:10). Jesus was and is the most famous homeless person who ever lived. Why come in rags instead of riches? My personal speculation is that Jesus adopted that lowly station to avoid anyone using His life as an excuse to do the wrong thing. The quickest way to accumulate money is to do the wrong thing, to "bow down" and effectively worship Satan. If Jesus were rich, those consumed with accumulating wealth would pat themselves on the back all the more, whether they kept the commandments or not. But He condemned the pusruit of wealth, warning that it made entry into heaven next to impossible (Matt. 19:24).
Here I am, being faced by the same question that was posed to Jesus, George Bailey, and everyone else in the affluent North America of 2012. I'm certain there must be a way for me to keep both commandments. I just hope I find it soon. Building a family won't be an option forever, since my biological clock is winding slowly, but inexorably, down. Whatever concessions I make to the world, I don't think they will be any worse at the judgement day for me than to have to admit that I delayed and lost the opportunity to marry and beget children.
