I love this talk published in the July 2020 Ensign about the pioneers, by Elder Lawrence Corbridge. He gave it pre-pandemic to celebrate Pioneer Day (July 24) last year in Utah. It is, however, very timely for us to read now. This is especially true in the wake of having our religious freedom of assembly curtailed in the name of safety. The video above shows a recent digital conference originating from the BYU Law School exploring the topic of religious freedom.

The pioneers got through a major crisis involving religious freedom, and we can too. In the article I just referenced, Elder Corbridge speaks about how in times of crisis, the 10-80-10 principle applies. This involves the following, to quote him (I added the bold emphases and separated the concepts for easier understanding):

“10 percent of people will handle crisis and trauma with a relatively calm and rational state of mind. They pull themselves together quickly. They accept the situation, make decisions to improve it, and take action.

However, the vast majority of us, 80 percent, are immobilized, stunned, and bewildered and wait for help to come or someone to tell us what to do.

The group we try not to be in, however, is the last 10 percent. They freak out and make the situation worse.”

Wow! This is so interesting!

So which group do you want to be a part of as we handle this pandemic crisis?

I invite you to be part of the first 10 percent, the leaders.

How do we do that? As the scripture says, “If you are prepared you shall not fear.” (D&C 38:30) This pandemic has been a great practice drill wake-up call to help us see where our preparation gaps are. Now we can better prepare with vision, knowledge, and skills for future crises. We must take action! That involves knowledge.

It’s so important to have a knowledge of history and civics so we can know how people before us dealt with crises. Like what happened in the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic. Watch the video below to learn.

I’m hosting a Constitution Alive Class over Zoom Starting Thursday June 25, 6 to 8 PM MDT. It will go for 6 weeks. This class features prerecorded videos by Rick Green (the guy in the video above) and David Barton of the Wallbuilders podcast. Only if we know our rights protected by the Constitution, can we stand up for and defend them. If you want to take part, please send an email to info (at) treeoflifemothering (dot) com so I can sign you up.

Elder David A. Bednar, apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, recently spoke about the importance of religious rights as part of the video conference I posted at the top of this post. His remarks start at the 32:25 minute mark.

I’m pleased to see him take this stance. Does this mean that in the future, Church leaders will fight back government orders to stop assembling for Church meetings by proposing to comply with some kind of compromise so that we can meet and slow the spread of germs if there’s a pandemic ? I hope so. I suppose that is already happening right now as some congregations are starting to meet, with social distancing guidelines in place. I also hope that some non-compliance will happen, a little Church-led civil disobedience. Is this too much to hope for?

We do believe in “obeying and sustaining the law” (Article of Faith 8) but sometimes the law is not right.

Right? Examples of bad laws: laws that allow slavery, the Fugitive Slave Act, the Supreme Court decisions of Scott v. Sanford, Plessy v. Ferguson, and Roe v. Wade, among numerous others. These laws are not based on natural law. Such laws are examples of ones that needed or need to be change. So let’s learn our Constitution, hold our leaders accountable and ask for change when they aren’t following laws or the law isn’t right. Also let’s show outrage and some civil disobedience, like good old Gandhi did.

This video below shows an Illinois state legislator, Darren Bailey, who took the time to look up the Illinois law to see how it jived with the Illinois state governor giving an executive emergency proclamation. Watch below to see what he did.

Further reading on the role that Latter-day Saints can and must play in fighting for liberty and its twin, responsibility, can be found in these books: Latter-day Liberty and Latter-day Responsibility, both by Connor Boyack. The first is also in Audible format, and both have Kindle formats.