Agency is not Free

 

Agency is not Free

 

There are a number of people who recently have stated to me that the requirement for missionaries to have the COVID vaccine to be allowed to receive training in the MTC is interfering with their Free Agency.

In the first-place agency is not free. The ability to choose is agency, but with that choice there is always a consequence. We cannot decide the consequence of our actions.  It is part of the eternal plan.

Let us go back to the first man and his wife (Adam and Eve).  They chose to partake of a fruit in the garden of Eden which God told them that if they did there would be a consequence. They made the choice and as a result were separated from God, driven out of the Garden of Eden and became mortal. They also brought mortality to all the rest of the earth. There was a bright side. They were able to have posterity and made eternal covenants to regain their place in the celestial kingdom. So, not all uses of agency result in bad outcomes.

I talked recently with my friend Scott Lorimer, who said a young man in Wyoming was complaining that the church was taking away his agency by not letting him go to the MTC without being immunized for COVID. 

I have had conversations with a mother who is a nurse. She has complained that because her son does not want to get the COVID vaccine that we are putting him in a position where he either has to get the vaccine or if he doesn’t, he will be discriminated against by the missionaries in his mission because he refused to get the vaccine. Thus, he doesn’t have agency without consequences.  That is not according to the rule of heaven.  He and his mother are letting fear of the unknown govern their decisions.

I once gave a devotional to the Area Presidency while we were on our mission in Frankfurt, Germany based on this scripture.

2 Timothy Chapter 1

"7 For God hath not given us the spirit of ^afear; but of ^bpower, and of ^clove, and of a sound mind."

It seems as though many today do not want to walk in the dark for just a little ways until the light of Christ illuminates the way. In this case these people want assurance that the vaccine will not cause them discomfort or no side effects.  They take their information from the Internet from someone they do not know and trust their pontification rather than be assured by the words and counsel of church leaders.

They want agency without consequences or accountability.  The saying I learned when I was growing up was, “You can’t have your cake and eat it too.” Agency is not free, it comes with a price; consequence.

Be sure you are willing to pay the price.

Love,

Grandpa