LDS WHY

Most people love to have a good time. Getting together with friends, talking, playing, and laughing— sometimes hysterically. But then we read verses like this in the Doctrine and Covenants:

“Therefore, cease from all your light speeches, from all laughter, from all your lustful desires, from all your pride and light-mindedness, and from all your wicked doings” (D&C 88:121).

Whoah! So was the good time we were having too much of a good time if we got a little too giddy? Do we need to go talk to our Bishop if we belly laughed so hard that we cried? Well, not necessarily. Before we condemn ourselves for having a good laugh, perhaps some clarification on what it means to be “light-minded” might be helpful…

Now THAT'S funny.

The Encyclopedia of Mormonism says: “Modern scripture deals with “light-mindedness” as trivializing the sacred or making light of sacred things. Latter-day Saints were admonished early in the History of the Church to “trifle not with sacred things” (D&C 6:12; 8:10). At its worst, light-mindedness may become ridicule and then sacrilege and blasphemy-a deliberate irreverence for the things of God. Divine personages and their names, temple ceremonies, the priesthood and its ordinances, and the saintly life, for example, are intrinsically holy. Other things are holy by association. The Lord has said, ‘That which cometh from above is sacred, and must be spoken with care, and by constraint of the Spirit’ (D&C 63:64). The Saints were warned against ‘excess of laughter,’ ‘light speeches,’ and ‘light-mindedness,’ yet were taught to worship ‘with a glad heart and a cheerful countenance’ (D&C 59:15; 88:121)” (Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 1-4 vols., p.837).

Note that a key to the commandment to not being light-minded is not treating sacred things lightly—not mocking or joking or making humor out of that which is holy. This doesn’t mean that we can’t poke fun at ourselves, our unique behavior, or our Latter-day saint culture. Laughing at our attempts to live the gospel is different than making humor of the gospel we have received. When we do this, we lose the Spirit of the Lord: “And your minds in times past have been darkened because of unbelief, and because you have treated lightly the things you have received” (D&C 84:54).

This is an especially important point as we are beginning the new year of seminary and institute. It seems that each year, as we teach our classes, there are a few kids who want to turn everything into a joke. Don’t get us wrong, we like to laugh and use appropriate humor and have a good time in our lessons as much as our students do, but there is a right time and a right place to crack a joke. And, there is definitely a right and wrong topic to crack jokes about, and sacred things aren’t one of them. It never fails that just as some things might be getting serious, solemn, and sacred—right at that point when the Holy Spirit is ready to teach and testify of holy things—a student who is spiritually immature or untrained tries to stop the sacredness through being light-minded (or maybe even a teacher who is spiritually immature or untrained. Sometimes the teacher is the most guilty party). Like most things, the adversary can turn a good thing (like humor) into a weapon against the Spirit if used the wrong way and at the wrong time. Even President Hinckley, who had such as great sense of humor, said, ““[Some] evidently enjoy seeing that which is sacred made to look funny. I cannot think of anything less in harmony with the spirit of the Christ than this kind of activity” (Gordon B. Hinckley, Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley, p.123 – 124).

For this reason Joseph Smith said, “A fanciful and flowery and heated imagination beware of; because the things of God are of deep import; and time, and experience, and careful and ponderous and solemn thoughts can only find them out. Thy mind, O man! if thou wilt lead a soul unto salvation, must stretch as high as the utmost heavens, and search into and contemplate the darkest abyss, and the broad expanse of eternity-thou must commune with God. How much more dignified and noble are the thoughts of God, than the vain imaginations of the human heart! …How vain and trifling have been our spirits, our conferences, our councils, our meetings [our classes], our private as well as public conversations-too low, too mean, too vulgar, too condescending for the dignified characters of the called and chosen of God” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p.137).

So as this school year progresses, let’s have fun. Let’s laugh, let’s enjoy, and let’s use appropriate humor. But let us not be light-minded about holy things at sacred times—in our classes, in our personal study, in our conversations, in our temples, and in our homes. If we can keep this commandment to avoid light-mindedness, the Lord promises: “But a commandment I give unto you, that ye shall declare whatsoever thing ye declare in my name, in solemnity of heart, in the spirit of meekness, in all things. And I give unto you this promise, that inasmuch as ye do this the Holy Ghost shall be shed forth in bearing record unto all things whatsoever ye shall say” (D&C 100:7-8).