Have you never been mellow?

The great philosopher, Olivia Newton John, used to sing:

There was a day when I just
Had to tell my point of view;
I was like you.

The Stranger

My freshman year of college I came home one Saturday night and found my four roommates all jammed into one of the bedrooms, visiting. I popped my head in to say hi, and saw a guy I didn't know. One of my roommates was a backup quarterback, and he introduced the stranger as one of his friends from the football team.

My four roommates had been friends since middle school, so when they got to college they took the two bedrooms with doors next to each other together. That left me the third bedroom to myself (which was fine by me!), which was across the hall on the other side of our shared bathroom from the other two bedrooms.

I told them I was headed to bed, and told them to please have fun and not worry about any noise. My room was far enough away, and my door shuts just fine.

"Besides," I joked, "I'm so tired I could sleep through a Wham! concert." (Oh who am I kidding, I would probably sleep through a Wham! concert regardless! 🙂)

It wasn't until I was kneeling next to my bed saying my prayers that I noticed for the first time the topic of conversation going on in that room. The stranger, who was not a Latter-day Saint, was telling the other four guys in the room things which we called "anti-Mormon" in those days. (I don't know what we'd call that stuff today... anti-Latter-day Saint? Anti-Church?)

I ended my prayer, slipped between the sheets, and tried to ignore their conversation. I meant it when I said I thought I could sleep through a concert — I was tired. Nevertheless, I was about to discover that darkness is actually louder than noise.

Darkness is louder than noise.

Flashback

I joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when I was 17 years old — and against the objections of everyone in my life including my mom and my friends.

Days before my baptism, a dear and cherished friend gave me a handwritten letter that was almost 30 pages of anti-Church things she had taken from books in her church's library. I was blown away. It had to have taken her days to write all that — and her hand had to be quite sore each of those days.

Because we were such good friends, I knew she did it out of genuine love for me, not out of rancor or hate. And because she cared enough to write it, I cared enough read it. Her letter left me with questions, but I never had doubts, if that makes sense.

But now my four 18-year old roommates were hearing this stuff for the first time, and from what I was hearing I could tell that they were rattled.

Listen

For several minutes I lay there trying not to listen — which is a lot harder to do than it sounds.

When I gave up on that, I started telling myself that going in there would be the wrong thing for me to do. After all, we were told on our missions not to "bash" with others about the gospel. And of course, "Only by pride cometh contention" (Proverbs 13:10).

Eventually I slid out of bed and back to my knees. I asked for wisdom — and even better: inspiration.

The Spirit whispered: "Go in and listen. Oh, and bring your scriptures."

So I walked to the bedroom where everyone was gathered, leaned against the entryway and asked cheerfully, "Would it be okay if I joined you?"

The stranger looked at me, then at the enormous, large-letter "quadruple combination" in my hand, and his face went pale. I took that to be an encouraging sign.

But then one of my roomies said the most unfortunate thing: "Yes! Tom is here! He baptized like a hundred people on his mission, and is a fetchin' genius! He's going to destroy you! Get him, Tom!"

To my chagrin, my other roommates joined in the glee.

I laughed and said, "Actually, I'm just hear to listen."

I said it, but no one believed it.

As I found a place to sit, the guy spreading darkness said it was late and he needed to go. Immediately all four of my roommates started laughing at him and calling him chicken.

"No, don't go!" I blurted. "I'll go back to bed if you want. I can listen from there too."

"If you're just here to listen, then what's with the huge bible?" he challenged.

"In case we have questions, we can look stuff up," I replied.

The guy stayed, and started with his next attack on the Church, and I said nothing. This pattern became a loop for the next 30 or so minutes. He'd make an attack on the church, then everyone in the room would then turn and look at me for an rebuttal. I'd smile and say nothing, so he'd move on to his next attack.

Say Something

But something interesting was also happening: the longer I sat there just listening, the more abrasive, snarky, and condescending this visitor behaved.

That frustrated my roommates, and soon the roommate who had given me that over-the-top introduction blurted, "Don't just sit there! Say something!"

"He can't," taunted the stranger. "You're church is wrong and he knows it!"

"To the contrary," I said with a smile, "You have not said one thing I haven't heard before. The difference is: I also know things that you don't yet know. But please, keep going."

I was confident, cheerful, and completely unaffected by any of the things this guy was saying — and hoping my roommates were noticing that.

They were not.

At one point, the quietest of my roommates asked me sincerely, "Tom, why won't you say anything?"

They were ashamed

I could see it wasn't just the disinformation that was bothering him; he was affected by the smugness and disdain this guy had as he mocked my rommates' most cherished beliefs. It reminded me of the Tree of Life story in 1 Nephi 8:26-28:

26 And I also cast my eyes round about, and beheld, on the other side of the river of water, a great and spacious building; and it stood as it were in the air, high above the earth.

27 And it was filled with people, both old and young, both male and female; and their manner of dress was exceedingly fine; and they were in the attitude of mocking and pointing their fingers towards those who had come at and were partaking of the fruit.

28 And after they had tasted of the fruit they were ashamed, because of those that were scoffing at them; and they fell away into forbidden paths and were lost.

"Trust me," I answered, "I am tempted to speak up, but the Holy Spirit just hasn't told me to, so I'm just listening."

"Yeah, right," sneered the guest.

I had no idea how this night was going to turn out, but for some reason I was totally sure that it was going to be faith-building.

Now

Then it happened.

The guest started mocking the priesthood. "Nowhere in the Bible does it talk about the Melchizedek priesthood," he crowed. "There is no such thing as a Melchizek priesthood. That is just another lie your church teaches."

"Now," whispered the Spirit.

"Actually," I started, feeling all heads turn to me, "The Bible does talk about the Melchizedek priesthood. In fact, it says Jesus Himself was a high priest after the Order of Melchizedek."

"That's a lie," he scoffed.

"I don't lie," I replied sternly.

"If you can show me in the Bible," he said, his voice dripping with contempt, "Where it says Jesus held the Melchizedek priesthood, I will join your church."

"Are you okay with the King James Bible?" I asked as I reached for my quad.

My roommates looked at each other and sat up.

I smiled. "Here in Hebrews in the New Testament, chapter 5, verse 8, Paul talks about Jesus and writes:

8 Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;

"Then in verse 9 it says:"

9 And being made perfect, he [Jesus] became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;

"I testify that Jesus Christ is my Savior," I declared, "And the author of our eternal salvation."

"Then in the very next verse it says that Jesus was..."

10 Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec.

There were gasps, then I swear everyone in that room started holding his breath.

I handed my scriptures to our guest and pointed to the verses — which I had marked.

He read the verses before, and the verses after. He read and he reread. He turned to the front of the book to make sure it was a King James Bible.

And his face got redder with each passing moment.

One roommate looked as if he was going to take a turn at mocking, but I shot him a glance and he closed his mouth without speaking.

The room was silent as I took my scriptures from our guest and passed them to the roommate who had asked me why I wouldn't speak. He silently read the verses and handed me back my scriptures. I then passed them to every person in the room to read for themselves.

Then, for a few minutes I acted like the stranger wasn't even in the room, and I took advantage of a teaching moment with my roommates.

"Do you know why he could say all those things about our church?"

"Because his church publishes books, publishes pamphlets, and even teaches classes with the sole purpose of tearing down other religions. They have literally institutionalized hate, and teach it to their members so that they appear more knowledgable about our church than they actually are."

"And our church isn't the only religion they mock and attack, they do it to Catholics, Jehovah's Witnesses, Muslims, and probably others."

"Is that right?" I asked him. "Does your church have books and classes that taught you that we are not Christians?"

He tried to justify it, but what he really did was confirm what I just told my roommates. His church taught him to hate us, and he chose to believe the hate even though he knows us, is friends with us, lives among us, and knows we are striving to follow Christ.

Then I asked my roommates: "What does our church teach? Have any of you ever been taught by our church to hate another group?"

They shook their heads no.

"Can anyone quote the 11th Article of Faith?" I asked. One of them did:

We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.

Not only are we not taught to hate, one of our core doctrines, our articles of faith, is to allow others to worship as they see right.

"Tell me," I challenged,"Which church sounds like the Church of  Jesus Christ? A church that teaches people to hate people who are not like themselves? Or the church that teaches you to love others, and accept them as they are?"

"Tell me: Which church sounds like the Church of  Jesus Christ? A church that teaches people to hate people who are not like themselves? Or the church that teaches you to love others, and accept them as they are?"

With a grin I turned to our guest and said, "You said if I could prove to you that Jesus held the Melchizedek priesthood, you'd join our church."

My roommates laughed.

"Guess what? Like Jesus Christ, I hold the Melchizedek priesthood too. So if you were to choose it, not only can I baptize you, but I can confirm you a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."

"But I would never baptize you because you lost an argument or a bet. Baptism is a promise to God, a covenant. It is the symbol of a lifelong commitment to follow Christ."

"The reason you got embarrassed tonight was because you trusted in the arm of flesh. You trusted books and teachers, but they deceived you. In fact, almost everything you said tonight was either untrue or a half-truth. That's not how God does His work; that is the corruption of man."

"Here is a lesson for everyone here: anything someone can talk you into, someone else can probably talk you out of. Consequently, we all need what I have: a witness from God through the Holy Ghost of what is true. Then you need to nurture and grow that faith, like caring for a garden — keeping it watered, fed, and free of the noxious weeds like we heard tonight."

Anything someone can talk you into, someone else can probably talk you out of. Consequently, we all need a witness from God through the Holy Ghost of what is true. Then you need to nurture and grow that faith, like caring for a garden — keeping it watered, fed, and free of the noxious weeds like we heard tonight."

Our guest left.

Epilogue

What I did not say that night — and wish I would have — is that they need to seek out this friend and give him "an increase of love". And they should behave around him so that he cannot reconcile the anti-Christian myth he's been taught about us with the absolutely-Christian behavior we live by.

In the weeks that followed, I visited with my roommates about many the questions they had from that night.

And all four went on missions.

Generally speaking, it was against my nature to do what I did that night — especially when I was that age. When I look back on that evening, I wonder how it would have gone had I not denied the natural man and followed the Holy Spirit.

One of the things that worries me most about people today — young and old — is that people no longer value the importance of being alone with their own thoughts.

There are moments in everyday life where people are left with their own thoughts. It used to be that we spent those moments thinking — and even praying. Today people are filling those moments with entertainment from their devices or ear buds.

As a result, many people don't even seem to have their own thoughts; they merely adopt the thoughts of others as their own — such those of a political group they identify with.

Don't let that be you.

Because what you don't use, you lose.

Thanks for listening.