Sophisticated Poison

We believe and are certain the resurrected Christ visited believers in America immediately after his resurrection and taught them His gospel.  He also promised that their children, as descendents of Jacob, would one day hold great power over the gentiles, those of us who would come to this continent at a later time*.   This promise, repeated three times by the Savior⁺, seemed incredible to me as a young man; but not now. 

When we moved to New York City in 1970 I thought of changing my license plates because I feared vandalism against a car from Utah; a place known for its large families.  All the sophisticated thinkers of the day agreed that having kids was bad. Their assault upon even moderate sized families was tireless and intense.  One larger than average woman on a city bus declared right in front of my children that they were eating food off her table.  I wonder if that lady or her friends are presently benefiting from the work of medical doctors, artists, or engineers; all professions that have prospered from the work of my now grown children. To complete the calamity, these sophisticates had no problem promoting government programs that squandered the eventual wealth of the children they were not having.

People will look back and wonder how it was possible we did not see what every other society in history has considered simply apparent—we will eventually depend upon the raising generation.  Because we succumbed to the sophisticated poison of limited reproduction, however, the raising generation in our part of the world will in large part consist of the descendants of those to whom the Lord made His promise of eventual power--native Americans from North and South America.  They have watched from the shadows while we lived large.  Now their numbers grow and we fall behind. Once they become a voting majority in this country, and a vast majority on this continent, are they going to willingly step forward, pay our debts, and take care of us in the style to which we have become accustomed?  I think not.  Fewer children might have worked had we been fiscally responsible. As things are, however, when our financial institutions struggle and they take positions of responsibility, we will see the literal fulfillment of the Lord’s dire predictions. In the end it might be for the best, as they are less likely to be swayed by the type of strange ideas that got us into this predicament.

*Those to whom the Lord spoke immediately after his resurrection came from Jerusalem in 600 BC and are direct descendents of Jacob.  Gentiles are generally considered non-Jewish people who came to this country after Columbus. However, as discussed in the section “What About Joseph” some of these European migrants were also descended from Jacob.

⁺  3 Nephi 16:15; 20:16; 21:12.