Laurel3

Laurel
by Anne Osborne Poelman
Amulek Alternative: Exercising Alternative in a World of Choice
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For agency to be operative, there must be alternatives and opportunities from which to choose. As Lehi said, "It must needs be, that there is an oopposition in all things." Good and evil. Light and darkness. Right and wrong. Easy and hard. (See 2 Nephi 2:11). In Elder Holland's words, mortality presents us with the "chance to become like our heavenly parents, to face suffering and overcome it, to endure sorrow and still live rejoicingly, to confront good and evil and be strong enough to choose the good"(Christ and the New Covenant, p. 204).
Modern scriptures affirm the necessity of opposition: "It must needs be that the devil should tempt the children of men, or they could not be agents unto themselves" (D&C 29:39).
Thus we live in a world full of very real choices. Some are small. Others loom very large. All have consequences, both for ourselves and for others.
   There is also a difference--and it is an essential one--between agency (the power to choose) and freedom (the opportunity to exercise those choices):

     Because free agency is a God-given precondition to the purpose of mortal life, no person or organization can take away our free agency in mortality...What can be taken away or reduced by the conditions of mortality is our freedom the power to act upon our choices. Free agency is absolute, but in the circumstances of mortality freedom is always qualified.
     Freedom may be qualified or taken away by (1) physical laws, including the physical limitations with which we are born, (2) by our own action, and (3) by the action of others, including governments...A loss of freedom reduces the extent to which we can act upon our choices, but it does not deprive us of our God-given free agency...
    Many losses of freedom are imposed by others...Interferences with our freedom do not deprive us of our free agency. When Pharoah put Joseph in prison, he restricted Joseph's freedom, but he did not take away his free-agency. (Dallin H Oaks "Free Agency and Freedom" address delivered at the 3rd Annual Book of Mormon Symposium, Brigham Young University, 11 Oct 1987)

President Howard W Hunter said: "God's chief way of acting is by persuasion and patience and long-suffering, not by coercion and stark confrontation. He acts by gentle solicitation and by sweet enticement. He always acts with unfailing respect for the freedom and independence that we possess" (Ensign, November 1989, p. 18; italics added.)
   Other than the divine gift of life itself, the power to direct that life is God's most precious gift to us, His children. One of my favorite hymns, "Know This, That Every Soul is Free," states:
Know this, that every soul is free
To choose his life and what he'll be;
For this eternal truth is giv'n:
That God will force no man to heav'n.

He'll call, persuade, direct aright,
And bless with wisdom, love, and light,
In nameless ways be good and kind,
But never force the human mind.                Humns no. 240

   Unlike agency, our freedom--the opportunity together with the ability to exercise our agency--can be compromised. It may be restricted by others. It may be limited by circumstance. Our freedom can also be curtailed or willingly surrendered by our own choices and actions. We may even pursue one incorrect path for so long or repeat wrong behaviors so often that we lose the desire, the will, to change.
   But agency itself cannot be surrendered or taken away. Agency is preserved under the most severe conditions, the most extreme circumstances....
   It is this final internal liberty, our last inner stronghold, that cannot be usurped. Even in indescribably loathsome conditions, it remains to those of determined heart, undaunted will, and resolute spirit. We cannot always control our circumstances, but we can determine how we respond to them.
   In LDS theology, "impaired agency" is an oxymoron. "Impaired will" is not.
   Both external and internal threats to our freedom exist in abundance. There are numberous influences around us that will--if we allow them to do so--sap our spiritual strength, disoolve our determination, and erode our will to choose our own paths, to elect our own way.
   We must never, ever willingly surrender or relinquish our freedom to direct our own lives. In so doing, we may figuratively sell the opportunity to exercise agency, our precious celestial birthright, for a mess of temporal pottage. To whatever extent possible, we should resist those circumstances that would restrict or limit our freedom to choose for ourselves. We should permit no one and NO THING to ursurp our freedom to make moral choices.
   There are also, especially today, some substances and behavior patterns that can be frighteningly effective solvents of our will to resis evil. Those who surrender themselves to their pernicious influence may be plunged into a spiritual Twilight Zone from escape can be very difficult...