Satan’s “Plan” in Cardston

Upcoming Plebiscite

Over the Labor Day weekend there has been a fascinating development in the peaceful Southern Alberta town of Cardston that would peak the interest of both political economists and Christian theologians alike.  Cardston, a town founded by early members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, more commonly known as the Mormons, is considering a plebiscite to poll the local citizens regarding issues such as prohibition and opening public recreational facilities to organized sports on Sunday.

Mormons Fighting

Amidst all the recent political discussion surrounding the upcoming plebiscite, it would seem that there are two groups of faithful Mormons fighting against each other on Cardston related blogs and social media sites.   Interestingly each group seems to believe that the other group is being subtly deceived by Satan and are unknowingly supporting Satan’s “plan” as outlined in the war in heaven before the creation of the earth.  It leaves one to wonder how people who attend the same Sunday school classes and follow the same Priesthood leadership could so fundamentally disagree about the basic tenets of their faith.   

Satan’s Force Plan

One group believes that in the Grand Council of Heaven, Satan proposed to end the agency of man by removing individual freedom and forcing every human soul to be righteous, effectively saving everyone since no unclean thing can dwell in heaven.  In their view, any law that places restrictions on things that Mormons consider sin is an attempt to force people to be righteous and is therefore a political reproduction of Satan’s historical plan.  This group believes that anyone who would support a law that limits the choices (agency) of others has been deceived by Satan and is unknowingly doing his bidding.

Satan’s Freedom Plan

The second group agrees that Satan‘s plan was, and still is, to end the agency of man, but they differ in how they believe Satan would accomplish this.  Rather than forcing everyone to be righteous, they believe Satan was proposing that there be an absence of laws and therefore mankind would be free from the consequences of breaking them.   No laws = No judgment.  Since you can’t break laws when there are none, no one would become unclean and therefore no one would lose their place in heaven.  They believe Satan’s plan was very persuasive because it had the appearance of unhindered freedom with no risk, where, in contrast, God’s plan was all about obedience and sacrifice with the possibility of failure.  This second group believes that anyone trying to remove all laws in the name of freedom is unknowingly fighting Satan’s battle for him ultimately leading to more people sinning which, in their opinion, is all Satan cares about.

Anarchy, Tyranny or ???

Sadly, neither the Bible nor the additional Mormon scriptures specify which of these approaches is actually Satan’s plan.  Obviously, neither of the two groups is eager to admit that they are the ones being deceived and are unwittingly working for the Master of Deception.  Assuming both groups agree that neither anarchy nor tyranny are desirable alternatives, perhaps they should spend more time and energy trying to figure out where the legal balance of a healthy democracy is and what makes a law good or bad for society.  If they could come to some kind of consensus on what sort of community they would all like to have, it is likely that their policy making decisions would be much less obfuscated. 

At any rate, if these Mormons can’t figure out Satan’s entire long-term plan for Cardston, perhaps they should simply ask themselves, “How Would Satan Vote?” for each plebiscite question. No matter what the outcome of this plebiscite will be, one thing is certain; a house divided against itself cannot stand.