Obsolete plan of salvation graphic - did I miss a memo?
by Adjwilley on Wikimedia Commons
How did I miss this change? The above graphic is one that nearly any senior Primary child or adult can draw with their eyes closed. But I just learned that it is found in none of the updated manuals, including Come Follow Me or Preach My Gospel. Why? Samuel Norton explains in his book Come As You Are:
Too many associate the plan of salvation with jeopardy, because of this diagram. Although we tried to revise the name to the plan of happiness, the underlying mindsets didn’t really move at all. Instead of being a welcoming Father, One whose work and glory is to bring us safely home, . . . and One who sent His beloved Son to rescue us from the wounds of the Fall and our own weakness, we fear Him as the One whose gavel will fall with a decree of banishment. Ultimately, the diagram values and emphasizes justice far more than mercy or love.
Although each component of the diagram could be referenced in some form or another in the scriptures, those same scriptures did not fully explain all of the interdependencies, sequencing, timing, or finality declared with certainty by the construction of the diagram. The role of the Saviour was minimal, absent even.
What replaced this diagram to explain the plan of salvation? This graphic, which is straight out of Preach My Gospel:
from Preach My Gospel
Where is Jesus in the first diagram? How about the second? That looks like a God who is in “relentless pursuit of you,” whose “intent is to bring you home,” as Elder Kearon unforgettably said.
Why wasn’t this change announced? Norton continued:
Because our learning culture very rarely includes any official ground-clearing, rarely deletes or confines outdated paradigms to their time (at least publicly), and because of our cultural conviction around following the prophet (and inertia to anything he doesn’t explicitly teach), it can be difficult to turn the page.
Difficult to turn the page indeed: the Church still has the old version on its website. But now WE know.
When you teach the plan of happiness, teach the second version, with Jesus in the center. That’s the loving God we know, with all kinds of off-ramps, no ultimatums, and second chances (and third, and seven times seven). Even after death, the dead can repent.
Specifically, for our LGBTQ siblings, Norton continued:
Consider our LGBTQ + friends and members. . . . How do they fit into this [earlier] diagram? How do they navigate the resulting tight spaces of their local faith experience, when this unreconcilable diagram stares back at them from the classroom walls of their childhood? Trying to force-fit this diagram and apply it to people’s beautifully complex lives narrows the space and robs them of dignity, spiritual security, and psychological safety. That’s not how Heavenly Father wants His children to feel. It’s not what the Saviour taught to those who, deep down, desired to believe in Him.
So forget your “no empty chairs” fears, and focus on love.
Just love.
Also see The Church changes, then moves on — leaving wreckage behind
-Marci
