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Video transcript:
Listen, as Latter-day Saints, we all know by now that prophets can make mistakes. That’s old news. But it raises a deeper question — if prophets speak for God, but they can still mess up sometimes, what exactly does the relationship between God and prophets look like? And once we’ve laid that groundwork, we’re going to talk about why God allows prophets to mess up sometimes in the first place.
When I was younger, I assumed that prophets were kind of like Neo from The Matrix. If there was something God needed them to do, God would pretty much directly upload that information into the prophet’s brain, and the prophet would then get the job done. Communication was pretty much always clear, direct, and carried out almost without thought.
Clear and direct communication can, of course, happen, but as I’ve gotten older, my perspective on the relationship between God and prophets has shifted. Now, all metaphors break down at some point, but let’s talk about football. And bear with me, there is a point to this. This is Kalani Sitake, the head coach of BYU’s football team. It is his job to manage the overall team strategy and philosophy. He oversees the entire operation. For the purposes of this video, Kalani Sitake is God. Our prophet in this analogy is Aaron Roderick, the Offensive Coordinator, or OC. It is his job to apply Coach Sitake’s vision on the field. This may come as a bit of a shock if you’re not into football, but when it’s game time, the head coach is actually not generally the one who decides what each individual play is going to be. That’s what the Offensive (or Defensive) coordinator does, as he tries to bring the coach’s vision to life.
Coach Sitake will offer counsel and might sometimes overrule the OC, but generally, he has confidence that the OC is going to do his job. The coach isn’t going to micromanage every decision. Now, does that mean that every play the Offensive Coordinator calls for is going to be successful? Of course not. I love that in the movie Evan Almighty, the prophet isn’t just portrayed as an all-knowing, wisened leader. He himself is a student who didn’t ask for the calling he received. He’s trying to lead, but he’s also trying to understand, and even though he’s sometimes dropping the ball, the head coach is patient with him and gives him space to figure things out.
But back to football. More often than not, the coach sustains the decisions of the OC, and the players trust that the OC is doing his best to execute the coach’s vision, even when some plays fail. And even when they think a different play might be better than the one the OC wants to run.
One of my favorite examples that I think supports this analogy comes from the Book of Mormon, when God asks the brother of Jared to build a number of wooden barges. The brother of Jared quickly realizes that they weren’t going to have any light sources on these boats as they crossed the ocean. He asks God what to do, but instead of solving the problem — instead of telling the Offensive Coordinator which play to run — God puts the ball back in the prophet’s court. God says, “Well, you obviously can’t have fire. You can’t have windows. Therefore, what will ye that I should prepare for you that ye may have light when ye are swallowed up in the depths of the sea?” In other words, “In this case, I’m not going to tell you what to do. You tell me what play you want to run, and I’ll support it.” And that’s what happens.
This is, of course, an oversimplification, but it seems to me that our head coach, God, has a vision for the team, and he trusts the Offensive Coordinator, or the prophets, to figure out how to apply that vision to everyday life.
As a quick example that will hit a little closer to home: Our bodies are gifts from God, and we should respect and take care of them. That’s an unchanging overarching principle or philosophy that I think is part of God’s vision for the team. The Offensive Coordinator will then often have to grapple with the questions, OK, what does that look like on the field? What plays are we going to run to bring that vision to life? Some early prophets said, Well, we’re going to advise that members only consume alcohol, coffee, and tea in moderation. Later, Offensive Coordinators said, We’re going to change things up and ask that members abstain completely from alcohol, coffee, and tea.
Different Offensive Coordinators are going to try their best to understand the coach’s vision and effectively apply it. And different OCs are going to approach some things differently. Some prophets are going to maintain the status quo, running the same tried and true plays over and over again. Others might take a riskier approach and throw some brand-new plays into the mix. And just like in football, there may not always be only one right play option.
Some past and present prophets have called for plays that I have sometimes disagreed with. But I still sustain and respect those leaders even while disagreeing, because they’re the Offensive Coordinator, and I trust that they’re doing their best to capture the head coach’s vision. I respect the authority they have been given by the head coach to act in that role. And if the head coach is willing to be patient with the Offensive Coordinator, let things play out and help him refine that playbook over time, then I figure I can be patient, too.
But, we might wonder, unlike coach Sitake, God already knows exactly how the game is going to end—perhaps that might give him an extra measure of patience with the Coordinators, but if he already knows how it’s going to end, why wouldn’t he just tell them exactly what plays to run? In some ways, that would be nice. We’d fumble the ball less, and maybe score on every play. The problem is that instead of focusing on scoring points, our head coach is more interested in seeing his players learn and improve. And you can’t do that without practice and opposition. Without opposition, there is no game.
But what about the players who get hurt along the way? People have been and sometimes still are hurt in different ways when leaders run certain plays or say or do certain things. The apostle Peter denied Christ 3 times, and the head coach didn’t stop him. That was a harrowing and painful learning experience for Peter, but that could have also been something that hurt a lot of other people’s testimonies as well, just as it would if our leaders did anything like that today. I don’t want to make light of the real pain that some people experience, but the reality is that while the head coach might not always prevent it, he is always prepared for it. And he’s got a really great medic just waiting to jump in, who is eager and ready to take good care of those players. No matter what we go through on the field because of the coach, the Offensive Coordinator, other players on the field, maybe our own shortcomings — no matter what it is, Jesus Christ has got us covered.
If you are interested in a crash course of really fascinating examples of how different Offensive Coordinators have run different plays at different times in the Church — and plays they could run in the future — I highly suggest you go watch this video. I’ll see you there!