The Dangerous Slumber of Indifference – Sunday, August 03, 1941
If we were called upon to make a list of the evils of our day, the evil of indifference would be well up toward the top. Collectively, men appear to be grossly indifferent toward most things which do not immediately and definitely affect their own lives and comfort.
A calamity a thousand miles away has a passing effect on us as we read about it or hear about it, but it is largely an intellectual matter. Comparatively few men are stirred to action by a calamity a thousand miles away. Indeed, it is difficult to stir some from the complacency of indifference toward what goes on even in their own town or in the next street, for that matter, so long as it doesn’t contribute to their personal discomfort, or injury, or inconvenience. Men are a good deal that way, too, about their eternal future. Why should they disturb themselves abut that which now seems to be a remote hereafter, so long as the day passes pleasantly, so long as no one disturbs their tranquility or challenges their beliefs, or shakes their confidence in the soothing thought that all is well, and always will be, with them.
There are ways to quiet the over zealous—there are ways to deal with an active opponent—but how to stir an indifferent man out of his self-complacency is a question that has often begged for an answer. This thought carries with it a refrain that goes back to the words of St. John who addressed himself thus to the people of one church: “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot; I would thou wert cold or hot. So then, because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth, because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor and blind and naked.” (Revelations 3:15-17) This ancient indictment of an indifferent people has another refrain in the words of a latter utterance, which says: “Men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will.” (Doctrine and Covenants 58:27) No man can afford to be indifferent to the issues of the day in which he lives, or the issues which concern that eternal journey which we are all traveling together. Would that there could be found some quick and sure way to wake all men from the dangerous slumber of indifference.
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August 03, 1941
Broadcast Number 0,624