The Mormon Monk

Due to a fluke of D.C. weather and a prophetic mandate, our stake conference was postponed this past weekend, which meant that our Elders Quorum and Relief Society enjoyed the Gospel Principles lesson that most Church units will be having this weekend on agency. In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we tend to use the words agency and choice interchangeably, but the two words are not synonymous. Choice refers to a specific act of selection, while agency refers to the power of acting. It is, perhaps, worth noting the etymology of both words. Choice derives from the French choisir , “to perceive,” while agency is from the Latin ago, agere , “to act.” In other words, agency refers to the exercise of decision-making power, while choice is more closely related to the perception of different alternatives. To say that we have agency is to acknowledge that God has empowered us to choose between good and evil in all circumstances, whereas choice involves a more limited understand...

On the first Sunday of every month members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints fast, abstaining from food and drink for a period of 24 hours and two meals. Funds that would have been spent on food are donated to the church, which disburses them to needy individuals around the world. Our fast should respond to the interrogation of Isaiah: “Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?” (Isaiah 58:6-7). Regarding this aspect of the fast—its potential to provide temporal support to those in need—the late President Spencer W. Kimball said, “Sometimes we have been a bit penurious and figured that we had for breakfast one egg and that cost so many cents and ...