Commenting
on how many Latter-day Saints have a very errant and spiritually dangerous
understanding of the relationship between the testimony of the Holy Spirit and
emotion, Robert L. Millet wrote:
The Proper Place of Emotion
I have been concerned over the years that too
often our youth (and, unfortunately, even some of our more experienced members)
are prone to confuse sentimentality with spirituality, tears with testimony.
Let me illustrate . . . Many years ago I taught several classes of high school
juniors and seniors in seminary. My fourth period class was a remarkable group.
During the first part of the year, however, I noticed that nearly every
devotional to start the class and set the spiritual tone involved some kind of
death story. Somebody was dying or giving their blood or something of that
sort. I took the class president aside after the third week and asked, “Fred,
what’s the deal with the devotionals?”
He replied, “Yes, aren’t they great?”
I said, “I mean, why all the morbid stories
in our devotionals? Why are we so hung up with death?”
Fred responded politely, but the look on his
face betrayed the fact that my question had totally mystified him. “Brother
Millet,” he came right back, “How else are we supposed to get the kids to cry?”
I said, “Oh, I understand.” Then we visited about what a spiritual experience
really is.
There’s no question that when we have a
genuine spiritual experience, we may be touched emotionally. Tears come easily
for some of us, and there should never be the slightest embarrassment about
such a thing. And yet we do ourselves and our youth a tremendous disservice if
we begin to believe that an emotional experience is always a spiritual experience.
Tears may come, but they should never be manipulated or elicited or sought for.
In the classroom, for example, there is plenty for the gospel teacher to do by
way of study, prayer, preparation, organization, and presentation; he or she
must not seek to usurp the role of the Holy Ghost. The Spirit is the Comforter.
He is the Revelator. He is the Converter. He is, in reality, the Teacher. We
strive to be an instrument in the Lord’s hands. We may seek and pray for an outpouring
of the Spirit, but we must never attempt to manufacture the same. It is not in
our power to do so.
President Howard W. Hunter, in speaking to
Church Educational System personnel, said: “I think if we are not careful as .
. .teachers . . ., we may begin to try to counterfeit the true influence of the
true influence of the Spirit of the Lord by unworthy and manipulative means. I
get concerned when it appears that strong emotion or free-flowing tears are
equated with the presence of the Spirit. Certainly the Spirit of the Lord can
bring strong emotional feelings, including tears, but that outward
manifestation ought not be confused with the presence of the Spirit itself.
“I have watched a great many of my brethren
over the years and we have shared some rare and unspeakable spiritual experiences
together. Those experiences have all been different, each special in its own
way, and such sacred moments may or may not be accompanied by tears. Very often
they are, but sometimes they are accompanied by total silence. Always they are
accompanied by a great manifestation of truth, of revelation to the heart.
“Give your students gospel truth powerfully
taught; that is the way to give them a spiritual experience. Let it come
naturally as it will, perhaps with the shedding of tears, but perhaps not. If
what you say is the truth, and you say it purely and with honest conviction,
those students will feel the spirit of the truth being taught them and will
recognize that inspiration and revelation have come into their hearts. That is
how we build faith. That is how we strengthen testimonies—with the power of the
word of God taught in purity and with conviction” (Howard W. Hunter, “Eternal
Investments,” 10 February 1989, p. 3). If we become confused about that is a
genuine spiritual experience and what is not, we open ourselves to deception. (Robert
L. Millet, The Holy Spirit: His Identity,
Mission, and Ministry [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2019], 77, 78-79)
To give one
example of the danger of confusing the Holy Spirit with an obvious (merely) emotional
experience, take anti-Mormons Mike and Ann Thomas who, in their book, Mormonism: A Gold-Plated Religion,
claims that the LDS testimony is nothing more than feelings. Well, here is Mike’s
recollection of his wife’s emotional experience while attending an Evangelical
Protestant service: