In the
second sermon he delivered at the October 1901 General Conference, J. Golden
Kimball condemned intellectual laziness/anti-intellectualism as an evil that
must be repented of:
Now, my brethren and sisters, let us be
serious for a few moments. How many are there amongst us that have advanced far
enough to have gained this knowledge? We have had the Holy Ghost conferred upon
us for many years. I was baptized and received the laying on of hands when
eight years old. I have not made my election sure. I have not attained to that
great desire as yet. Are you going to be satisfied and cease to hunger and
thirst after righteousness and the moment we meet with adversity and trouble,
to lay down and cease our progression and advancement? I have seen new colonies
of the Saints built up in some of our little settlements almost like magic.
They reached a certain place with their improvements and like the Arkansas traveller
became satisfied and made no further improvements. I am sometimes fearful that
many of our people “climb their little hill” and then go down again. Young
people get married, and oftentimes reach a place where all climbing, towering
and reaching out after knowledge ceases and they merely eke out an existence.
To see young men with such grand opportunities and prospects stop and wait for
something to come to them is most deplorable. I ask you, to consider the
changes, advancement and improvement your foreign missionary Elders undergo
after a brief mission of two years. Their very being is changed, but note the
frequency with which they cease progression and fall back to old habits and
become “mentally lazy.”
The Lord is
not well pleased with this evil, for it is found in our
Priesthood quorums. The Lord made plain to His servant Oliver Cowdery, “Behold,
you have not understood; you have suppose that I would give it unto you, when
you took no thought. But behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in
your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause
that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore you shall feel that it is
right. But if it be not right you shall have no such feelings, but you shall
have a stupor of thought that shall cause you to forget the thing which is
wrong.”
The effects of idleness and mental laziness
cause a stupor of thought and will grieve the spirit of the Lord, and if persisted it will result in the
withdrawal of the spirit of the Lord. I am in favour of repenting of this evil and feel that we should dedicate a
part at least of our time to attaining wisdom and in preparing ourselves for the
great work that is before us. (Bonnie Taylor, ed. J. Golden Kimball: His Sermons [Latter-day
Publishing, 2007], 46-47, emphasis added)
