1. We hope and struggle for collective ownership of the means of production

We hope and struggle for a world where people “[hold] all things common,” and there are “no poor among” us. Early Mormon leaders prophetically counseled that the “wonderful growth of wealth in the hands of a comparatively few individuals … and a few powerful corporations” was “one of the great evils” in our nation. In a capitalist world, workers “having no means of production of their own, are reduced to selling their labour power in order to live.” Capitalists have created a system that forces working people to give the fruits of their labor to the wealthy or to die. It necessitates disenfranchising an exploited class who live under the dictatorship of the ruling class. There is no emancipation for the working class unless we dismantle capitalism and collectively own the means of production. Therefore, we support “the formation of … trades’ unions [and all] combinations of the productive and working classes against capital” that “act deliberately as organizing centers of the working class in the broad interest of its complete emancipation.” Only then will we, as members of the working class, be in control of our own collective destinies. Early Mormons recognized this and fought to maintain control over their own destiny through the collective ownership of the means of production. We recognize “the necessity of a class union and combination of our labors for the promotion of our Common Welfare,” because “we have learned of the struggle between capital and labor … and also the oppression of monied monopolies and … faithlessness among [people] in the political and business relations of life … making many of the necessities and conveniences of life precarious and uncertain.” Therefore, we mutually hope and struggle for collective ownership over the means of production so working people can finally be free from the oppression necessitated by capitalism.

2. We hope and struggle for the equitable distribution of resources

The Lord has said: “The earth is full, and there is enough and to spare; yea, I prepared all things and have given unto the children of [humanity] to be agents unto themselves.” Our distribution of the abundance of resources we possess is a choice. We produce enough food to feed the world over, have more vacant houses than unhoused people, and extract resources through neo-imperial slavery while billionaires race to see who will become the first trillionaire. “It is not given that one man should possess that which is above another.” Millions die every year because resources are hoarded by the wealthy and powerful instead of used to “to clothe the naked, and to feed the hungry, and to liberate the captive, and administer relief to the sick and the afflicted.” Early Mormon leaders prophetically counseled: “The experience of [humankind] has shown that the people of communities and nations among whom wealth is the most equally distributed, enjoy the largest degree of liberty [and] are the least exposed to tyranny and oppression.” Hoarding wealth and resources is sinful. It is well past time we build a society that rejects this wicked practice. “If any[one] shall take of the abundance which I have made, and impart not his portion according to the law of my gospel unto the poor and the needy, he shall, with the wicked, lift up his eyes in hell, being in torment.” We demand this incredible wickedness cease. We struggle for a world where we have “brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly, filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty,” making the hoarded wealth of the rich “slippery, that [the rich] cannot hold them” allowing that wealth to be distributed equitably to people around the world according to people’s “wants and [their] needs, inasmuch as [their] wants are just.”

3. We hope and struggle for a true democratic system

We affirm that in the complex dealings God has had in history, that God has “suffered” certain “laws … should be maintained for the rights and protection of all flesh, according to just and holy principles; that every [human] may act in doctrine and principle pertaining to futurity, according to the moral agency which [God has] given unto [them].” As people in so-called liberal democracies have fought for democratic principles, even those imbued in their legal and founding documents, they have been thwarted by the ruling class because it operates as an oligarchic dictatorship that secures itself through imperialism, colonialism, and the dissemination of propaganda and mass media bought through their decadent accumulation of capital. “The people have been deceived and diverted from their vital interests by means of spectacular and meaningless duels between the two bourgeois parties” “and no portion of the government as yet has stepped forward for our relief.” A true democracy cannot exist while the ruling class controls the means of production and the levers of power, nor can it exist while imperialist nations exploit oppressed peoples’ around the world. While we support individual members as they strategically vote despite the fundamentally undemocratic system we struggle under, we hope and struggle for a true democratic system—one that actually respects the divine principles of agency and common consent.

4. We hope and struggle to abolish prisons and policing as we know them

The modern carceral system, perpetuated by the prison-industrial complex the ruling class disgustingly profits off of, is a form of cruel and unusual punishment. It must be abolished. As the Prophet Joseph Smith said: “Abolish the cruel custom of prisons … and let reason and friendship reign over the ruins of ignorance and barbarity. … Open the prisons, open the eyes, open the ears, and open the hearts of all people to behold and enjoy freedom—unadulterated freedom.” This is the call of all who seek a just world. We struggle for the abolition of the modern carceral system as we reinvest in our communities’ education, housing, and basic needs. Crime is a consequence of desperation and destitution. It will only be solved by restorative forms of justice that seek to care for all those in our communities. It has not and will not be solved by police forces patterned after American slave patrols who currently operate as occupying armies in minority and low-income communities. Our Heavenly Parents sent Jesus to earth to “proclaim release to the incarcerated and … free[dom for] those who are oppressed.” As Disciples of Jesus, we move in that same spirit and for that same purpose.

5. We hope and struggle for free, accessible, & well-funded education for all

Our Mother Eve struggled for knowledge. Her acquisition of knowledge and her freely giving of that knowledge to Adam was “not a sin … for it was something that Adam and Eve had to do!” “The glory of God is intelligence” and “if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life … [they] will have so much the advantage in the world to come.” Therefore, we have a consistent ethical view that people should be able to “avail themselves as expeditiously as possible of the wealth of knowledge the [arts and] sciences.” This is reason enough for free, accessible, and well-funded education, but more than that, we live in a system where “people [are] distinguished by ranks, according to their riches and their chances for learning; yea, some [are] ignorant because of their poverty, and others receive great learning because of their riches.” There is no solidarity with oppressed and working-class peoples that does not extend to solidarity in the struggle for free, accessible, and well-funded education. This includes free, accessible, and well-funded trade schools and institutions of higher education. We affirm the right to “avoid debt” and be “free from [the] bondage” of loans. We struggle for learning opportunities by funding libraries and museums as free and accessible public institutions. We reject censorship of literature about oppressed and minoritized peoples and their communities, recognizing a wholesome education as one that includes diverse and intersectional sources of knowledge. We hope and struggle for a world that lives into the prophetic spirit of our mother Eve and allows all to receive a free, accessible, and well-funded education.

6. We hope and struggle for free, accessible, & sustainable housing

Housing is a human right. Throughout His ministry, Jesus was unhoused, having “nowhere to lay His head.” By rejecting people their fundamental right to housing, we not only do violence to an image of God, but we reject the mercy Jesus Himself relied on in His mortal life. The Prophet Micah suggests there isn’t anything “the Lord require[s] of [us] but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with [our] God.” Paul similarly stated that love of neighbor is the sum of “the whole law.” The Lord proclaimed providing housing “that strangers may come from afar to lodge [in]” is essential for Zion. We demand the United States recognize housing as a fundamental human right as most countries have around the world. We also demand the countries of the world take measurable steps to guarantee free, accessible, and sustainable housing for all people. Any struggle for recognition of housing as a right must be rooted in a commitment to ensure every child of God a good life full of diverse and fulfilling experiences with communities “united in love.” Therefore, until the nations of the world recognize the divinity of every human being and guarantee all their citizens these essential rights, we hope and struggle for free, accessible, and sustainable housing; free, sustainable, environmentally friendly, and accessible public transportation; and sustainable and accessible communities.

7. We hope and struggle for a healthy world that evades climate catastrophe

We proclaim boldly that there is a future where “the Earth [is] glad” no longer “pained” and “weary” by the violence done to Her. The Earth is not ours. The Earth belongs to God: “I, the Lord, stretched out the heavens, and built the earth, my very handiwork; and all things therein are mine.” “Every [person is] accountable” for maintaining what our Heavenly Parents “have made and prepared for [Their] creatures.” Humans possess the wonderful gift of agency; that said, “our agency should not be interpreted as license to use or consume the riches of this world without wisdom or restraint.” Unfortunately, thus far, the bourgeois interests of the ruling class have included ignoring scientific consensus about the consequences of their reckless resource extraction. The Earth will not be violated without consequence; these gross violations of the Earth are sinful and spell calamity for our species. We hope and struggle for a world where the Earth is respected and cared for and the various species that dwell upon the earth are not abused by ephemeral human industrial aims. We hope and struggle for a green world that abandons oil and gas and utilizes renewable forms of energy. We hope and struggle for a world not imperiled by ruthless and reckless corporations controlled by the wealthy. We hope and struggle for green cities, the preservation of nature and national parks, Indigenous sovereignty over lands and cultural sites important to Indigenous peoples, and the maintenance of the divine balance of natural ecological systems.

8. We hope and struggle for a world free of war, colonialism, & imperialism

The Lord has commanded that we “renounce war and proclaim peace.” Nevertheless, we recognize that there are many around the world who have engaged in and do engage in righteous violent struggle in line with divine principles; “not fighting for … power but … for their homes and their liberties.” “A riot is the language of the unheard” and it is “the oppressor who defines the nature of the struggle, and the oppressed is often left no recourse but to use methods that mirror those of the oppressor.” Violence creates violence. The mechanisms of imperialism create “one continual round of murder and bloodshed.” If we seek to truly renounce war, we must engage in the struggle to dismantle it at its foundation: the structural violence inflicted by neo-colonial and imperial powers. We stand firmly against the military-industrial complex and oppose all forms of imperialism, election interference and destabilization of sovereign nations, colonization, Apartheid, and occupation as the root causes of war.

We firmly reject any use of Mormon Scripture for the purposes of advocating for, defending, or engaging in colonialism, imperialism, or occupation. Our worship of a Palestinian Jew lynched by an occupying army demands that we do not contort the meaning of Scripture in defense of the very dehumanizing forces that justified the murder of our God. Inherent to our struggle is a commitment to decolonization and anti-imperialism. We therefore stand in solidarity with colonized peoples around the world and acknowledge our own lamentable role in colonization, displacement, and occupation. We demand our governments stop using our money to finance war crimes, election interference, and predatory foreign policies around the world. We hope and struggle for a free Turtle Island, Hawaiʻi, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, and Indigenous sovereignty over historic lands around the world. We call for boycotts, divestment and sanctions on the Apartheid State of Israel as we struggle for a free Palestine. We hope and struggle for international nuclear disarmament, demilitarization of imperial powers, as well as an end to imperial and neo-colonial global systems and resource extraction, United States international military bases, the United States’ embargo on Cuba, and antagonistic imperialist Cold War politics and foreign policy.

9. We hope and struggle for a world without borders

“God shows no partiality,” and we ought to do the same. The modern border system is only a hundred years old and was designed to maintain imperialist structures at the expense of the progress, learning, and growth of people around the world. Capital owners in collaboration with the leaders of imperial nations do great harm to some nations by ensuring they can never be competitive in global economies through unethical violations of those nations’ sovereignty, and then, in direct violation of God’s impartiality, confine particular peoples to those oppressed nations. Capitalists do this so they can exploit workers in those nations for cheap underpaid labor. Early Mormons were the target of earlier predatory anti-immigration tactics—“[A] large numbers of immigrants … [with] the avowed purpose of joining the Mormon community … [must be] prevent[ed] … to come hither [to the United States].” Not only does our own history compel us to oppose anti-immigration politics, but we also remember that “the Savior knows how it feels to be a refugee [because] He was one.” We support immigrants and immigration. Humans existed without the modern border system for hundreds of thousands of years and can and should exist without it now. We affirm that “the immigrant who resides with [us] shall be to [us] as the native-born among [us]” and that we “shall love the immigrant as [ourselves].” We accordingly hope and struggle for the abolition of the cruel, unusual, and unjust modern border system. We affirm the right of every human being to roam the earth freely and to “dwell among [different] people[s] for a time; yea, and perhaps until the day [they] die” insofar as those humans respect the sovereignty of those indigenous to those lands.

10. We hope and struggle for an equal society without unjust social systems

Historically characterized as a separate “physiological[ly] inferior” race which possessed innate “imbecility and brutal ferocity” and a body rife with “peculiarities,” stripped of autonomy whenever inconvenient, and ourselves victims of incredible violence at the hands of lynch mobs and the state, we, as Mormons, were a historically oppressed group. At the same time, we, as Mormons, have ourselves been a violent, subjugating, and powerful group in various regions we have colonized and occupied. Displacing and murdering Indigenous communities and engaging in the enslavement of Native and Black peoples, White Mormons have themselves been oppressors. White Mormons today have acquired a potent and powerful Whiteness for themselves through uncritical and unyielding patriotism; the subjugation and oppression of women, BIPOC peoples, and Queer communities; and participation in and upholding of unjust systems. We call on Mormons everywhere to understand the tentative acquisition of power in systems built on the exploitation and inequality of some peoples at the exorbitant opulence of other peoples by remembering the historical injustice, racism, and puritanical sexual politics that oppressed our ancestors and forebearers, and to accordingly repent and reject such acquisitions of power. We will not “stand idly by when the blood of [our] neighbor[s] is at stake.” 

“Until we are all free, we are none of us free.” Therefore, with this remembrance and call to action, we hope and struggle for an equal society for all peoples. We accept our calling as Christians to “believe in Christ, and view His death, and suffer His cross, and bear the shame of the world.” Therefore, we seek to burn the privilege acquired by the sins of our ancestors and forebearers as we commit ourselves to be accomplices in struggles for liberation led by and for oppressed peoples. We “seek not for power, but to pull it down.” The Christian Gospel will always be one of liberation for “the least of these” and all oppressed peoples. We commit ourselves to that Gospel. Therefore, we are committed to anti-racism, intersectional feminism, Trans and Queer liberation, disability justice, individual bodily autonomy, reproductive justice, socialism, anti-imperialism, and decolonization. Our Heavenly Parents weep because of oppressive systems which are “great chain[s]” that “veil the whole face of the earth.” We struggle in solidarity with oppressed groups around the world in their fights to break these chains. Namely, the chains of capitalism, imperialism, colonialism, occupation, Apartheid, racism, sexism, ableism, queerphobia, carceral systems, and religious and ethnic persecution. We seek consciously and actively to eradicate all of these oppressive systems for the liberation of all.