Tautology is a repetitive use of phrases or words which have similar meanings. In simple words, it is expressing the same thing, an idea or saying two or more times. The word tautology is derived from the Greek word “tauto” (the same) and “logos” (a word or an idea). A grammatical tautology means when an idea is repeated within a phrase, sentence or paragraph to give an impression that the writer is providing extra information.
Examples are:
Added Bonus
The Gobi is a very dry desert
They hiked to the summit at the top of the mountain
I went there personally
Really beautiful
AND (dare I say it…)
Exact Obedience
The phrase “exact obedience” appears in the 2005 (Original and still current) version of Preach My Gospel. [1]
Obedience is an important part of the Gospel. Christ spoke of the relationship between love and obedience, “If ye love me, keep my commandments”. He also spoke of the hypocrisy of the Pharisees in relation to their appearance of being obedient in the absence of any substance behind it (Matthew 23).
I have spoken before about the relationship between obedience and blessings (see here). I believe there to be a broad cultural misconception in the church about the relationship between obedience and blessings. Specifically, that D&C 130 DOES NOT state that being obedient causes blessings to occur. It merely says that when we obtain a blessing from God it is due to being obedient. That is very different.
I believe this misconception is part of the reason why we place such a high degree of importance on obedience. Obedience = blessings. Lots of blessings is good. A quote from the lds.org website recent blog article by Sean Johnson entitled “Why I quit phoning it in on Sunday’s” highlights this point, “And the blessings, as usual, outweigh any sacrifices we might make—a reminder that the Sabbath was made for woman and man, a true gift and expression of love from a kind and caring Father”. In other words, if we stop using our iPads on Sunday we not only get blessings, but they are, in some mathematical way I don’t understand, greater to – or “outweigh” the act of putting them down for a few hours.
But now we have an even higher road to travel. Being obedient is not enough. EXACT OBEDIENCE is now what is required. And the promise – not just blessings….wait for it…..MIRACLES!!!
President Nelson made this comment at a presentation to world wide MTC’s in 2013.
“Obedience brings success; exact obedience brings miracles,”
And I came across this on a missionary’s blog. This was in relation to her committing some investigators to be baptised:
“As a District, commit to 100% obedience (already doing, but there’s always room for improvement), and each night he’d (Zone Leader) call for a percentage of how obedient each companionship was for the day. The percentage was not for him, but was an accounting (chapter 8, Preach My Gospel). We all agreed. Challenge accepted”.
For me, this type of comment highlights the problems with this type of thinking:
- You can apparently do better than 100%
- Calling a leader and telling them each night how obedient you have been is somehow a good idea
- That obedience is reducible to a number or a percentage
My experience is that this is still contained within the missionary system of the church. I haven’t heard anyone apart from missionaries use this particular language. My fear is though it will morph into a church wide good idea. There is a great attraction to believe that we have such a great degree of control over what happens to us in our lives and how obedience somehow is the controlling factor. It goes towards the practical application of DAB’s recent comments regarding teaching in the home.
The concept of “exact obedience” inherently reduces our gospel experience to a measurable series of external actions. No room for who you are, no room for mistakes, no room for anything less than 100% (because apparently you can do better than that) and no room for individual differences.
I had an old friend of mine post recently on Facebook a quote that essentially said that you are always 100% responsible for every choice you make, that you are 100% able to make whatever decision you want etc etc etc. I think this style of “You are a complete free agent” thinking supports this type of “exact obedience” mantra. [2]
Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for doing the right thing. I’m all for trying really hard. I just don’t think preaching “exact obedience” is the way to achieve that. I don’t think that is what the Master Teacher ever taught. In fact, I believe he taught against the idea.
Questions:
- What are your thoughts on the concept of exact obedience?
- Have you heard it discussed outside missionary circles?
- How do you reconcile a person being exactly obedient with another persons use of agency?
- When was the last 24 hour period where you were exactly obedient?
[1] That’s the earliest reference to this phrase that I can see. Anyone know more???
[2] the exact phrase was “Everything you do is based on the choices you make. It’s not your parents, your past relationships, your job, the economy, the weather, an argument or your age that is to blame. You and only you are responsible for every decision and choice you make”. If that was the case there would be a lot more happy people in the world. All it would take is a choice….simple… Blaming your past is one thing, making decisions (sometimes subconsciously) based upon the past is another thing. Assuming we are not products – in some way- of our parents, past, experience etc – to me is just garbage.
Wheat & Tares 
I’ve heard it before, and not recently. I believe the idea originates in Alma 57:21 “they did obey and observe to perform every word of command with exactness; yea, and even according to their faith it was done unto them” about the stripling warriors. I had thought there was a D&C reference as well, but nothing comes up there for exact on lds.org.
Back when my daughter was a baby, I served as RS counsellor. I certainly made my views known in presidency meetings, but if the RS president gave me an assignment that I accepted, I would carry it out exactly as requested. She commented in a Christmas card that she had never seen anyone obey with exactness before which did cause me to wonder how previous counsellors had behaved. So it was a thing in church at least that long ago.
How do you reconcile a person being exactly obedient with another persons use of agency?
Well I think the above example given shows that I’ll discuss things through beforehand and make my feelings known, but then carry out what was agreed, as it was agreed. That’s pretty much how I operate. I do like to be very clear on what the agreement is before I proceed. As long as discussion is involved, and there’s room for all views to be discussed in drawing up a plan of action, and an agreement reached I don’t have a problem. I dislike dictators. But I don’t agree to do things that I’m don’t intend to do. That can come across as being argumentative initially, but I don’t really do passive-aggression.
“When was the last 24 hour period where you were exactly obedient?”
In a church setting, I play the songs the music leader requests in primary. She picks the songs.
Was Jesus exactly obedient? It depends on who you ask. His disciples would say yes because he always did what was right; the pharisees would say no because he didn’t follow the established rules. Exact obedience is very pharisaical whereas exact righteousness is very Christlike.
This is quite a good post and it points to an issue that I have with how we talk about things more generally. I think the way Mormons use words and phrases like “perfect,” “perfect obedience” and “true” become these absolutes that are clearly unrealistic and, I would suggest, harmful. Despite the fact that we call God’s plan for us the “plan of happiness,” I don’t know a lot of happy Mormons. I think one reason I don’t is because so many of us take in this rhetoric of absolutes and then beat ourselves up when we can’t attain 100% (or even higher, I guess) perfection or obedience or whatever. Creating unrealistic goals and then beating ourselves up for not achieving them is the recipe for misery, not happiness.
Also, I think it would help if our leaders gave us real stories of people who tried the best they could and came well short of perfection. Instead of trying to “inspire” us with faith-promoting rumors, it might be a better tack to tell stories of flawed, imperfect human beings and emphasize the importance of love, forgiveness and the atonement rather then encouraging us to strive for impossible goals. It would also help if our leaders would stop saying things like “Obedience is the first law of Heaven.” That’s simply untrue. Love is the first law of Heaven, as it is the first law on Earth. It would help if we remembered that.
I am not a fan of the formula that “obedience brings success and exact obedience brings miracles.” When applied to missionary work, it states that baptisms are the result of obedience to mission rules. The more obedient you are, the more people you will baptize.
But my own observation was that obedience was only loosely correlated with baptism rseults. It had a lot more to do with how receptive people were in the area, the personality of the missionary, and the strength and dynamics of the ward. Sure, working hard and staying out of trouble help, but they are not the magic bullet. We are dealing with free agents, after all.
When missionaries are trying, and really believe in the formula, but are not getting the promised results, obedience becomes a cudgel with which to beat the missionaries. It is a tool of emotional and ecclesiastical abuse, used either incidentally or deliberately by mission leaders. It also puts tremendous pressure on missionaries to baptize by any means possible so that they will be perceived as obedience, “good” missionaries. So good missionaries become emotionally manipulative of investigators, baptize people before they are ready, mislead investigators about problematic church issues, anything to get people in the water.
A common reaction to the formula aparently failing is to define down “success” and “miracles” to be more ephemeral, so a miracle is when a missionary’s own heart is changed, or a ward feels more cohesive, etc. Those can be positive outcomes and reduce the potential for abuse. But ultimately the formula should be thrown away. It would be much healthier to view conversions, “success,” as the grace of God, having little to no relation to the efforts of the missionary. Work hard, follow the rules, because you believe in the cause. But recognzie that people are free agents, and any conversion is a choice between them and God.
This was such a great post for me to read thank you so much for writing it.
I hear the phrases “exact obedience” and “perfect obedience” thrown around quite often in our RS. It is usually used in the context of doing exactly everything your leaders (who these people are is never defined) say or want you to do without complaint or comment. I often think those saying this are trying to emphasize the importance of a particular gospel topic, but I think the result is people giving up on things because they can’t be perfect at it. I know I can’t get 100% visiting teaching so I will refuse to be a visiting teacher. I know I can’t commit to every service opportunity so I won’t do any of them. I don’t think I will be able to exactly follow everything the primary president wants me to do, therefore I will not accept a calling in primary. Exact obedience = blessings. I know I can’t do this perfectly and trying isn’t good enough so I don’t try. And then we need more lessons on exact obedience because no one will do anything.
This book comes to mind. The Not Even Once Club. Holding children to an unreasonable standard is harmful and can lead to anxiety disorders. Isn’t that the reason we are provided a Savior, because it was anticipated/necessary that we can’t (and won’t) do everything right all the time?
“4.When was the last 24 hour period where you were exactly obedient?”
It’s funny you asked; I was just finishing up my most recent try at 24 hours of exactness. I’ve only one more minute left. Oh wait, I’m reading blogs instead of working. Darn it, back to the start.
23 hours, 59 minutes, 42 seconds left to go . . .
I know I can do it, just like my friend knows if she counts high enough she can get to infinity. She almost had it once last week.
“[2] the exact phrase was “Everything you do is based on the choices you make. It’s not your parents, your past relationships, your job, the economy, the weather, an argument or your age that is to blame. You and only you are responsible for every decision and choice you make”. If that was the case there would be a lot more happy people in the world. All it would take is a choice….simple… Blaming your past is one thing, making decisions (sometimes subconsciously) based upon the past is another thing. Assuming we are not products – in some way- of our parents, past, experience etc – to me is just garbage.”
Not to worry. Last time I checked, Wayne Dyer (the source of the quote) wasn’t a church leader.
Referring to Elder Nelson’s comment that ‘Obedience brings success; exact obedience brings miracles’, how does that apply to couples with infertility issues, or people with chronic medical conditions, or any conditions that are beyond people’s control?
Obedience and beauty are great qualities.
We should all strive for as much as we can possibly have.
My capacity for being beautiful is limited. I’ll never look like George Clooney. But I can strive to make myself look best I can.
My capacity for obedience is limited. But I can strive to be better, the best I can.
People who say obedience is damaging to us are doing it wrong. Christ did it right, even if he was brought to trial for doing things wrong in others’ eyes.
Let’s prescribe conversion as the mechanical result of another checklist. YES!
The question for me is obedience to what? Sabbath observance, for example, could include or exclude any number of items/activities. Already at this point the checklist has subverted the spirit. Love, folks. Love simplifies, checklists complicate (but can make things run with business like efficiency).
Excellent post. I think some of the nonsense I’ve heard happening at BYU Idaho about dress codes and other standards, both from students and from university officials, makes me think that this is no longer just a mission phenomenon but one that is crossing over into general church life.
I agree with the post conceptually, and I agree that we can get some funny obedience-culture things going on, especially in missions, but I still think liberal wishy-washiness is probably a greater problem than pharisaical obedience. Learning to live somewhat over-the-top mission rules does create a discipline and a mindset to keep commandments. Too many people put themselves on slippery slopes by justifying things as really not being THAT bad. And they’re right — it’s not THAT bad. But, it’s not good either, and it can lead to worse. If there’s exact obedience, then there’s sloppy obedience, and when it comes to the commandments, I do believe that the latter leads to fewer blessings.
I think there are three different kinds of obedience to consider.
1. Obedience to an “assignment” which has to be done or no one will do it, like home teaching. This is “reap what you sow” kind of obedience. If you don’t plant, you won’t harvest. This kind of obedience is essential. There is no growth of any kind without it. No amount of repentance will fill the void made from a lack of works. At some point, you have to turn around and move forward. I think this is the most important kind of obedience.
2. Obedience for your own protection. These are all sorts of guidelines meant to protect us from falling into various temptations, like modesty rules, chastity rules, no rated-R movies, etc. On the one hand, it makes sense to help out your congregation by warning them of some of the pitfalls of life. But sometimes the rules become an end unto themselves, becoming:
3. Obedience for obedience’s sake. Here, obedience is symbolic of submission to authority, without a clear objective other than to prove one’s faithfulness. This kind of obedience can be good or bad. It can be a sign from you to God of your faith and thus increase that faith. Missionaries that never sleep beyond 6:30am may find they have more confidence in God and their efforts because of their exact obedience, even though sleeping in till 6:35 does no harm from a practical point of view.
Obedience for obedience’s sake is good in some cases, but I think its bad for it to become an end unto itself. It’s good sometimes as a symbol, but if there is no practical reason for you to be obedient, or if it represents “council” and not commandment, then having no flexibility can be problematic. There are too many important, practical works to do in the church for us to be overly fussy about obedience for obedience sake.
Take it from me. Some deserts are much drier than others c
I just do the best I can and ignore all this other foolishness.
I sure am glad I am not called on a mission right now. I would be telling them 0% every day when I want to curse at my mission leaders for instituting such a silly rule to report on. I would them tell them if they wanted to report 100% they could because I repented of this every day. If they balked, I would pull out my 1970’s rainbow discussion that talks about the atonement and forgiveness.
#7 Frank – love the comment…!!!
#8 Teelea – yes I read some of Dr Dyer in preparing this post. Most of what he says borders on being maniacally behaviourist. Unfortunately, I hear similar sentiments coming out of the mouths of lots of church leaders – more so stake president and area president levels. The idea that we are complete masters of our destiny is what allows things like multi-level marketing to flourish in the church. You just have to DO, DO, DO DO and DO.
#9 Pete – excellent point. The concept of being exactly obedient can produce a dichotomy of belief. Sadness and inability to some – pharasical self righteous to others.
#10 Heber13 – my point is that some would see the fact that you don’t look like George Clooney as not being exactly obedient. That is you were to just try harder, do more, nip here and tuck there – that you would look like him. Trying your best is not really good enough any more.
#13 Martin – I think most studies on church membership (no academic back up here – my own thoughts and experience) would indicate that a great majority of church members are conservative. If I were to think of the 12 wards and branches I have lived in (both here in Australia and the USA) my own thoughts would be that on measures of conservatism vs liberalism the figure would be about 95 – 5. There is nothing I have read or heard that would indicate that the LDS church is struggling from being too liberal. And I just can’t swallow the obedience causes blessings thing. Correlated, OK. Causes, nope.
#16Jeff – amen….
The drumbeat focus on obedience is interesting, and it is definitely increasing. Some people just like that approach, but to me it’s an over-simplification. You can be exactly obedient and not baptize as a missionary, obviously, because people have free agency. They may not choose to respond to the missionary message. Or you may not be the right personality for them. There are so many factors. The world is a complex place full of many contributing factors, and we really can’t control them all. We can do our best is all.
Obedience is attractive in the military because it creates uniformity and good habits, muscle memory so that when fighting breaks out, the soldiers don’t hesitate to do the things that will save their lives and the lives of their allies. But the gospel is not an army. We should develop good habits, but getting to the point where we never question orders and don’t think seems to miss the point. We can do all the right things and yet not become Christlike. We can live the commandments but not the gospel. We can act from a vantage point of self-mastery and overlook loving our neighbor as ourselves. To me, this focus is short of the mark. Good habits may be the means to an end, not the end.
Very good post
On our mission I well remember a poor young missionary Elder who approached my wife and I and a friend after an Institute class and was in tears. ” how can I be more obedient?……I am not baptising! Can you help me be more obedient”
He was seeking ” perfect obedience”. As if some crazy idea like this would give him baptisms.
This as has been mentioned is the formulaic naive view that if you do A you WILL get B.
This beautiful, righteous young man had a small sznuarmi of things outside his obedience which was going to effect his ability to baptise people.
These were:
He was not white……in the country this was an issue ( as he found out on his first day in the field)
The average baptism in this country was .4 a baptism per missionary, over 2 years.
The countries culture was well entrenched in their own religious beliefs. Mormons were seen as weird.
This destructive,callous and inaccurate teaching on obedience can destroy lives. Lucky for us, our friend who was a S&I full time employee launched into THE most perceptive discussion on obedience. One of many many points he made was obedience ( is often quoted) as the first law of heaven. It is the base level not the top level. As such we teach our infants to be obedient to protect themselves. In our Temples obedience is at the lower of covenanting and a number of other other principles come later.
So this poor Elder was somewhat relieved but for me it is only a part of the ‘business’ culture (largely a SLC cultural issue) disguised as religious culture, where formulaic methods are then ‘ measured’ and a result obtained. The issue for me we almost always measure the quantitive not the qualitative…..surely religious life is centred on qualitative improvement ……not measured usually by numbers.
THERE IS NO GOSPEL PRINCIPLE CALLED OBEDIENCE! There are principles we live, and possibly even obey, but just the act of being obedient, is not Gospel.
It does make it easier to manage people and if the instruction is righteous, good. But if you value obedience over understanding, and agency, you can promote evil and get obedience.
Racism in the past, and homophobia at present?
Will the Nuremburg defence work at the judgement bar?
Teach them correct principles, and let them govern themselves, is closer to my understanding of the Gospel.
For what it’s worth.
According to Tanner Skousen, the phrase in question was spoken at an MTC talk given by Wendy Watson Nelson (not Elder) in May of 2011.
http://www.missionsite.net/eldertannerskousen/viewletter/105446
Elder Nelson’s use of the same phrase shows up in a talk there four months later and then again in the MTC talk you quote from in 2013.
But it seems that the phrase did not originate with them.
Sister Nelson used it a second time in a Boulder Colorado Stake Fireside on Feb. 3, 2013.
According to an article written about that talk Sister Watson said that the phrase came out of a conversation between a mission president and a missionary. And it was the young missionary who coined the second phrase.
https://communityblogconsiderthis.wordpress.com/2013/02/04/how-to-obtain-miracles/
Agh.
So, I think this is an unfortunate case of a catchy phrase being picked up because it’s catchy and then getting out of hand.
Moral of the story: think very carefully before you use a catchy phrase in a talk.
Correction: I just reread the article.
The whole statement originates from words spoken by the young missionary, not just the second phrase.
Huh.
If I am remembering correctly I think Bednar began speaking about the benefits of exact obedience in his Rexburg days, I’m thinking 2000-2004 ish?. I remember him using this scripture in one of his speeches. To me it’s a very Bednar, stay as far away from the line as possible thing. He also spoke about how the lord will give you commandments not a few (D&C) so that he can give you extra blessings, and his family interpreted that one way as staying in your church clothes all Sunday. That God can give you, individually, more commandments than are generally given to the Saints at large. It’s definitely been applied to living the honor code on Rexburg over the last 20 years.
I think there are benefits from staying in the middle, actually; pharasiacal on one extreme and justifications on the other….. But if he thoughtfully live and apply the Gospel to our lives the best we can, we’re good.
#13 (KLC) – it’s a consequence of legalistic thinking and one-upsmanship. To wit: If we REALLY keep the WoW, and avoid the appearance of “evil”, we don’t even drink Caffeine-free, sugar-free diet coke (a most pointless beverage if there ever was one, why drink a cola if NOT for the caffeine ‘kick’ and/or the sugar ‘rush’?). We LDS are at times a truly PECULIAR people, but not the way Joseph Smith intended.
#22 – “Nuremburg defense”? Probably a tad over the top, since AFAIK, no LDS is committing genocide or other depraved acts in the Savior’s name. But even the SS men in the docket at Nuremburg and similar venues had nothing else as a legitimate defense, but in some cases one can appreciate the quandary they found themselves in. To even ‘Regular Army’ (e.g., Heer), they went by the credo “befelht ist befelht”, let alone the Waffen-SS. To any German soldier, to willingly disobey a direct order or mutiny against higher authority was the greatest crime possible, one deserving, as the situation merits, a summary court-martial and execution, which in their minds superseded their otherwise disgust at having to do unpleasant and/or dishonorable things. Witness what happen to Col Von Stauffenberg…even had he succeeded in killing Hitler at Rastenburg on 20-7-1944, he’d have likely met the fate he did as his fellow officers would have been horrified at his ‘treason’ (as they toasted the fortuitous demise of the paper-hanging, carpet-chewing idiot that was leading them to total defeat). You have to appreciate the man’s bravery for at least the attempt, knowing that his fate was virtually sealed no matter the outcome. It’s b/c of this and our own notorious incidents (MyLai in Vietnam in ’68) that our military has definitive education and procedures for being able to disobey an UNLAWFUL order. Not always as clear-cut as those that never served tend to believe.
The vibe I get from Rexburg is definitely, “We’re more righteous than all of the rest of you.” I guess you have to create your own selling points when you’re located in the sagebrush barrens of SE Idaho and you’re essentially the LDS community college.
LDS Aussie: I think that Church leaders are heavily influenced by Stephen Covey on the “masters of our destiny” thing. But the challenge is that it flies in the face of scriptures which state that we are not masters of our destiny, that everything we are is because of Christ, that we cannot merit anything of ourselves, and all the rest. This is what we hear in General Conference more often than not, but at the local level, which is where the leadership has direct contact with the membership, I suppose there is a greater perceived need to motivate members to take responsibility by repeating the “if it’s to be, it’s up to me” mantra.
I’m ok if someone else has their goal to be exactly obedient. Good for them to stretch to be as good looking as they can.
They that are obedient and beautiful have their reward for getting praise by others.
As I get older, I just get more tired to try ro keep up, and more accepting of where I am.
I know I can’t nip and tuck and be beautiful. I don’t need people reminding me about it either.
Obedience is a personal standard.
Exact obedience becomes apparent in some endeavors.
Two examples:
1. Don’t get hit by a car while crossing the street
2. Using the same tissue: blow your nose first then whip your behind, not he other way around.
please do not wipe your behind with the same tissue you blow your nose with at all.
Andrew-
I should have added, when tissue is hard to find like when on military duty in the jungle. 😉
Great post. I have a lot of problems with the kind of focus on exact obedience presented at this MTC presentation.
My biggest issue is that that kind of focus, to the extent required by those missionaries, actually takes the focus off where it should be: Our Savior.
No matter how hard we try to accomplish “exact obedience” we do not earn our way into salvation—it is a gift from a merciful God. Turning us into good, exactly obedient little robots will create an army of self-absorbed neurotics who know not the Savior or His mercy.
My thoughts on Exact Obedience: Each day, ask in prayer. What does the Lord want me to do to increase spiritually? To serve my family? Other?
I write down promptings. I do them, to the best of my ability. I return in prayer in the evening to report. I am obedient to the guidance of the Holy Ghost that day. There’s no way we can reconcile “exact obedience” with “don’t run faster than you have strength”, but if we sincerely ask what we ought to do that day, and do it, we are practicing exact obedience! And I think we can expect miracles.
We strive to live the Commandments perfectly everyday the best we can. We are not perfect, but striving to be exactly obedient will bless us and change our hearts. John Bytheway talked about this. This is not a direct quote but he said we must avoid the mentality of saying things like: “how much I can get away with while still being “obedient enough” to be considered “active”?
“How little effort can I extend but still hold my calling?”
“What Commandments, standards, or rules can I bend or justify half efforts, but still have a Temple Recommend?”
An exact obedience mentality thinks “ I want to be valiant! How good can I be?? How concentrated can I make my life to God and His purposes?” All efforts done with this latter sincere mentality (even when we still make mistakes) makes a huge difference. Striving for sincere and holy obedience has always and will always be the standard for the followers of Christ.