ARE MEN CREATED EQUAL?

Individualism is Eternal

DEMOCRACY holds as a distinguishing and fundamental principle the recognition of individual rights and privileges. The living units of a democratic system are citizens, not subjects. Before the law, so far as it be administered in justice, all citizens are on a plane of equality. In the exercise of the elective franchise, for example, the ballot of the poor man, the unscholarly, the weak, sick or maimed, counts just as much as that of the millionaire, the university graduate, or the athlete. All this is inherent in democracy as a political system. If through corrupt administration a citizen suffers deprivation of his rights, the fault, grievous though ti be, is not chargeable to the system but to the officials who have misused the authority delegated to them.

In this sense it is affirmed in the Declaration of Independence, as the first of the truths therein set forth as self-evident, and as assuring to all their inalienable rights "that all men are created equal;" and in this sense the affirmation is irrefutable. No other foundation could support a stable structure of government by the people.

But it is manifest folly to carry this conception of the legal equality of citizenship to the extreme of assuming that all men are alike in capacity, ability, or power. As long as mankind live in communities there will be leaders and followers, men of prominence, and of necessity others who are relatively obscure, men of energy and idlers, and consequently masters and servants.

Doubtless much of the existing disparity among men, such as the inequitable distribution of wealth, the unrighteous acquisition of power and its iniquitous exercise, is pernicious—evil in the sight of God and ominously wrong under the laws of man. Nevertheless, attempts to right such wrongs by illegal force, and to establish a false equality by promiscuously taking from one to give to another, tend toward disruption and anarchy.

We are confronted by this profound fact: Individualism is an attribute of the soul, and as truly eternal as the soul itself.

(1) In the unembodied, preexistent or antemortal state, we were decidedly unequal in capacity and power.

(2) We know we are not equal here in the world of mortals.

(3) Assuredly we shall not be equal after death, either in the intermediate state of disembodiment or beyond the resurrection.

We read that Jeremiah was chosen from among his fellows and ordained before he was born to be a prophet unto the nations (Jer. 1:5) ; and a similar fore-ordination is indicated by Isaiah (49:1, 5.) Abraham definitely avers that among the unembodied spirits there were differences, some were noble and great and others less adapted to the duties of rulership: "Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones. And God saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said: These I will make my rulers." (Pearl of Great Price p. 65-66.)

The God of spirits recognized particular qualifications in some, and selected them to be leaders among men. Let us not assume that the "rulers" thus divinely chosen are necessarily those whom men would later elect to be their leaders. Many of God's great ones have been and are counted among the despised of earth. So it was with the Christ Himself, and so with many of His prophets, apostles and revelators unto mankind.

Born into the flesh with diverse capacities, subjected here to varied environment, which may be favorable or opposed to the development of inherent tendencies toward either good or evil, we as a race are creatures of disparity, inequality, and heterogeneous circumstance. But all color of injustice disappears in the light of assurance that, in the judgment of souls, every condition shall be weighed in the accurate balances of Justice and Mercy.

But what of the hereafter—shall we not be made equal there? Not in the sense that our individuality shall be subverted or radically changed. We shall find beyond more gradations in society than we have ever known on earth. But the basis of classification will be essentially different. Here we are rated according to what we have—of wealth, learning, political or other influence due to circumstance; there we shall find our place according to what we really are.

Ponder the significance of our Lord's assurance of the "many mansions" in the Father's kingdom (John 14:1-3) and consider Paul's summary of varied glories. (1 Cor. 15:40-41.)

Through later Scripture we are told of distinct kingdoms or worlds of graded order, comparable to the sun, moon, and stars respectively. There are the Celestial, the Terrestrial, and the Telestial kingdoms, in which the souls of men shall abide and serve as their attainments in righteousness or their disqualification through sin shall determine. Concerning the inhabitants of the Telestial world, the lowest of the specified kingdoms of glory, we read: "For they shall be judged according to their works, and every man shall receive according to his own works, and every man shall receive according to his own works, his own dominion, in the mansions which are prepared." (D&C 76:111.)