Agency or Forced Outcome?
Equality vs Equity PDF
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Opportunity
The Plan of Salvation offers Grace from God and opportunity in all stages of existence. The opportunity is for all those who choose Truth and His way. Equity seeks to remove Telos, Truth, and growth by widening “the way” and “including” all regardless of our choices.
What is Equity?
Practically, equity is forced outcome. It first looks at the disparity in results and assumes a victim/oppressor dynamic for those results. In other words, if there is a disparity, especially against a “marginalized” group, it is due to oppression and oppressive systems. Of course, this is full of problems. The primary problem is that equity does not consider agency. Nor does it consider other reasonable elements that could produce disparity in results such as skill, capacity, ideas. and hard work.
“Justice” is another word inserted for equity. Climate
Equity is Climate Justice. Social Equity is Social Justice. Equity seeks to “flatten the hierarchy” of every “privilege” and every disparity regardless of reason. It is the primary rebellion of The War In Heaven.
"The equality of God is not the equal outcomes for all, but equal opportunity for all."
- President Dallin H. Oaks
Agency
Agency, along with the Atoning Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, is the greatest gift from our Heavenly Father. Even at the risk of failure, He does not intervene with our agency. This means that we are all open to failure and poor choices. These choices create a disparity of results. Granted, “systems” can be established to create their own results as well, but “equity” disregards the individual choice and places
the blame away from the individual seemingly at all costs, and puts it on “others’ or ”systems.”
Of course, the appeal to “equity” is that we remove both personal responsibility and the need to align with Truth and true principles. If “the way” is widened for all, then each individual’s truth is acceptable and the requirements necessary for personal and spiritual growth are thrown aside, limiting one’s progression here on earth and in the eternities. Like the Plan of Salvation with numerous Kingdoms as destinations and states of being, variable outcomes are inevitable with agency. Without
variable outcomes, opportunity and truth fall apart.
Forced Outcome
By focusing on results first (equity), Critical Social
Justice removes the precious, poignant elements
of agency, growth, and relationships. It ignores faith,
hope, and charity. It ignores repentance, creativity,
and all of the ingredients involved in an individual’s,
family’s, and society’s journey.
A recent example from a listener- One evening a
woman was washing the dishes. She received a
call from a sister in her ward who was a therapist.
When the Sister found out that the woman was
doing the dishes and that her husband was on the
couch watching sports, the sister told the woman
she was in an abusive relationship and needed to
leave her husband. Focusing on the results in Critical
Social Justice always assumes oppression. What the
sister did not know was that over their twenty-year
marriage, the husband, despite a glaring physical
disability, went to work every day so that his wife
could stay home and raise the kids. Without a
focus on each of the individuals, a results-focused
assumption was ready to eliminate a precious relationship built on love and sacrifice. Godly love.
Numerous examples of results-only examination are found
in every facet of our society today. Equity attempts to
“flatten the hierarchy” and work not from opening up
opportunity, but forcing an outcome that removes order
from both natural and eternal law.
Charity
One principle that cannot be overlooked with Equity is
Charity. While opportunity is crucial, it is not enough. We
are social beings, and our well-being and salvation depend
on our love for one another. When individuals are left only
to themselves, we have failed. It is our job to not only have
personal responsibility but to love others and help them
reach greater outcomes. Without charity, Equity gains
momentum to rear its ugly head.
"That Satan, whom thou hast commanded in the name of mine Only Begotten, is the same which was from the beginning, and he came before me, saying—Behold, here am I, send me, I will be thy son, and I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost, and surely I will do it; wherefore give me thine honor."
- Moses 4:1
Assimilation, Principles, & Commandments
One principle of Ibram Keni’s antiracism is “assimilation.”
Assimilation for Kendi is racist. That is, when one assimilates
to western culture with tenets such as self-reliance,
constitutional law, and a traditional family, one is being
racist. But truth is truth, and true principles are true. Whether in this life or in the eternities, we should strive to assimilate to all that is good (13th Article of Faith).
Equity seeks to remove paths of true principles and
requirements such as commandments and in their stead,
offers equality of outcome for all regardless of any
assimilation or adherence to these principles. This is why
we see, even in the Restored Church today, those who will
place Equity over commandments such as the Law of
Chastity or a break from the Proclamation on the Family.
The War In Heaven (Equity vs Salvation)
It seems obvious that we have fought this war before. A
full third of the Children of God fell subject to “equity.”
We are not asked to make things fair on the backend with
results. We are asked to help make things fair on the front
end with opportunity and exercising charity along the way. The
War In Heaven was about equity vs. agency. Lucifer
presented a plan opposing that of the Father, which would not
require a Savior. It would remove failure by removing
agency and, in the process, remove spiritual growth- he
“sought to destroy the agency of man.”. The Plan of Equity
is the Plan of Evil because it removes agency and
individual progression and requires tyranny to accomplish
a flattened hierarchy - “that one sould shall not be lost . .
wherefore give me thine hounour.”