CHICAGO, Illinois — In this city known for beautiful and unique architecture and diverse food and culture, President Dallin H. Oaks called on covenant members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to be united and kind.
“What a different world it would be if brotherly and sisterly love and unselfish assistance would transcend all boundaries of nation, creed and color,” said President Oaks, first counselor in the First Presidency, on Saturday, Feb. 11. “Such love would not erase all differences of opinion and action, but it would encourage each of us to focus our opposition on actions rather than actors.”
Addressing members of 14 stakes in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin as part of a weekend ministry assignment, President Oaks asked Latter-day Saints to press forward, having “a love of God and of all men” (2 Nephi 31:20).
“This teaching — to follow our Savior’s command to love one another as He loves us — is one of our greatest challenges,” said President Oaks. “It requires us to live together with mutual respect for one another’s differences in today’s world. However, this living with differences is what the gospel of Jesus Christ teaches us we must do.”
That is the reality that caused Jesus to teach that the kingdom of God is like leaven (see Matthew 13:33), said President Oaks. “A leaven — yeast — is hidden away in the larger mass until the whole is leavened, which means raised by its influence.”
The Savior also taught that His followers will have tribulation in the world (John 16:33), that their numbers will be small (1 Nephi 14:12), and that they will be hated because they are not of the world (John 17:14). “But that is our role,” said President Oaks. “We must be examples of civility. As followers of Christ, we should seek to live peaceably and lovingly with other children of God who do not share our values and do not have the covenant obligations we have assumed.”
Coming home
The weekend assignment was a homecoming for President Oaks. A graduate of the University of Chicago Law School, President Oaks worked as an attorney and a law professor in Chicago — where he lived for 16 years and where three of six children were born.
He was present when the Wilmette Illinois Stake center was dedicated by President David O. McKay. In that building in February 1961 — 61 years ago this month — President Oaks was also sustained as the Chicago Illinois Stake mission president; in this capacity he traveled to Church units in northern Illinois and Wisconsin. When the Chicago Stake was divided, President Oaks was called to serve as a member of the stake presidency in the Chicago South Stake. That stake was about 100 miles across east to west and 40 miles north to south. “That is when I got acquainted with the administration of the Church in developing areas,” he said.
He was joined in his assignment this weekend by his wife, Sister Kristen Oaks, and Elder Chi Hong (Sam) Wong, a General Authority Seventy, and his wife, Sister Carol Lu Wong.
President Oaks’ oldest daughter, Sister Sharmon Oaks Ward, graduated from high school in Chicago and returned to the area to raise her children. She and her husband, President Jack Ward, are serving as president and matron of the Chicago Illinois Temple.
‘Fairness for all’
President Oaks’ remarks were shared during a member meeting in Chicago, just hours after he clarified the Church’s position on the new Respect for Marriage Act, signed into law Dec. 13, 2022, by U.S. President Joe Biden. The act provides needed protections for religious expression, while further codifying same-sex marriage.
“In a democratic government we should seek ‘fairness for all,’” said President Oaks. “That is how we follow the teaching to be in the world but not of the world. So it was that, at the conclusion of His ministry, Jesus prayed to the Father, ‘Not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil’” (John 17:15).
The scriptures teach Latter-day Saints to develop gospel ideals such as love and obedience. “These ideals do not leave us as we are but require each of us to make changes,” said President Oaks. “Jesus did not pray that His followers would be diverse. He prayed that they would be one” (John 17:21-22).
President Oaks said the Church teaches its members “to concentrate their efforts to strengthen our unity — not to glorify our diversity.”
The covenant path
After testifying that President Russell M. Nelson is the Lord’s Prophet, President Oaks reviewed “an important doctrine President Nelson has illuminated for us” — the nature and significance of covenants.
Using the term “covenant path” as a powerful metaphor, President Nelson has invited all of God’s children to find and stay on the “path that leads us back to our heavenly parents.”
“The covenant path also represents the reality that in any family, and in any congregation, there will be people with different levels of understanding about the gospel and therefore at different places on the path,” said President Oaks. “We need to remember that as we seek to teach and testify to one another.”
It was while attending law school in Chicago 69 years ago that President Oaks learned about contracts, “the legal version of a covenant.”
The most common kind of contract is bilateral — which means both parties should perform whatever they agree to perform, he said. “That taught me something important about covenants. Whereas God gives blessings to all of His children who keep particular commandments, His choicest blessings come to those children who have covenanted in advance to keep those commandments — like a bilateral contract.”
Throughout His ministry, President Nelson has reminded Latter-day Saints of the relation of covenants to the essential ordinances of the gospel and the effect of those covenants, said President Oaks.
The Book of Mormon, he continued, contains this great teaching on how to relate to others who do not share all Latter-day Saint beliefs: “We should be alert to honor the good we should see in all people, even in practices that differ from our own.”
Latter-day Saints should also avoid judgment of those inside and outside of the Church. “How do we do this without seeming to abandon our commitment to the truths we understand about God’s law and the covenants we have made? Surely, we do not follow the extreme of severing family relationships or avoiding all contacts with those whose behavior we do not approve. In contrast, we should also seek to avoid seeming to condone behavior that violates the laws of God. The best principle is to seek the inspiration of the Lord.”
All men and women on this earth are the offspring of God, spirit brothers and sisters, said President Oaks. “What a powerful idea! No wonder God’s Only Begotten Son commanded us to love one another. If only we would do so!”
Focus on Jesus Christ
In addition to President Oaks, temple President Jack Ward, Illinois Chicago Mission President David A. Chase, Elder and Sister Wong, and Sister Oaks also spoke during the devotional, testifying of the Savior Jesus Christ, personal revelation and the strength that comes from covenant living.
Sister Oaks said sincere belief is followed by action.
“The Book of Mormon is very clear about how we are blessed,” she said, emphasizing the scripture from 1 Nephi 2:20: “Inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall prosper.”
She shared the story of a young man who, amid a period of doubt, found the Lord as he prepared — through study, fasting and prayer — to be worthy to give his first child a father’s blessing. “By acting, by doing, by living principles of the gospel, he remembered truths of the gospel,” said Sister Oaks. “As we act on true principles, we will know the truth.”
She closed by asking Latter-day Saints to accept President Nelson’s invitation to “focus our lives on Jesus Christ.”
‘Act and become better’
President Oaks’ words had great meaning to Marta Junsay — a member of a “multicultural, multiracial, multidenominational” family. The emphasis on strength in unity is “an important conversation in our household,” she said.
Hearing President Oaks speak took her back almost four decades. Shortly after he was sustained as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in April 1984, Junsay, then a new member of the Church’s Young Women organization, was able to shake hands with President Oaks. He looked her in the eyes and assured her to the Lord knew her. Hearing President Oaks speak again this weekend confirmed that memory, Junsay said.
Katie Hilton, currently serving as a ward Primary president in the Wilmette Illinois Stake, watched as President Oaks greeted a child in her ward. After the interaction, the little girl’s eyes lit up “because she knew she was important to the Lord,” said Hilton.
Hilton said President Oaks’ emphasis on covenant obligations to seek unity and to love others was uplifting.
Matt Owen also called President Oaks’ teaching on unity powerful. He left the meeting with a personal commitment to “act and become better.”
