God is Divisive

He certainly won’t stop being divisive; He’s told us so many times. But it sure is painful to watch friends and family members choose the other side of that divide. Even He wept over that.

I had never thought about this until recently, but it’s so interesting! I read a good article about this dichotomy. Hopefully it is okay to quote this if I cite it,…this is from V.H. Cassler over at squaretwo, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it: (link: https://squaretwo.org/Sq2ArticleCasslerDistancedHeavenlyMother.html )

“ …But after many years of study and real-world experience, I have come to the conclusion that the power of connection by itself cannot produce Heaven. Connection without bounds is like mercy unconstrained, or tolerance unbounded. It has the possibility of becoming monstrous, of enabling and preserving that which should never be enabled or preserved or fostered. I can think of many mothers who have followed their children out of the Church for love of that child, or have excused (or even facilitated) evil behavior by their child that they never should have excused, for love of that child. Connection is incredibly powerful, which is why it must be tempered by the distinction between good and evil.

And that means we need the power of disconnection, as well. There must be a power that weeds and prunes, a power that has the ability to sever the connection to the living vine, in order to preserve the good and destroy evil. We know that heaven creates chasms and gulfs and barriers (Luke 16:26; 1 Ne 12:18; 2 Ne 1:13; Hel 3:29), and it’s important to understand why. Without the power to separate the good from the evil, good could not exist. The power of severance ensures that good may flourish even in a universe of agency. These two things are incredibly precious—agency and the good—and the only way to maintain both priceless things is to wield the power of separation. The scriptures testify of this. Satan and the third of the host of heaven were separated from their heavenly home, presumably forever. We also know that there is not complete and free mingling among the children of God in the life after this one, or in the life after the final judgment. Here on earth, we know that some persons in the church are not allowed to enter temples, some are not allowed to partake of the sacrament or hold callings, and some even have their membership and temple blessings stripped from them. We need a restraining power as well as a life-giving power. We need the power of disconnection as well as the power of connection. We need “my word, which is quick and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword, to the dividing asunder of both joints and marrow” (D&C 14:2). We need the power of the fatherhood.

This particular pairing of powers—connection and disconnection–allows there to be not only life, but also good, truth, right, happiness.”

(before that quoted section, she talks about how connection is a power tied to mothers and womanhood, which really resonated with me also)

Amen