The Importance of the Law of Consecration

The Law of Consecration points to our future economic life, and a spiritual task of America. That the Law’s realization within 19th Century USA was a failure, should not mean that the law itself is not important. This community (the LDS Church) was the seed-bed, the planting box, for the seed to grow into a mature, healthy, impulse for the economic life. Its fruit would spread beyond its incubator, into the wider community, region, nation, and into the global economy. At least, that was the ideal, the potential. As we know, the LDS Church failed as an incubator, and it no longer considers the deeper spiritual meaning and potential of the Law to be relevant. Living the Law of Consecration today merely means gifting your ‘time, talents, money’ etc to the Church, in other words, it has become what we would otherwise call ‘charity’.

Regardless of what it has become, what it is in reality is a living, breathing, spiritual impulse. And it continues to seek out fertile soil to grow. The spiritual impulse of the Law of Consecration will not be cut off by the reigning forces of this world, regardless of how much the LDS Church have themselves succumbed to them. It is America’s destiny to work with economic forces in a spiritual way. Modern capitalism, which the Church has embraced, is a caricature of a truly sacramental approach to economics.

Modern capitalism is an entirely logical outcome of our historical spiritual development. It was/is our destiny to develop a strong I-consciousness, which gives rise to our ego-centric view. That capitalism is based upon the ‘virtue of egotism’ can thus be understood, when we place it in developmental context. Capitalism is all about ‘me’ and making profit often purely for for the sake of making profit (greed, i.e. feeding the ego). Profit is necessary, but when it becomes a goal in itself we succumb to it, we become captured by it. That ‘it’ is a real spiritual being, the bible calls Mammon. Mammon thrives in our modern economic life; he has captured many.

However, America’s spiritual heritage is rich with guidance on these matters. As one example, it was John F Kennedy who said “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country”. In other words, what does my community really need? What is the real economic need that I can meet? How can I, in concert with others who also recognize this need, work together to address this? The other persons real need thus becomes the motive. I know that my own economic needs can only be met by others, so I too must meet there economic needs. Marketing of course distorts this, creates false markets, creates false needs. But we can rise above that, develop insight to the real economy, the living economic life.

The Law of Consecration (to be honest, an outdated term today) points to the spiritual destiny of America. As the Global Financial Crisis shows, these issues are pertinent. Do we have ears to hear?