On July 10, 2020, the Utah Area Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints sent a letter to the members of the church in Utah to wear face coverings while in public. I have been dismayed by the large number of member church members in Utah who have expressed a negative reaction to this request.
The parallels to the brass serpent while the children of Israel were traveling through the wilderness is interesting. (Numbers 21) In the case of the Israelites, the people were dying because they had been bitten by poisonous snakes. Moses made a brass serpent and put it on a pole. All the people had to do to live was to lift up their heads and look at the serpent on the pole. We read in 1 Nephi 17:41 that many perished because they were so hard-hearted they would not do this simple thing.
I worry that some in our community may be so emotionally wrapped up in what has come to be a political statement about wearing or not wearing face coverings that they fail to follow the counsel of our church leaders. It will be sad if this attitude increases the number of otherwise preventable deaths.
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