Contention, Peace, and Shadow
The following is in response to a talk titled, “Peacemakers Needed” given by the President of the Church of Latter-Day Saints, Russell M. Nelson, at the Church’s bi-annual General Conference in April 2023.
I appreciate the central message of President Russell M. Nelson’s talk, “Peacemakers Neeeded”: Contention is of the devil, and peace is of Christ and since we love Christ, we should seek to be peacemakers, and Christ’s Atonement can help us in this endeavor.
I want to make a note about light and darkness. President Nelson frequently reiterates that peace is of Christ, and in other words, of Light (John 8:12); and that contention is evil, of the devil (3 Nephi 11:29), and that is to say of darkness. This duality of light and darkness is the archetypal image of opposites.
President Russell M. Nelson delivering his talk, “Peacemakers Needed” during the April 2023 General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
In fact, when you think about it, everything in life cycles between opposites: Highs and lows, night and day, hot and cold, pain and pleasure, order and chaos, peaks and valleys of wavelengths, and positive and negative charges of particles. Existence is happening because of opposites. Light and dark is no exception. But just as life springs forth from the tension of opposites, so too do we. That is to say, within each of us, there is light and darkness.
Now that shouldn’t be a point of dispute from an LDS perspective as man is fallen and “natural” but is also created in God’s own image and his spirit children. Thus we have the beautiful image of spirit (light) stuck in the confines of flesh (dark/fallen/an enemy to god). This checks out because, within the context of the Plan of Salvation, we are here to be tested—to ensure that the spirit doesn’t succumb to the flesh; that the light vanquishes the darkness.
Noticing these opposites, and their inescapable reality, I would want to clarify to my child, after reading President Nelson’s talk, that just because they were contentious in a moment does not mean that they are evil or of the devil, and it certainly doesn’t mean that they serve the devil. This is only true if “The Devil” here is meant to represent the devil (lowercase) within each one of us—or the darkness within ourselves.
You see the danger here is the same danger that has been playing out between the various tribes within our country where one group feels justified in dehumanizing members of another. It’s the certainty that any one group or individual is entirely dark or wholly evil.
If we take what President Nelson says about contention being of the devil literally (uppercase Devil), when we witness someone being contentious, it would not be erroneous to think within ourselves, “This person, at this moment, is serving the devil.” The corollary assumption would then be that they are servants of the devil. This kind of thinking is how man has historically justified some of the worst violence against his own.
Certainty destroys empathy, and when we are so certain that we are entirely good and someone else is wholly bad, we are prone to self-righteously persecute them. And for those who worry that they might be the “evil” ones—imagine what this can do to the psyche of one who is already inclined to believe the worst conspiracies about themselves.
Of course, the truth that pierces all of these things is that there is light and darkness within each of us. Peace will never be achieved if we wage war intrinsically between our light and darkness. Nor can peace be achieved by completely destroying either because we are both spirit and flesh—light and darkness. Even modern-day LDS prophets acknowledge that they sin, that the darkness in them, even the Lord’s chosen and anointed, is inescapable.
One verse that wasn’t mentioned by President Nelson when speaking about contention is Matthew 7:3 - 5, when Jesus asks why we focus on the shortcomings, failings, and faults within our brother when we have our own darkness we need to negotiate within ourselves.
3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye. (King James Version of the Bible)
These verses, I think, are the key to defusing contention, and unlocking its meaning. Contention is informative. Let me talk about Star Wars real quick:
In The Empire Strikes Back, Luke is training with Yoda in the swamps of Dagobah, when he senses something in a dark cave—an area described as being “strong with the dark side of the force,” by Yoda. When he asks Yoda what’s in the cave, Yoda says something profound: “Only what you take with you.” Then Luke grabs his lightsaber and Yoda tells him, “Your weapons, you will not need them.” But Luke takes the lightsaber in anyways.
When he enters, he’s confronted by Darth Vader—his biggest fear. The symbolic embodiment of evil and darkness. Luke crosses sabers with Vader and severs his head. Vader’s helmet rolls to his feet. Luke looks into the helmet and sees his own face staring back at him.
Why Star Wars? Because it’s analogous to life. Swedish Psychologist Carl Jung suggests that within each individual’s psyche, their “Shadow” lurks just below the ego’s vision (as if in a cave). The Shadow here represents the darkness within each of us. Jung believed that when we are contentious with someone, we are really only projecting our own shadow onto them. Luke entering the cave is a symbolic depiction of Luke confronting his own Shadow.
Map of the human psyche by Carl Jung
What did he bring into the cave? His lightsaber—but why? Because he feared what he would find, so really, he brought in his fear. So in this subterranean realm where unconscious contents reside, his fears are reflected back to him in the form of Vader. In other words, Luke’s fear is meeting its unconscious source: his Shadow. And it is made very clear to Luke that this fear was his own by showing Luke his own face in Vader’s helmet.
Fear undoubtedly leads to contention. To borrow from Yoda again, “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”
So when we are contentious, it’s not because we disagree, it’s because we fail to recognize and make sense of our own internal darkness so we unconsciously project it onto others. The hate we feel for others is really the hate we have for our own shortcomings, flaws, weaknesses, fears, etc.
In this way, contention is informative because the moment we see a threatening “mote” in our brother’s eye, we can be assured it’s merely a projection of our own “beam.” This becomes even more clear when we consider that “mote” means a small speck of dust or splinter, and “beam” refers to a large plank of wood. What Jesus is really saying is that the small speck we vehemently condemn in our brother’s eye is just a small part of the greater darkness within us.
It should also be said that peace is neither attained by ignoring or attempting to suppress our darkness or Shadow. If our determination to be “true disciples of Christ” leads us to conceal and bottle up the contention or darkness within us, rest assured that it will eventually erupt from us when we least expect it. The following excerpt from Academy of Ideas expertly summarizes this principle of Jung’s Shadow theory:
When our shadow remains unconscious, it [wreaks] havoc in our life. Repressed contents do not merely disappear, but rather they function independently of our conscious awareness. In other words, the shadow has the capacity to override our conscious ego and take possession of our being, exerting control over our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. When this happens we can be unconsciously driven into hard times, all the while remaining ignorant that these troubled periods were self-imposed, and not the product of bad luck or fate. (academyofideas.com, Carl Jung and the Shadow: The Hidden Power of Our Dark Side)
So what do we do with our own darkness? In 2 Corinthians, Paul acknowledges his darkness and its permanence in him.
And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. (2 Corinthians 12:7)
In essence, he says, “If I could just rid myself of this Shadow, I’d be exalted above measure.” An interesting truth: If we were able to remove every dark particle within us, we’d cease to be what we are. As Paul indicates, he’d be translated according to LDS doctrine. Similar to how the City of Enoch became so righteous that it ceased to exist because God lifted it up into heaven. So as long as we are human, we are creatures of light and darkness. But what is Christ’s reply to Paul’s petition to remove the thorn from him?
My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. (2 Corinthians 12:9)
Grace is the acknowledgment that we are all fallible, and the prerequisite to obtaining it is acknowledging our own Shadow and seeking to understand it. As Jung once said, “We cannot change anything unless we accept it.”
Paul’s response to Christ’s answer only reiterates this fact. In essence, he says, “By recognizing my own irremovable Shadow, I am able to forgive others for theirs; a fact for which I am grateful.” Our inescapable fallibility means that we can always afford to give our fellowman the benefit of the doubt—and that’s what it means to be graceful, at least to me.
“Strength is made perfect in weakness” is akin to what God says in Ether 12:27. He begins with the aforementioned prerequisite for Grace: “If men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness.” Then, after acknowledging our darkness, God is able to “make weak things become strong unto them.” How can we draw strength from our darkness? That’s a subject worthy of it’s own essay, but to keep things short, let’s go back to Star Wars.
After descending into the cave and seeing his own darkness, Luke had the internal strength to withstand being overcome by the darkness that consumed his father. How? Many immunities are gained only after controlled exposure to the very thing that is deadly or harmful.
In LDS theology, it’s Christ’s Atonement that enables us to transform weaknesses into strength. And how did Christ atone for our sins? By descending below all things. By diving into the deepest pits of darkness. And how do members of the LDS faith repent? The first step is acknowledging their darkness.
The Agony in the Garden, by Frans Schwartz
When we embark on an inner journey to face our darkness, we can see the beam in our own eye and recognize it in its entirety, so that when we see the mote in our brother’s eye, it’s not threatening and thus we can avoid being led into contention. This is how, through Grace, weak things become strong.
To quote Jung once more,
That I feed the beggar, that I forgive an insult, that I love my enemy in the name of Christ, all these are undoubtedly great virtues. What I do unto the least of my brethren, that I do unto Christ. But what if I should discover that the least amongst them all, the poorest of all beggars, the most impudent of all offenders, yay the very fiend himself, that these are within me. And that I myself stand in need of the arms of my own kindness. That I myself am the enemy who must be loved, what then? (C.G. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections)
So the best part of President Nelson’s message, in my opinion, is the invitation to be aware of the darkness we’re projecting and to seek to understand and integrate it, for only then can we be at peace within ourselves and thus have the ability to choose to be peacemakers.
