Agency Defined part 2
The mode of agency used to be presented as free agency. That has been replaced with moral agency.
President Joseph Fielding Smith said: “I have heard people say, and members of the Church too, ‘I have a right to do as I please.’ My answer is: No, you do not. You haven’t any right at all to do just as you please. There is only one right that you have, and that is to do just what I read to you: keep the commandments of Jesus Christ. He has a perfect right to tell us so. We have no right to refuse. I do not care who the man is; I do not care where he lives, or what he is—when the gospel of Jesus Christ is presented to him, he has no right to refuse to receive it. He has the privilege. He is not compelled to receive it, because our Father in heaven has given to everyone of us, in the Church and out, the gift of free agency. That free agency gives us the privilege to accept and be loyal to our Lord’s commandments, but it has never given us the right to reject them. Every man who rejects the commandments of our Father in heaven is rebellious.”
Consider the meaning of an agent in the context of sports. Before a contract is signed the athlete is a free agent. As a free agent he can invite other teams to bid for his services. The athlete has the right to choose the best offer. Once he has signed an agreement, he is no longer a free agent, but rather he is an agent.
Once committed to a team he accepts the rules and regulations associated with membership. He can no longer say, “I have my agency and I don’t have to do that.” Think of the stories of professional athletes who violate their contracts. They cease to be agents and must suffer the consequences.
In other words, a free agent can do whatever he wants to; an agent cannot. D&C 29:35 “Behold, I gave unto him that he should be an agent unto himself…”
Let’s consider Elder Christofferson’s words:
First, there must be alternatives among which to choose. Does the agent have alternatives? Yes.
Second, for us to have agency, we must not only have alternatives, but we must also know what they are. Does the agent know about the alternatives? Yes.
Third is the next element of agency: the freedom to make choices (see 2 Nephi 10:23) Does the agent have the freedom to make choices? Yes.
Notice how Elder Christofferson uses the more common reference of the day ‘moral agency.’
Let’s define the term. A moral agent is someone who is obligated to act morally. Infants are moral beings, but they cannot do wrong. Therefore, they are not moral agents because they lack the power to act for themselves. The more mature the child, the greater the agency. As the child grows into greater power to act for himself, he has greater power to make choices.
The maturing child has the freedom to make the choice, but not the right. He has only the right to act righteously. Anything else brings about consequences.
To quote further from the talk: “Freedom of choice is the freedom to obey or disobey existing laws—not the freedom to alter their consequences. Law, as mentioned earlier, exists as a foundational element of moral agency with fixed outcomes that do not vary according to our opinions or preferences.”
Agency is not the right to do as we please but rather the right to do what is right in each given situation.
One last story:
President Henry D. Moyle, a counselor to President David O. McKay, explained the principle of agency in a missionary conference that Joseph F. McConkie attended. President Moyle had been told that some missionaries have said that they had their ‘free agency’ and therefore they didn’t have to get up at six in the morning unless they wanted to. President Moyle explained that it had been our right to choose whether we served a mission or not, but now, having chosen to serve a mission, we had exhausted our agency on that matter. We now had no right but to get up in the morning and do the other things required of being a good missionary.
Br. McConkie clarifies one aspect of the story. In saying that we had exhausted our agency when we chose to serve a mission, President Moyle meant that we had exhausted our right of choice on that particular matter.
