The Boy Scout program is promoting a new “Messengers of Peace” initiative consisting of three dimensions of peace: personal (harmony, justice, and equality), community (opposition to violence or hostility), and peace between man and its environment (social and economic welfare, relationship with the environment).

Consider these three aspects of peace. In today’s world of on demand instant satisfaction and 24 hour news cycles promoting one calamity after another, personal peace can be hard to come by. Christ said “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you… let your heart not be troubled.” (John 14:27) At baptism we are given the gift of the Holy Ghost, the evidence or fruit, of the Spirit being active in our lives is peace. (Gal 5:22) The voice of the Lord speaks peace to us (JS-H OC Note:4), can you hear it?

Communal peace and an opposition to all violence and hostility is implicit in the sermon on the mount and the sermon at the temple. Turn the other cheek. Go the second mile. Give not just the coat off your back, but your cloke also. Love your enemies. (Mat 5:38-47; 3 Nephi 12:38-45) The Kingdom of God is peace. (Romans 14:17)

Social and economic welfare (environmental peace) is at the heart of the law of  consecration, which some of us have covenanted to obey. God loves all of his children (1 Nephi 11:17), and “it is not given that one man should possess that which is above another, wherefore the world lieth in sin.” (D&C 49:20)

Peace with the environment is not a tenant commonly discussed as such. The Lord looked upon the earth, in its pre-polluted state and said “It [was] very good” (Gen 1:31) The first commandment given to Adam was to dress and keep the Garden of Eden, to tend and care for it. (Gen 2:15) We believe the earth will be renewed to its paradisiacal glory (A of F 10), but it is not going to get there on its own. We have to clean up after our selves.

As Latter-day Saint Christians we have been given a special injunction by the Lord Himself to “renounce war and proclaim peace.” (D&C 98:16) The command to renounce war implicitly means we should have more than a mild disapproval of war in all its forms. Renounce is a strong, active word. This is accompanied by the command to proclaim peace. We should all be messengers of peace. Every Latter-day Saint Christian scout should strive to earn this patch.