REXBURG — What do the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and Chinese revolutions have in common? According to Melissa Inoyue, a historian for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a lot more than one might think.
Inoyue delivered today’s BYU-Idaho forum address titled, “Restoration versus Revolution: What China’s Cultural Revolution Can Teach Us in a Time of Civil Polarization.” In an interview with BYU-Idaho Radio, Inoyue said that, although she was apprehensive about her topic choice, she felt it was important to point out the similarities between China’s revolutions and the current state of things in the United States.
“You can kind of see the same thing happening in the U.S. today,” Inoyue said. “There are intense pressures and there’s intense public scrutiny in a way that hasn’t existed before.”
Though she was born in California, her great-grandfather immigrated from China and although her grandfather was not there during the revolutionary periods, she had cousins as well as aunts and uncles who were there. In a visit back to her family home in China, Inoyue saw firsthand what family members experienced in these periods of civil unrest.
“In the upper room, there was a closet, kind of like a dresser,” Inoyue said. “On the side of the dresser were scrawled a bunch of cultural revolution slogans. And I thought, ‘Wow! My family went through this.’ That's a pretty intimate place to write a political slogan, on your dresser. So, it just makes me realize that, during the Cultural Revolution, nobody was kind of safe or insulated.”
Inoyue likened the persecution that many people faced during the Chinese revolutions, and what many people in this country are facing today, to the scrutiny and disrespect with which the Church was treated in its early days.
In her forum address, Inoyue suggested that people broaden the opinions that they are exposed to in order to get a bigger picture of the issues facing modern society.
“Broaden your diet of news sources,” Inoyue said. “Make a list of the political labels you use regularly and stop using them. Curious, ask for more explanation. Share conversation time equally.”
Inoyue says that when individuals follow the guidance of Church leaders and the modern-day prophet, they will be able to traverse the ever-rocky landscape of today’s world. She says that as Church President Russell M. Nelson recently taught, the world needs peacemakers more than ever.
“We cannot settle for less, not if we are serious about following Christ,” Inoyue said.