We don’t choose our leaders, but we do choose whether or not we will follow them

This leads us to three questions about sustaining and its role in the Church.

We offer a sustaining “vote,” so is the Church a democracy?

The answer is, not exactly. The Institute manual for the Doctrine and Covenants explains: “Is the Church a democracy? This question is different from asking whether it is democratic. A democracy is a system of government in which the majority rules, especially ‘a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people’ (Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, s.v. ‘democracy’). In other words, an organization can be said to be democratic if the will and the rights of the people or the membership are always the primary concern and if force is never exercised. By such criteria The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is democratic, though not a democracy, for a fundamental element of the government of the Church is the exercise of the law of common consent. This law allows Church members the privilege of voting to sustain or to refuse to sustain any person called to preside over them” (Doctrine and Covenants Student Manual, page 439).

Can we vote no?

President Joseph Fielding Smith taught: “I have no right to raise my hand in opposition to a man who is appointed to any position in this Church, simply because I may not like him, or because of some personal disagreement or feeling I may have, but only on the grounds that he is guilty of wrong doing, of transgression of the laws of the Church which would disqualify him for the position which he is called to hold” (Doctrine and Covenants Student Manual, page 54).

What happens if we do vote no?

Elder Orson F. Whitney, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve from 1906 until his death in 1931, described what would have happened if the first members of the Church had failed to sustain Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery as their leaders: “But if the vote had been unfavorable, this would have resulted: The brethren and sisters who were waiting to be admitted into the Church would have closed the door in their own faces, would have cut themselves off from a most precious privilege, would have deprived themselves of the inestimable benefits flowing from the exercise of the gifts and powers possessed by the men divinely commissioned to inaugurate this great Latter-day Work” (Doctrine and Covenants Student Manual, page 440).

In other words, in failing to sustain Church leaders and other members, we don’t stop the Lord’s work from going forward. The Lord’s kingdom will proceed regardless of what we do. When we choose to sustain others, we affirm that we want to continue to be a part of this work as it advances. If we fail to sustain Church leaders and others, we cut ourselves off from blessings the Lord has in store for us. Our agency or choice in sustaining lies in this: while we do not choose our Church leaders, we choose whether or not to follow those whom the Lord has called—and whether we’ll receive the blessings that come from doing so.

Church history shows the fruits and blessings of sustaining Church leaders

What if the Church members who came before us had failed to sustain the leaders the Lord had called? What if we today fail to sustain our prophet, President Thomas S. Monson? Let’s take a quick walk through Church history to see the fruits and blessings that came—and that we still enjoy today—from following the prophet.

• What if early Church members had failed to sustain the Prophet Joseph Smith? Would we have the revelations that gave us blessings such as the Word of Wisdom, temple ordinances, and the organization and keys of the priesthood?
• Where would members of the Church have been had they failed to sustain President Brigham Young in the chaos, confusion, and persecution that followed the Prophet Joseph Smith’s death?
• In the news today we see reports of those refuse to sustain President Wilford Woodruff and his revelation on plural marriage, including one of their leaders who just started a life sentence in prison for horrific crimes.
• President George Albert Smith guided the Church-wide implementation of welfare; many of us—including my own family on at least a couple of occasions when I was growing up—have been blessed by Church welfare.
• Imagine if Church members hadn’t sustained President Spencer W. Kimball and his revelation extending the blessings of the priesthood to all worthy male members of the Church, regardless of their race.
• President Gordon B. Hinckley guided the establishment of the Perpetual Education Fund and the construction of temples that has given us 135 operating temples. [3] Would we have a temple so close in Manhattan?
• President Thomas S. Monson continues to move the Church forward, and his leadership has given us temples in places such as Rome.

On this last note, let me say that I grew up with President Hinckley as the head of the Church. I remember presidents Ezra Taft Benson and Howard W. Hunter, but I really remember President Hinckley—so much so that when he passed it was almost hard to imagine having another President of the Church. But I remember that general conference when we all for the first time sustained Thomas Spencer Monson as “prophet, seer, and revelator and President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” (Ensign, May 2008, page 4). I particularly remember the Sunday morning session of that general conference. I felt the Spirit confirm that President Monson is indeed the Lord’s chosen prophet in our day. After the session, I turned to Susan to express what I had felt, and she turned to me and shared the same feeling.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve described what we all felt. As he began his talk at the start of the Sunday afternoon session, Elder Holland turned to President Monson and said: “President Monson, may I claim a moment of personal privilege? As the first of the Brethren invited to speak following your singular message to the Church this morning, may I say something on behalf of all your Brethren of the General Authorities and indeed on behalf of all the Church.

“Of the many privileges we have had in this historic conference, including participation in a solemn assembly in which we were able to stand and sustain you as prophet, seer, and revelator, I cannot help but feel that the most important privilege we have all had has been to witness personally the settling of the sacred, prophetic mantle upon your shoulders, almost as it were by the very hands of angels themselves. Those in attendance at last night’s general priesthood meeting and all who were present in the worldwide broadcast of this morning’s session have been eyewitness to this event. For all the participants, I express our gratitude for such a moment. I say that with love to President Monson and especially love to our Father in Heaven for the wonderful opportunity it has been to be ‘eyewitnesses of his majesty’ (2 Peter 1:16), as the Apostle Peter once said” (Ensign, May 2008, page 91).

Because of that experience, I know that President Thomas S. Monson is the Lord’s prophet and the one the Lord has chosen to lead his Church in our day.