I found myself reading a silly little blog post by a semi-anonymous blogger renting space from two cats, which calls most members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the carpet for their supposed misunderstanding of the parable of the wheat and the tares.  It was full of judgment against such members who identify other members of the Church as tares simply because they disagree “with our favorite policy” or “how they vote” or even whether they “fit in.” Trudy paints a picture of a church culture in which there are factions in every ward and stake who are eyeing each other suspiciously, and hurling insults and judgments at each other as a matter of course.

She’s particularly concerned that the Church should not “design policies that push people away,” because who are we to judge who is a stalk of wheat and who is a tare!  She essentially argues that there is no way to differentiate wheat and tares, so everyone is equally likely to be either.  Apparently, no one could be reliable shown to be wrong, or to be a tare, so we are all potentially right and wrong at the same time, with no objective way to identify who is right or wrong.

Not surprisingly, this Trudy doesn’t go so far as to actually discuss what the Savior taught in this parable.  I say it is not surprising, because actually reading the parable destroys Trudy’s thesis.  Let’s take a look in Matthew 13:24-30:

24 ¶ Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field:

25 But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.

26 But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.

27 So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?

28 He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?

29 But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.

30 Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.

Go back and read it again if you don’t see the problem with Trudy’s argument.  You’ll see that the servants have absolutely no trouble differentiating the wheat from the tares.  The see it well before the harvest and are alarmed by it.  They were so confident in their ability to distinguish the wheat from the tares that they proposed going forth and removing the tares plant by plant.  Did the Lord say, “nope, you can’t tell the difference.  Only I can tell the difference.  I will get to it when I get to it?”  No, he said that the tares were planted by an enemy, and to allow them to grow together for the time being to avoid collateral damage. He precisely didn’t say that his servants couldn’t tell a wheat from a tare, but tacitly acknowledged that they could and recognized that there were tares.

Turnabout being fair play, I would suggest that Trudy misses the point of the parable entirely.  It doesn’t suggest that we shouldn’t identify tares, nor does it suggest that we shouldn’t recognize that the tares are a very real problem.  They were put there by Satan, after all.  See Matt. 13:39.  Instead, it is one of those depressing scriptures that tells us that God will suffer that the righteous dwell among the wicked while the earth stands.  We will never be rid of them until the end of the world.  See Matt. 13:40.

There may also be some wisdom found there in terms of boundary maintenance in the Church.  What are we to do with the tares found among the membership of the Church?  Clearly we can’t simply treat them as wheat and give them equal opportunity to serve as bishops or relief society presidents.  In some cases, the Lord will direct His servants to excommunicate individuals who present a greater danger to themselves and others as a member of the Church than otherwise, which may justify the potential for collateral damage that may result if they are left undisturbed. In some cases recently, we find the tares removing themselves of their own accord, and often collateral damage results.  It has been sadly seen that when individuals leave the Church, they tend to persuade some of their family and friends to come along with them, and sometimes tear up their children and grandchildren in the process.   Most of the time, there is wisdom in leaving a tare alone.  But there is never wisdom in pretending that we can’t tell the difference, or in pretending that we shouldn’t try.  For we are told constantly to make judgments about ourselves and others, and as the Lord said in the Sermon on the Mount: “Judge not unrighteously, that ye be not judged; but judge righteous judgment … For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged.”