OPINION:
America is hurting. Anger is everywhere: in politics, in neighborhoods and especially online. Opponents are treated as enemies, suspicion replaces trust, and insults drown out dialogue. Violence feels closer than ever before.
In this climate, the passing of Russell M. Nelson, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, carries lessons we urgently need. Nelson’s life spanned more than a century, and he left a legacy that speaks directly to our fractured age.
Before he became a global religious leader, Nelson was literally in the business of healing hearts. In the 1950s, he helped develop the heart-lung bypass machine that made open-heart surgery possible, saving countless lives. Later, he extended that idea of healing to families, communities and nations.
Again and again, Nelson urged people to reject contention and choose peace. “Contention is a choice. Peacemaking is a choice,” he reminded us. “Anger never persuades. Hostility builds no one. Contention never leads to inspired solutions.” His was not a call to passivity but to courage: the courage to reconcile rather than rage, to build rather than break.
What made his words powerful was that he lived them. He modeled gentleness, patience and compassion. He treated opponents with dignity, showing that peace is not weakness but strength. Having lived through wars and upheavals, he insisted that how we disagree matters. Imagine if politics, or even our digital discourse, followed that principle: disagreement without dehumanization, conviction without contempt.
Laws and policies matter, but they cannot heal hearts. That requires a deeper moral shift, the kind Nelson exemplified. In that sense, he belongs among the great peacemakers of history.
The question is whether we will honor him only in memory or also in emulation. America needs peacemakers now: parents teaching kindness, neighbors offering courtesy, leaders choosing restraint. Healing will not be easy, but the alternative — unchecked division and spiraling violence — is no future at all.
Russell M. Nelson’s life carried a consistent message: Heal first. See others as worthy of respect. Let peace prevail over grievance. If we follow that path, we may yet find the healing our nation so desperately needs.
REP. JASON E. THOMPSON
Utah House of Representatives, District 3
River Heights, Utah
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