Norman Rockwell is the best known American artist and my favorite artist.  His subject is average America, and his art is a remarkable history of twentieth century America.  It covers mostly the good but it also touches the bad.  One of Rockwell’s best known paintings is of Ruby Bridges and is entitled The Problem We All Live With (see picture below).  

Ruby Bridges is the six year old black child who integrated public school in the South, and is the subject of Rockwell’s The Problem We All Live With.  Rockwell shows Ruby surrounded by federal marshals as she walks through a mob of screaming segregationist, who had thrown a tomato at her, into a formerly all-white school.  For a year she was the only student in her first grade classroom as other parents refused to let their children be in the same classroom with Ruby.

Brigham Young University Museum of Fine Art is sponsoring a traveling exhibit from the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.  It includes Rockwell’s original painting of Ruby as she walked to school.  This exhibit is free to the public, and I highly recommend it.  Ruby, now an attractive grandmother, personally opened the exhibit with a powerful message.

“It’s us against them” are Ruby’s words and was an important theme of her address.  She explained that she used these words to emphasize the real and most important contest of our day.  She was not referring to race or religion or social status or any of the other many ways people divide against each other.  She explained that what she was referring to was the contest between good and evil. 

The battle between right and wrong is ultimately at the heart of everything that separates people in ways that really matter.  There are people of all races, religions, and nationalities who are motivated mainly toward good or mainly toward evil.  Everyone expresses their individuality in unique ways, but what matters most is which way our hearts are inclined, to good or to evil.

The great battle of the latter days is between good and evil – Nephi’s vision of the latter days describes this great battle: “Behold there are save two churches only; the one is the church of the Lamb of God, and the other is the church of the devil; wherefore, whoso belongeth not to the church of the Lamb of God belongeth to that great church, which is the mother of abominations; and she is the whore of all the earth” (1 Nephi 14:10). In other words, there are only two forces in the world, forces for good or forces for evil.

Whether we belong to the church of God is determined not so much by where our membership records are but rather where our heart is.  “For there are many yet on the earth among all sects, parties, and denominations, who are blinded by the subtle craftiness of men, whereby they lie in wait to deceive, and who are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it." (D&C 123:12).

Look for allies in this battle between good and evil – The LDS Church reaches out to good people everywhere, with a desire to find common ground and common approaches in important matters.  A good example of this was to bring the Norman Rockwell exhibit and Ruby Bridges to BYU to promote a common commitment to human rights and freedom. 

We can take courage and make a greater effort to reach out to our allies.  We do not have to agree with them on every point.  The main purpose in this effort is to form alliances with people with whom we agree on important issues and then be willing to work with them.  This applies on all levels from the community where we live to the world we live in.

Good will prevail.  If we stay the course doing all that we can the Lord will cover everything else.