"If you would have God have mercy on you, have mercy on one another." Joseph Smith said that. I read it one afternoon and couldn't stop thinking about what it meant for every story I would ever write — and whether I was bringing that kind of mercy into my work at all.
The full quote goes even deeper:
"When persons manifest the least kindness and love to me, O what pow'r it has over my mind. . . . The nearer we get to our heavenly Father, the more are we dispos'd to look with compassion on perishing souls — [we feel that we want] to take them upon our shoulders and cast their sins behind our back . . . if you would have God have mercy on you, have mercy on one another."
I think this quote is, in part, about how we tell stories about people.
Kindness has power
Joseph Smith noticed that when someone showed him even the smallest act of kindness, it had enormous power over him.
As news writers, we spend a lot of time asking people for their stories, pains, memories, and mistakes. And often, we come in with a checklist and a deadline. We get what we need and then leave.
But what if we slowed down long enough to show people that we actually see them? A moment of genuine warmth in an interview completely changes the dynamic. It changes what people share. It changes what we can write.
Kindness in journalism is one of the most powerful tools we have.
Take them upon our shoulders
This is what happens when we draw closer to God — we start to want to bear other people's burdens. We don't just observe their struggles from a distance. We feel the desire to carry those struggles with them. Paul taught the same principle to the Galatians: "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ" (Galatians 6:2).
For a news writer, I think this looks like this: you don't write at your subject. You write with an awareness of what it costs them to be in your story.
Every person we write about is carrying something. A parent who lost a child. A business owner whose livelihood collapsed. When we write with that awareness — when we remember the weight they're carrying — our stories become something people can actually connect with.
This doesn't mean we soften the truth. It means we handle truth the way you'd handle something precious.
Cast their sins behind our backs
We don't bury the truth to protect people. We don't pretend that wrongdoing didn't happen.
But there's a difference between accountability and reduction. When we reduce a person to their worst moment — when that becomes the whole story — we've stopped telling the truth.
It isn't about ignoring what's behind us. It's about choosing not to define someone by it as we carry them forward. Good journalism can report the hard facts and still treat the person in the story as a full human being. That's actually harder to write. But it's closer to the truth.
If you would have mercy, have mercy on one another
The people of Alma covenanted to "bear one another's burdens, that they may be light" (Mosiah 18:8). That covenant was about choosing, again and again, to carry each other. They understood that after having received so much mercy from God, they needed to extend the same mercy to their brothers. For a writer, that means choosing to carry your subject's humanity into every draft and published word.
We want critics to read carefully before reacting. We want readers to consider context and intent. But do we extend that same generosity to the people we write about? Do we read their context carefully? Do we consider their intent?
Jesus taught it simply in the Sermon on the Mount: "Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy" (Matthew 5:7). The standard we apply to others will eventually circle back to us.
Writing as a form of discipleship
For those of us who write from a place of faith, news writing requires us to love people enough to tell the truth about them — and to tell the truth carefully enough that it still honors their humanity.
Joseph Smith wasn't talking about journalism. But he was talking about the kind of person we need to become in order to treat others the way God treats us — with compassion, and truth that doesn't abandon mercy.
That's the kind of writer I want to become.
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