President Nelson’s Blood Money

Concerning sacrifices. Biotic rapport is a distinct tie between the life and livelihood of the sacrificer. J. H. Kurtz, a biblical scholar, explained that “it was not sufficient that the sacrifice be merely the property of the person offering it; on the contrary, it was requisite that it should stand in close, inward, essential relation . . . to the person of the worshipper.”

President Russel M. Nelson provided a good illustration of biotic rapport. He explained that as we obey the commandments “we become disciplined! We become disciples! We become sacred and holy—more like our Lord!” He then linked this principle to sacrifice, the Law of Tithing, and an experience he had with his first wife, Dantzel (who passed away in 2005). He wrote: “For a short time during the first year of our marriage, Sister Nelson maintained two jobs while I was in medical school. Before her paychecks had arrived, we found ourselves owing more than our funds could defray, so we took advantage of an option then available to sell blood at twenty-five dollars a pint. In an interval between her daytime job as a schoolteacher and her evening work as a clerk in a music store, we went to the hospital and each sold a pint of blood. As the needle was withdrawn from her arm, she said to me, ‘Don’t forget to pay tithing on my blood money.’ . . . Such obedience was a tremendous lesson to me. Sister Nelson’s commitment to the tithe became my commitment too.”

Perhaps this experience left such a strong impression on President Nelson’s mind because there was a very clear and identifiable biotic rapport connecting Sister Nelson’s offered tithes and the way the tithed income was acquired. From ancient times until now, the sacrifice and the sacrificer must share these bonds and associations. Possibly nowhere is biotic rapport more potently manifest than in the sacrifice to God of a broken heart and a contrite spirit.