Brethren and sisters: It is truly a joy to meet with you. I want to take this opportunity to thank you and to tell you how grateful I am for your thoughtful solicitations and your faith and prayers. God bless every one of you for your integrity and devotion to the work of the Lord! It is an honor and a continual joy to be associated with you in the Church of Jesus Christ.

We are grateful for the blessing of the Lord to his Church in all the world, for the assurance of his divine guidance and inspiration. With deep gratitude we acknowledge in your presence the Lord’s nearness and his goodness, and in that spirit of prayerful appreciation, proclaim that our souls respond in harmony with the glorious vision given to the Prophet Joseph Smith.

“Hear, O ye heavens, and give ear, O earth, and rejoice ye inhabitants thereof, for the Lord is God, and beside him there is no Savior.

“Great is his wisdom, marvelous are his ways, and the extent of his doings none can find out. . . .

“For thus saith the Lord-I, the Lord, am merciful and gracious unto those who fear me, and delight to honor those who serve me in righteousness and truth unto the end.” (D&C 76:1–2, 5.)

I deeply sense my inadequacy in trying to express in words the message I have in my heart this morning. I earnestly pray for your help and assistance, and especially for the inspiration of the Lord, that we may sense his presence during this opening session and all the sessions of this conference. I am delighted to see these doorways crowded by interested listeners. It is a sight we all should take to heart, a manifestation of those who love the Lord and keep his commandments.

Two Great Forces

I cannot get my thoughts off the fact that there are two great forces in the world more potent than ever before, each force more determined to achieve success, more active in planning, and on the one side, scheming, than ever before.

Satan Sought Power

These two great forces are hate and love. Hate had its origin in our preexistent state. There is a significant reference in the Apocalypse to “a war in heaven.” (Rev. 12:4.) It is not only significant, but seemingly contradictory, for we think of heaven as a celestial abode of bliss, an impossible condition where war and contention could exist. The passage is significant because it implies a freedom of choice and of action in the spirit world. In the Pearl of Great Price we are given this account: “Wherefore, because that Satan rebelled against me, and sought to destroy the agency of man, which I the Lord God, had given him, and also, that I should give unto him mine own power; by the power of mine Only Begotten, I caused that he should be cast down;

“And he became Satan, yea, even the devil, the father of all lies, to deceive and to blind men, and to lead them captive at his will, even as many as would not hearken unto my voice.” (Moses 4:3–4. Italics added.)

Two things you will note in that passage: one, that Satan was determined to destroy the free agency of man. Free agency is a gift of God. It is part of his divinity. The second point is that he desired to supplant God. I quote, “Give me thy glory.” (See Ibid., 4:1.)

The world does not comprehend the significance of that divine gift to the individual. It is as inherent as intelligence which, we are told, has never been nor can be created.

In the spirit of hate, as is manifest today in the world, the very existence of God is denied, the free agency of man is taken from him, and the power of the state supplanted. I do not know that there was ever a time in the history of mankind when the Evil One seemed so determined to take from man his freedom.

Free Agency Fundamental

A fundamental principle of the gospel is free agency, and references in the scriptures show that this principle is (l) essential to man’s salvation; and (2) may become a measuring rod by which the actions of men, of organizations, of nations may be judged.

“Therefore,” we are told in the scripture, “cheer up your hearts, and remember that ye are free to act for yourselves-to choose the way of everlasting death or the way of eternal life.” (2 Nephi 10:23.)

“For the earth is full, and there is enough and to spare; yea, I prepared all things, and have given unto the children of men to be agents unto themselves.” (D&C 104:17.)

“Therefore, it is not right that any man should be in bondage one to another.

“And for this purpose have I established the Constitution of this land by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose, and redeemed the land by the shedding of blood.” (Ibid., 101:79-80.)

“My independence is sacred to me,” said Brigham Young, “it is a portion of that same Deity that rules in the heavens. There is not a being upon the face of the earth who is made in the image of God, who stands erect and is organized as God is, that would be deprived of the free exercise of his agency so far as he does not infringe upon other’s rights, save by good advice and a good example.” (Discourses of Brigham Young, 1943 ed., p. 62.)

The history of the world with all its contention and strife is largely an account of man’s effort to free himself from bondage and usurpation.

Man’s free agency is an eternal principle of progress, and any form of government that curtails or inhibits its free exercise is wrong. Satan’s plan in the beginning was one of coercion, and it was rejected because he sought to destroy the agency of man which God had given him.

God-Given, eternal principle of progress

When man uses this God-given right to encroach upon the rights of another, he commits a wrong. Liberty becomes license, and the man, a transgressor. It is the function of the state to curtail the violator and to protect the individual.

Next to the bestowal of life itself, the right to direct our lives is God’s greatest gift to man. Freedom of choice is more to be treasured than any possession earth can give. It is inherent in the spirit of man. It is a divine gift to every normal being. Whether born in abject poverty or shackled at birth by inherited riches, everyone has the most precious of all life’s endowments-the gift of free agency, man’s inherited and inalienable right. It is the impelling source of the soul’s progress. It is the purpose of the Lord that man becomes like him. In order for man to achieve this, it was necessary for the Creator first to make him free. To man is given a special endowment not bestowed upon any other living thing. God gave to him the power of choice. Only to the human being did the Creator say: “. . . thou mayest choose for thyself for it is given unto thee; . . .” (Moses 3:17.) Without this divine power to choose, humanity cannot progress.

Free agency-responsibility

With free agency, however, there comes responsibility. If man is to be rewarded for righteousness and punished for evil, then common justice demands that he be given the power of independent action. A knowledge of good and evil is essential to man’s progress on earth. If he were coerced to do right at all times or helplessly enticed to commit sin, he would merit neither a blessing for the first nor punishment for the second. Man’s responsibility is correspondingly operative with his free agency. Actions in harmony with divine law and the laws of nature will bring happiness, and those in opposition to divine truth, misery. Man is responsible not only for every deed, but also for every idle word and thought.

Freedom of the will and the responsibility associated with it are fundamental aspects of Jesus’ teachings. Throughout his ministry he emphasized the worth of the individual and exemplified what is now expressed in modern revelation as “his work and his glory.” (Moses 1:39.) Only through the divine gift of soul freedom is such progress possible.

Individual Freedom Threatened

Force rules in the world today. Individual freedom is threatened by international rivalries and false political ideals. Unwise legislation, too often prompted by political expediency, if enacted, will seductively undermine man’s right of free agency, rob him of his rightful liberties, and make him but a cog in the crushing wheel of regimentation.

Though it is not a pleasing thought, we must realize that over half the world is under the influence of hate as manifest by the Chinese leader, manifest by the communist group in Russia, and manifest right next door to us in Cuba. Accompanying the spirit of hate is the denial of the existence of God. Satan was cast down because he tried to replace the Creator. But his power is still manifest. He is active and is prompting at this moment the denial of God’s existence, of the existence of his Beloved Son, and denying the efficacy of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Associated Press sometime ago related some instances that are taking place in China to change men’s minds in a nation of over six hundred million people, whose hearts, whose minds have been changed as far as they could be changed by the spirit of hate. Forty-five or fifty years ago there was a spirit of tolerance and respect in China for Americans. In a school at Peking which was fostered by Americans, I personally saw some of the most active young men in junior high school that I have ever seen in my life. I have never seen more courtesy in any country in the world. Today all that is changed. The Associated Press made this report:

Power Based on Hate

“A decade ago Mao Tze-Tung’s newly-created People’s Republic of China threw its Red Shadow across an alarmed Asia. Today, the lengthening Shadow has crept half way across the earth to the Americas. No one can say with certainty where it will stop…. In his sixty-sixth year this round-faced lofty-browed son of peasants has been raised by his communist followers to the eminence of a demi-god. His words actions, and even his thoughts, are holy writ for 630 million people. He is one of the most powerful men on earth, and much of his power is based on the most debilitating of human emotions-hate. Hatred for the United States, hatred for rich landlords, for counter-revolutionaries, for Chiang Kai-Shek, hatred for anyone who fails to conform. `Hatred,’ said a traveler recently returned from Mao’s China, `has become an institution, particularly hatred for the United States. It is horrible to see this vast human machinery run by only one fuel-hatred! If it used love instead it could become the most powerful naion on earth’ ” (Associated Press, appearing in the Salt Lake Tribune, Sunday, December 11, 1960.)

A Modern Assault Upon God

In the spirit of hate these men would supplant God. In the spirit of hate they deny his existence. They deny the existence of his Only Begotten Son. They would destroy the free agency of man. Here, in the spirit of love, we praise his name and teach his precepts.

Jesus, the Man of Love and Goodwill

Let us for a moment or two consider Jesus, the man of love. He revered and worshiped God, and is himself revered and worshiped by all Christian nations and classes of individuals. “Whatever may be the surprises of the future,” wrote Renan, “Jesus will never be surpassed.”

Millions of people, speaking different languages and cherishing various ideals, worship him and revere him today. We revere him because his wisdom and spirituality comprehend and exceed that of all others. He it is who said, “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” (John 8:12.) He also said to his disciples, “. . . I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.” (Ibid., 13:15.)

First, in the spirit of love, let us consider Jesus’ attitude toward God. That is the great question before the world today. The communists deny him, Mao ridicules him, and they have poisoned untold millions of minds against Christ

What about Jesus as manifest in the flesh? In announcing his birth the heavenly hosts sang, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” (Luke 2:14.) In that message there is godliness, peace, and brotherly kindness.

Godliness, Jesus exemplified every hour of his earthly existence. On the banks of the Jordan at the beginning of his ministry, we hear him say to John: “Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.” (Matt. 3:15.)

On the Mount of Temptation, which rises just above the Jordan where Jesus was baptized, he was tempted by that Tempter who tried to supplant God; tempted with all the things of earth and the power thereof. We hear him say in sublime majesty, “Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” (Ibid. 4:10.)

When he taught the disciples to pray, he included in the first petition godliness-”Hallowed be thy name.” (Ibid., 6:9.)

Addressing the Twelve at the Last Supper, he said, “This is life eternal that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” (John 17:3.)

That is the spirit of love, the spirit of faith in God the Creator of heaven and earth through his Beloved Son. God is worshiped by his Only Begotten Son.

“Peace be unto you”

What about the condition of peace?

Peace has been defined as the happy, natural state of man, the “first of human blessings.” Without it there can be no happiness, and “Happiness,” said the Prophet Joseph Smith, “is the object and design of our existence, and will be the end thereof, if we pursue the path that leads to it; . . . (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 255.)

Jesus said, “. . . In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33.)

On the same occasion, he said, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth give I unto you. . . .” (Ibid., 14:27.) All through his life peace was on his lips and in his heart, and when he came forth from the tomb and appeared unto his disciples, his first greeting was, “Peace be unto you. . . .” (Ibid., 20:21.)

Peace as taught by the Savior is exemption from individual troubles, from family broils, from national riots and difficulties. Such peace refers to the person just as much as it does to communities. That man is not at peace who is untrue to the whisperings of Christ-the promptings of his conscience. He cannot be at peace when he is untrue to his better self, when he transgresses the law of righteousness, either in dealing with himself by indulging in passions or appetites, in yielding to the temptations of the flesh, or whether he is untrue to trust in transgressing the law.

Peace does not come to the transgressor of law, Peace comes by obedience to law, and it is that message which Jesus would have us establish among men-peace to the individual that he may be at peace with his God; perfect harmony existing between his Creator and himself, perfect harmony existing between himself and law, the righteous laws to which he is subject and from which he never can escape peace in the home, families living at peace with each other and with their neighbors.

There are some who would say his teachings are not applicable today.

The Testimony of Joseph Smith

A few years ago there was a boy among boys who saw him, who heard him and received his teachings. Joseph Smith saw the Redeemer, and he has given that testimony to the world; he has recorded his message, and emphasized again the eternal truth that Christ’s teachings are divine and as applicable to the civilized world today as to the people among whom Jesus walked and talked.

The Power of Thinking

Fundamental in all Christ’s teachings was the crime of wrong thinking. He condemned avarice, enmity, hate, jealousy as vehemently as he did the results that avarice, enmity, and hate produce. Modern psychology, as all students know, proves the virtue of such teachings regarding the injury that follows the harboring of hate. He who harbors hatred and bitterness injures himself far more than the one towards whom he manifests these evil propensities.

Equally applicable to present conditions are his teachings regarding the value and sacredness of human life, the virtue of forgiveness, the necessity of fair dealings, the crime of hypocrisy, the sin of covetousness, the saving power of love, the immortality of man.

Attacks upon Peace and Righteousness

If men ever reject the fact that Christ is our Lord and Savior and fill their souls with hatred as that nation of over six hundred million people are compelled to do, and not only deny Christ, but deny that his mission is to redeem man from the sordid life of selfish indulgence and sin, and lift him into a realm shown only by him of self-sacrifice, generosity, beauty, and love; if the majority of nations fail to recognize Christ as the only “name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12); if doubting men reject the possibility of obtaining that spiritual assurance of Christ’s divinity disclosed by Thomas when he reverently exclaimed: “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28); if the acts of men generally be in accordance with such rejection rather than in accordance with their acceptance of him as the Divine One, then this world will continue to be torn by contention, made miserable by hideous warfare, and ignominiously wrecked on the shoals of materialism, selfish indulgence, and disbelief nd hatred.

Rejecting Him will bring the bondage of the Jungle

Without Jesus of Nazareth, the Crucified Christ, the Risen Lord, the traits of the jungle will hold the human family in bondage.

In conclusion, the obligation and duty rests upon the Church of Jesus Christ to proclaim the mighty truth that the Man of Galilee, the resurrected Christ, is truly the Way, the Truth, and the Life-that he is in very deed the Savior of all mankind.

Pernicious efforts and sinister schemes are cunningly and stealthily being fostered to deprive man of his individual freedom and have him revert to the life of the jungle. With faith in the revealed word of God, let all true believers in individual freedom cherish the spiritual ideals of the Christ, and ever strive to make real the dream that all men shall be free, and that some day many nations will unite, not for war, but for peace and the establishing of the kingdom of God on earth. That this condition may soon be possible and real and that men may strive to bring it about, I humbly pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Throughout the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, those who have been sustained as its leaders have repeatedly spoken out on political matters. This has occurred not so much because prophets feel it their duty to opine on controversial topics of temporal relevance, but because the spiritual and temporal elements of our lives are understood by the Latter-day Saints to be, at their core, one and the same.

We have therefore received instructions and commandments regarding our civic duty right alongside similar commandments regarding our spiritual duties as members of the Church. Home teaching, magnifying our callings, temple worship, and paying our tithes and offerings are on an equal platform, to some extent, with our activities to study, support, and defend the principles of liberty and our Republican government…

Read the full text of The Civic Duty of the Latter-day Saints…

President Wilkinson, distinguished members of the faculty, members and friends of this great student body, my brothers and sisters. This is a signal honor, a very great pleasure and a challenging responsibility. Humbly and gratefully I stand before you this morning.

Personal Convictions

Because of the nature of the message I bring to you, I have committed most of it to writing. I shall speak to you frankly and honestly. What I shall say are my personal convictions born out of an active life which has taken me into some forty-five nations and brought me close to the insidious forces that would destroy our way of life in this choice land. I express these convictions and warnings today because of my love for you and our beloved country.

A Message of Warning

The message I bring is not a happy one, but it is the truth – and time is always on the side of truth. I take as my theme the words of President David O. McKay, God’s mouthpiece on the earth today, a Prophet of God,

“The position of this church on the subject of communism has never changed. We consider it the greatest satanical threat to peace, prosperity and the spread of God’s work among men that exists on the face of this earth.” (Conference Report, April, 1966, p. 109.)

“No greater immediate responsibility rests upon the members of the church, upon all citizens of this republic and of neighboring republics than to protect the freedom vouchsafed by the Constitution of the United States.” (The Instructor, August, 1953)

In the days of the Prophet Noah, men had no greater immediate responsibility than to repent and board the Ark. Now in our day, the day of the Prophet David O. McKay, he has said that we have no greater immediate responsibility than to protect the freedom vouchsafed by the Constitution of the United States.

At the last general conference of the church (October 1966), President McKay, in his opening address, said,

“Efforts are being made to deprive man of his free agency – to steal from the individual his liberty…. There has been an alarming increase in the abandoning of the ideals that constitute the foundation of the Constitution of the United States.”

Toward the close of his talk, our Prophet, quoting Paul’s letter to Timothy regarding the preaching of the word, said,

“There should be no question in the mind of any true latter day saint as to what we shall preach… the gospel plan of salvation.”

Then President McKay lists the areas our preaching should cover and admonishes us to include in our preaching what governments should or should not do in the interests of the preservation of our freedom.

Discourses on Freedom

Do we preach what governments should or should not do as a part of the gospel plan, as President McKay has urged or do we refuse to follow the Prophet by preaching a limited gospel plan of salvation? The fight for freedom cannot be divorced from the gospel – the plan of salvation.

We sing that we are thankful to “God for a Prophet to guide us in these latter days.” By commandment of the Lord we assemble in general conference twice a year to get that guidance from the Lord’s representative. Do we realize that in the last five years prior to October Conference, the Prophet has key noted three of these conferences with an opening discourse on freedom and given nine other addresses in the conferences that touched on freedom?

Do we see any pattern here? Can we name any other gospel theme that has received as much emphases from the man who holds the keys as has the theme of freedom?

We do not need a prophet – we have one. What we need is a listening ear, a humble heart, and a soul that is pure enough to follow his inspired guidance.

Now why this consistent voice of warning from the Prophet?

Statistics on Communism

Consider the following: Since World War II the Communists have brought under bondage – enslaved – on the average approximately 6,000 persons per hour, 144,000 per day, 52,000,000 per year – every hour of every day of every year since 1945.

Since 1945 the Communists have murdered in one country alone enough people to wipe out the entire population of over fifteen of our states.

The Enemy Within

The communist threat from without may be serious, but it is the enemy within, warns President McKay, that is most menacing. (Jerreld L. Newquist, Prophets, principles, and National Survival (Salt Lake City, Utah, Publishers Press, 1964), p. 229.)

President McKay has said that he would not deal with a nation that treats another as Russia has treated America. (Newquist, op. cit.) Yet, the tragedy is, that one of the major reasons for the rapid growth of communism is because of the help – yes, the increasing help – which they are receiving from right within our own government.

Today our boys are dying in a war with the Communists, a war which our government has not declared – the largest undeclared war in the history of the world – and one which it is alleged our government has no intention of winning. Yet our government encourages us to buy communist goods and our government continues to give aid to the enemy.

One of the tragic results of prolonging the war in Vietnam in that it weakens our economy and gives excuses for more socialistic controls over our people. Of course within the next few days there may be some dramatic moves made in order to placate and deceive the electorate as there was during the so called Cuban missile crisis. But do not be misled.

President McKay has said that the Supreme Court is leading this nation down the road to atheism. (Newquist, op. cit., p. 187)  Not only is the court leading this nation down the road to atheism, but in one tragic decision after another they are leading us down the road to communism. One such decision caused Dorthy Healey, Communist spokesman for the West Coast, to rejoice in these words, quote, “This is the greatest victory the Communist party ever had,” unquote. The communists have held victory rallies to honor the Supreme Court and its decisions. The Book of Mormon tells us what corrupt judges can do to freedom.

Communists dedicated to the destruction of our government are allowed to teach at our schools, to hold offices in labor unions, to run for public office. Recently an open and avowed leader of the Communist party in one of our states ran for a county office and received over 87,000 votes.

J. Edgar Hoover Statement

J. Edgar Hoover, the best informed man in government on the Socialist-Communist conspiracy stated:

“We must now face the harsh truth that the objectives of communism are being steadily advanced because many of us do not readily recognize the means used to advance them…. No one who truly understands what it really is can be taken in by it. Yet the individual is handicapped by coming face to face with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists. The American mind simply has not come to a realization of the evil which has been introduced into our midst.” (J. Edgar Hoover, The Elks Magazine, August 1956; quoted in Newquist, op. cit., p. 273.)

President McKay has said that this nation has “traveled far into the soul-destroying land of socialism.” (Deseret News, “Church News,” October 18, 1952, p. 2.) Now if we understand what socialism embraces, then we will realize that this present Congress has passed more socialistic legislation, recommended by a president  than probably any other Congress in the history of our Republic.

At this particular moment in history the United States is definitely threatened and every citizen should know about it. The warning of this hour should resound through the corridors of every American institution – schools, churches, the halls of Congress, press, radio and television, and so far as I am concerned, it will resound – with God’s help.

Ten Aids to Enemies of Freedom

Our Republic and Constitution are being destroyed while the enemies of freedom are being aided. How? In at least ten ways:

1. By diplomatic recognition and aid, trade and negotiations with the Communists.

2. By disarmament of our military defenses.

3. By destruction of our security laws and the promotion of atheism by decisions of the Supreme Court.

4. By loss of sovereignty and solvency through international commitments and membership in world organizations.

5. By undermining of local law enforcement agencies and Congressional investigating committees.

6. By usurpations by the executive and judicial branches of our Federal Government.

7. By lawlessness in the name of civil rights.

8. By a staggering national debt with inflation and a corruption of the currency.

9. By a multiplicity of executive orders and federal programs which greatly weaken local and state governments.

10. By the sacrifice of American manhood by engaging in wars we apparently have no intention of winning.

We should all be grateful for the patriots of both parties who are trying to withstand this tidal wave of collectivism led by “masters of deceit.”

Youth Programs

One regrettable development is the increasing number of government programs embracing our youth. President J. Reuben Clark, Jr., former under-secretary of state, former ambassador, a great constitutional statesman, and counselor to three presidents of the church put it well when he said,

“Our government with its liberty and free institutions will not long survive a government trained and supervised youth…. Such a youth can be a revolutionary machine.” (Deseret News, “Church News, “ June 15, 1940; quoted in Newquist, op. cit., p. 367.)

And let me warn you, if these programs are fully introduced here in our midst, we will suffer the tragic consequences.

Evidences to Alarm Us

Some of these things strike pretty close to home. Communists or communist-fronters have appeared on our three major university campuses in this state. An identified Communist performed in our Mormon tabernacle. Some of our newspapers have carried columnists with communist-front records or who parrot the communist line, and there are many other evidences both in this state and in our country that should alarm us.

So-called Civil Rights Movement

One of the main thrusts of the Communist drive in America today is through the so-called civil rights movement. Now there is nothing wrong with civil rights – it’s what is being done in the name of civil rights that is shocking.

The man who is generally recognized as the leader of the so-called civil rights movement today in America is a man who has lectured at a Communist training school, who has solicited funds through communist sources, who hired a Communist as a top-level aide, who has affiliated with Communist fronts, who is often praised in the Communist press and who unquestionably parallels the Communist line. This same man advocates the braking of the law and has been described by J. Edgar Hoover as “the most notorious liar in the country.” (U.S. News and World Report, November 30, 1964.)

I warn you, unless we wake up soon and do something about the Conspiracy the Communist-inspired civil rights riots of the past will pale into insignificance compared to the bloodshed and destruction that lie ahead in the near future.

Church Members Not to Escape Danger

Do not think the members of the church shall escape. The Lord has assured us that the church will still be here when he comes again. But has the Lord assured us that we can avoid fighting for freedom and still escape unscathed both temporally and spiritually? We could not escape the eternal consequences of our pre-existent position on freedom. What makes us think we can escape it here?

Listen to President Clark’s grave warning:

“I say to you with all the soberness I can, that we stand in danger of losing our liberties, and that once lost, only blood will bring them back; and once lost, we of this church will, in order to keep the church going forward, have more sacrifices to make and more persecutions to endure than we have yet known, heavy as our sacrifices and grievous as our persecutions have been.” (J. Reuben Clark, Conference Report, April 1944, pp. 115-116; quoted in Newquist, op. cit., p. 89.)

Now that is the price we are going to have to pay unless we can help to reverse the course our country is taking. The Lord does not want us to pay that price, but we will pay it in full if we fail to fight to preserve our freedom. Often the Lord has to send persecutions in order to rebuke and try to purge the unfaithful. He has done it in the past, and He can do it again. If we deserve it – we will get it.

“Next to being one in worshiping God,” says President McKay, “there is nothing in this world upon which this church should be more united than in upholding and defending the Constitution of the United States!.” (President David O. McKay, 1956, The Instructor 91:34; quoted in Newquist, op. cit., p. 101.)

There are some who would have us believe that the final test of the rightness of a course is whether everyone is united on it. But the church does not seek unity, simply for unities sake. The unity for which the Lord prayed and which President McKay speaks is the only unity which God honors – that is, “unity in righteousness,” unity in principle.

We cannot compromise good and evil in an attempt to have peace and unity in the Church, any more than the Lord could have compromised with Satan in order to avoid the War in Heaven.

Think of the impact for good we could have if we all united behind the prophets in preserving our Constitution. Yet witness the sorry spectacle of those presently of our number who have repudiated the inspired counsel of our prophet when he has opposed federal aid to education (Newquist, op. cit., p. 192) and asked support to the right to work laws. (Newquist, op. cit., p. 415, and “Church News,” June 26, 1965.)

It is too much to suppose that all the Priesthood at this juncture will unite behind the Prophet in the fight for freedom. Yet we can pray for that day and in the meantime the faithful should strive to be in harmony with the inspired counsel given by His mouthpiece – the prophet – and thus in unity with the Lord – and hence receive peace to their souls.

The more who are united with the Lord and His prophets the greater will be our chances to preserve our families and to live in freedom.

President Clark knew how righteous unity could stop the Communists when he said:

“Now, what has business and industry done about all this revolutionary activity?… Business and industry neither planned nor did anything effective. There was no concerted effort….

A common cause with a united front would have worked salvation for us. But business officials were afraid of their stock-holders and their outcry against loss of dividends; the lawyers were afraid of getting whipped in the courts, businessmen felt strong vigorous action might further disturb business; bankers (I am a bank director) shivered at their own shadows.

So one constitutional right after another yielded without any real contest, our backs getting nearer to the wall with each retreat. It is now purposed that we retreat still further. Is not this suicide? Is there any one so naive as to think that things will right themselves without a fight? There has been no more fight in us than there is in a bunch of sheep, and we have been much like sheep. Freedom was never brought to a people on a silver platter, nor maintained with whisk brooms and lavender sprays.

And do not think that all these usurpations, intimidations, and impositions are being done to us through inadvertence or mistake; The whole course is deliberately planned and carried out; Its purpose is to destroy the Constitution and our constitutional government; then to bring chaos, out of which the new Statism with its slavery, is to arise, with a cruel, relentless, selfish, ambitious crew in the saddle, riding hard with whip and spur, a red-shrouded band of nightriders for despotism….

If we do not vigorously fight for our liberties, we shall go clear through to the end of the road and become another Russia or worse….” (J. Reuben Clark, “Church News,” September 25, 1959; quoted in Newquist, op. cit., pp. 327s328.)

According to Norman Vincent Peale, “Their was a time when the American people roared like lions for liberty; now they bleat like sheep for security.”

“But,” some say, “Shouldn’t we have confidence in our government officials – don’t we owe them allegiance?” To which we respond in the words of President Clark,

“God provided that in this land of liberty, our political allegiance shall run not to individuals, that is, to government officials… the only allegiant we owe as citizens or denizens of the United States, runs to our inspired Constitution which God Himself set up.” (J. Reuben Clark, The Improvement Era, 1940, 43:444; quoted in Newquist, op. cit., p. 198.)

Jefferson warned that we should not talk about confidence in men but that we should inhibit their power through the Constitution. In the meantime, we pray for our leaders as we have always been counseled to do.

It is the devils desire that the Lord’s priesthood stay asleep while the strings of tyranny gradually and quietly entangle us until, like Gulliver, we awake too late and find that while we could have broken each string separately as it was put upon us, our sleepiness permitted enough strings to bind us to make a rope that enslaves us.

The Role of the Elders

For years we have heard of the role the elders could play in saving the Constitution from total destruction. But how can the elders be expected to save it if they have not studied it and are not sure if it is being destroyed or what is destroying it.

An informed patriotic gentile was dumbfounded when he heard of Joseph Smith’s reported prophecy regarding the mission our elders could perform in saving the Constitution. He lived in a Mormon community with nice people who were busily engaged in other activities but had little concern in preserving their freedom. He wondered if maybe a letter should not be sent to President McKay, urging him to release some of the elders from their present Church activities so their would be a few who could help step forward to save the Constitution.

Now it is not so much a case of a man giving up all his other duties to fight for freedom, as it is a case of a man getting his life in balance so he can discharge all of his God-given responsibilities. And of all these responsibilities President McKay has said that we have “no greater immediate responsibility” than “to protect the freedom vouchsafed by the Constitution of the United States.”

There is no excuse that can compensate for the loss of liberty.

Satan’s Perverse Reasoning

Now Satan is anxious to neutralize the inspired counsel of the Prophet and hence keep the priesthood off-balance, ineffective and inert in the fight for freedom. He does this through diverse means including the use of perverse reasoning.

For example, he will argue, “There is no need to get involved in the fight for freedom – all you need to do is live the gospel.” Of course this is a contradiction, because we cannot fully live the gospel and not be involved in the fight for freedom.

We would not say to someone, “There is no need to be baptized – all you need to do is live the gospel.” That would be ridiculous because baptism is a part of the gospel.

How would you have reacted if during the War in Heaven someone had said to you, “Look, just do what’s right, there is no need to get involved in the fight for free agency.” Now it is obvious what the devil is trying to do, but it is sad to see many of us fall for his destructive line.

The cause of freedom is the most basic part of our religion.

Our position on freedom helped get us to this earth, and it can make the difference as to whether we get back home or not.

The “Title of Liberty”

General Moroni, one of the great men of the Book of Mormon, raised the “title of liberty” and on it he inscribed these words:

“In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children.” (Alma 46:12.)

Why didn’t he write upon it “just live your religion, there is no need to concern yourselves about your freedom, your peace, your wives or your children.”? The reason he didn’t was because all these things were a part of his religion as they are of ours.

Listen to what The Book of Mormon had to say about the man who raised the “title of liberty”:

“And Moroni was a strong and a mighty man; he was a man of perfect understanding; yea, a man that did not delight in bloodshed; a man whose soul did joy in the liberty and the freedom of his country, and his brethren from bondage and slavery;

“Yea, and he was a man who was firm in the faith of Christ, and he had sworn with an oath to defend his people, his rights, and his country, and his religion even to the loss of his blood.” (Alma 48:11,13.)

And then Moroni is paid this high tribute:

“Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been and were, and ever would be like unto Moroni, behold the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men.” (Alma 48:17.)

Now part of the reason why we don’t have sufficient Priesthood bearers to save the Constitution, let alone to shake the powers of hell, is, I fear, because unlike Moroni, our souls do not joy in keeping our country free and we are not firm in the faith of Christ, nor have we sworn with an oath to defend our rights.

The Book of Mormon also tells us of some of the perverse reasoning the devil would use in our day to keep the Saints ignorant, complacent and asleep.

“And others will he pacify, and lull them away into carnal security, that they will say: All is well in Zion; yea, Zion prospereth, all is well – and thus the devil cheateth their souls and leadeth them away carefully down to hell.” (2 Nephi 28:21.)

Now this reasoning takes several forms. For instance, “Don’t worry,” say some, “the Lord will take care of us.” This is the usual theme of those who believe in faith without works.

Brigham Young said:

“Some may say, “I have faith the Lord will turn them away.” What ground have we to hope this? Have I any good reason to say to my Father in heaven, “fight my battles,” when he has given me the sword to wield, the arm and the brain that I can fight for myself? Can I ask Him to fight my battles and sit quietly down waiting for Him to do so? I cannot. I can pray the people to harken to wisdom, to listen to counsel; but to ask God to do for me that which I can do for myself is preposterous to my mind.” (Journal of Discourses 12:241.)

“Don’t you have faith in America?” say others. But America is made up of people – and only righteous patriotic people work to preserve their freedom. The American people’s blessings are conditioned on righteousness and nothing else. We have faith in a faithful citizenry.

Need for an Educated Citizenry

“There is no need to learn about communism in order to avoid it,” Some argue. But this counsel can help keep our people in ignorance and apparently flies in the face of the inspired counsel of President McKay who said,

“I believe that only through a truly educated citizenry can the ideals that inspired the Founding Fathers of our nation be preserved and perpetuated.” (“Church News,” March 13, 1954; quoted in Newquist, op. cit., p. 178.)

And then President McKay said that one of the “four fundamental elements in such an education” was the “open and forcible teaching of the facts regarding communism as an enemy to God and to individual freedom.” (“Church News,” March 13, 1954; quoted in Newquist, op. cit., p. 181.)

Do we teach people to avoid alcohol and tobacco by pointing out its evil effects? Of course we do. Should we then avoid telling people about the evil nature and devious designs of communism – the greatest satanical threat to the spread of God’s work?

“Just preach the gospel – that will stop communism,” is another neutralizing argument by some. Did teaching the truth stop the War in Heaven or convert Satan and his hosts? Satan himself through his earthly followers is directing the Communist conspiracy and as President Clark said, “You cannot mollify an unconvertible.” (J. Reuben Clark, Conference Report, October 1959, p. 46; quoted in Newquist, op. cit., p. 232.)

As members of the Church we have some close quarters to pass through if we are to save our souls. As the Church gets larger some men have increasing responsibility and more and more duties must be delegated. We all have stewardships for which we must account to the Lord.

Unfortunately some men who do not honor their stewardships may have an adverse affect on many people. Often the greater the man’s responsibility the more good or evil he can accomplish. The Lord usually gives a man a long enough rope and sufficient time to determine whether that man wants to pull himself into the presence of God or drop off somewhere below.

There are some regrettable things being said and done by some people in the Church today. As President Clark so well warned, “The ravening wolves are amongst us, from our own membership and they, more than any others, are clothed in sheep’s clothing because they wear the habiliments of the priesthood…. We should be careful of them.”

Sometimes from behind the pulpit, in our classrooms, in our Council meetings and in our church publications we hear, read or witness things that do not square with the truth. This is especially true where freedom is involved. Now do not let this serve as an excuse for your own wrong-doing. The Lord is letting the wheat and the tares mature before he fully purges the Church. He is also testing you to see if you will be misled. The devil is trying to deceive the very elect.

Keep Your Eye on the Prophet

Let me give you a crucial key to help you avoid being deceived. It is this – learn to keep your eye on the Prophet. He is the Lord’s mouthpiece and the only man who can speak for the Lord today. Let his inspired counsel take precedence. Let his inspired words be a basis for evaluating the counsel of all lesser authorities. Then live close to the spirit so you may know the truth of all things.

All men are entitled to inspiration, but only one man is the Lords mouthpiece. Some lesser men have in the past, and will in the future, use their offices unrighteously. Some will, ignorantly or otherwise, use it to promote false counsel; some will use it to lead the unwary astray; some will use it to persuade us that all is well in Zion; some will use it to cover and excuse their ignorance. Keep your eye on the Prophet – for the Lord will never permit his Prophet to lead this Church astray.

This is the word of the Lord to us today regarding the President of the Church:

“Wherefore, meaning the church, thou shalt give heed unto all his words and commandments which he shall give unto you as he receiveth them, walking in all holiness before me;

For his words ye shall receive, as if from mine own mouth, in all patience and faith,” (D&C 21:4–5.)

A Statement from the Prophet

Now at our last annual conference in April, President McKay issued a statement on communism. It was printed on the editorial page of the June improvement Era and has recently been reprinted by the Deseret Book Company in an attractive folder entitled “Communism: A Statement of the position of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” Every student and every family in America should have a copy. The cost is five cents each in lots of 100, or three for 25 cents.

Let me quote a few excerpts from that inspired statement and ye who have been misled into believing that you can somehow righteously avoid standing up for freedom – heed his counsel:

“In order that there may be no misunderstanding by bishops, stake presidents, and others regarding members of the Church participating in nonchurch meetings to study and become informed on the Constitution of the United States, Communism, etc., I wish,” said President McKay, “to make the following statements that I have been sending out of my office for some time and that have come under question by some stake authorities, bishoprics, and others.

Church members are at perfect liberty to act according to their own conscience in matters of safeguarding our way of life. They are, of course, encouraged to honor the highest standards of the gospel and to work to preserve their own freedoms. They are free to participate in nonchurch meetings that are held to warn people of the threat of Communism or any other theory or principle that will deprive us of our free agency or individual liberties vouchsafed by the Constitution of the United States.

The position of this church on the subject of Communism has never changed. We consider it the greatest satanical threat to peace, prosperity, and the spread of God’s work among men that exists on the face of the earth.

In this connection,” President McKay continues, “we are constantly being asked to give our opinion concerning various patriotic groups or individuals who are fighting Communism and speaking up for freedom. Our immediate concern, however, is not what parties, groups, or persons, but with principles. We therefore commend and encourage every person and every group who is sincerely seeking to study constitutional principles and awaken a sleeping and apathetic people to the alarming conditions that are rapidly advancing about us. We wish all of our citizens throughout the land were participating in some type of organized self-education in order that they could better appreciate what is happening and know what they can do about it.

Supporting the FBI, the police, the congressional committees investigating Communism, and various organizations that are attempting to awaken the people through educational means is a policy we warmly endorse for all our people….” (President David O. McKay, The Improvement Era, June 1966, p. 477; Conference Report, April 1966, p. 109,)

I bear witness that this Church position given by our inspired leader – our Prophet-leader – is sound, timely and clear. The need for such counsel has never been greater.

Brethren and sisters, I have talked straight to you today. I know I will be abused by some for what I have said, but I want my skirts to be clean.

­

Some Questions

Watchman, what of the night?” (Isaiah 21:11) is the cry of the faithful. I have tried to warn you of the darkness that is moving over us and what we can do about it if we will only follow the Prophet.

Have you counted the cost if our countrymen and especially the body of the Priesthood continue to remain complacent, misled through some of our news media, deceived by some of our officials, and perverted by some of our educators?

Are you prepared to see some of your loved ones murdered, your remaining liberties abridged, the Church persecuted, and your eternal reward jeopardized?

An Eyewitness

I have personally witnessed the heart-rending results of the loss of freedom. I have seen it with my own eyes. I have been close to the godless evil of the socialist-communist conspiracy on both sides of the iron curtain, particularly during my years as European Mission President at the close of the war, and today and also during my eight years in the Cabinet.

It may shock you to learn that the first communist cell in government, so far as we know, was organized in the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the 1930’s, John Abt was there. It was John Abt whom Oswald, the accused assassin of President Kennedy, requested for his attorney. Harry Dexter White was there. Lee Pressman was there. And communist Alger Hiss, who was the principle architect and first secretary of the United Nations organizing committee, was there also.

I have talked face-to-face with the godless Communist leaders. It may surprise you to learn that I was host to Mr. Khrushchev for a half day, when he visited the United States. Not that I’m proud of it – I opposed his coming then and I still feel it was a mistake to welcome this atheistic murderer as a state visitor. But according to President Eisenhower, Khrushchev had expressed a desire to learn something of American agriculture, and after seeing Russian agriculture I can understand why.

As we talked face-to-face, he indicated that my grandchildren would live under Communism. After assuring him that I expected to do all in my power to assure that his, and all other grandchildren, would live under freedom, he arrogantly declared, in substance:

You Americans are so gullible. No you won’t accept Communism outright, but we’ll keep feeding you small doses of socialism until you’ll finally wake up and you find you already have Communism. We won’t have to fight you. We’ll so weaken your economy until you fall like over-ripe fruit into our hands.

And they are ahead of schedule in their devilish scheme.

I stood in Czechoslovakia in 1946 – two citizens of that country came up to me before this meeting – I stood in Czechoslovakia in 1946 and witnessed the ebbing away of freedom resulting in the total loss of liberty to a wonderful people. I visited among the liberty-loving Polish people and talked with their leaders as the insidious freedom-destroying conspiracy moved in, imposing the chains of bondage on a Christian nation.

In both of these freedom-loving nations were members of the Church, striving, as we are, to live the gospel. But did they stop the Communists? Although their numbers were relatively few, the danger to freedom seemed to be far away. Now there are, no doubt, Mormons in Communist slave labor camps.

The Power of the Priesthood

But here in America, the Lord’s base of operations – so designated by the Lord himself, though his holy prophets – we of the priesthood – members of his restored Church might well provide the balance of power to save our freedom. Indeed we might, if we go forward as General Moroni of old, and raise the standard of liberty throughout the land.

My brethren, we CAN do the job that must be done. We can, as a Priesthood, provide the balance of power to preserve our freedom and save this nation from bondage.

The Prophet Joseph Smith is reported to have prophesied the role the Priesthood might play to save our inspired Constitution. Now is the time to move forward courageously – to become alerted, informed and active. We are not just ordinary men. We bear the priesthood and authority of God. We understand the world and God’s divine purpose as no other men.

The Gospel and Freedom

The gospel and its preaching can prosper only in an atmosphere of freedom. And now in this critical period, when many pulpits are being turned into pipelines of collectivist propaganda – preaching the social gospel and denying basic principles of salvation – is the time for action.

We know, as do no other people, that the Constitution of the United States is inspired – established by men whom the Lord raised up for that very purpose. We cannot – we must not – shirk our sacred responsibility to rise up in defense of our God-given freedom.

In our day the Lord has declared to his church:

“Verily I say unto you all: arise and shine forth, that thy light may be a standard to the nations;

“And that the gathering together upon the land of Zion, and upon her stakes, may be for a defense, and for a refuge from the storm, and from wrath when it shall be poured out without mixture upon the whole earth.” (D&C 115:5–6.)

Will we of the priesthood “arise and shine”? Will we provide the “defense” and “refuge”? Now is our time and season for corrective and courageous action.

We Have Been Warned

We have been warned again and again and again. The Lords spokesman has consistently raised his voice of warning about the loss of our freedom. Now he that has ears, let him hear, and ye who praise the Lord, learn to also follow His spokesman.

I know not what course others may take, but as for me and my house, we will strive to walk with the Prophet. And the Prophet has said that:

“No greater immediate responsibility rests upon the members of the church, upon all citizens of this republic and of neighboring republics than to protect the freedom vouchsafe by the Constitution of the United States.” (The Instructor, August 1953.)

In this mighty struggle each of you has a part. Be on the right side. Stand up and be counted. If you get discouraged, remember the words of Edward Everett Hale, when he said:

“I am only one, but I am one.

I can’t do everything, but I can do something.

What I can do, that I ought to do,

And what I ought to do,

By the grace of God, I shall do!”

God bless us to heed the oft-repeated counsel of our Prophet-leader, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

(Ezra Taft Benson. Our Immediate Responsibility. BYU University. October 25, 1966.)

My dear brothers and sisters, I welcome this opportunity to speak to a sabbath audience at America’s Freedom Festival at Provo. This evening I wish to speak about some responsibilities of citizenship. My message consists of personal opinions and is not an expression of an official position.

Introduction

About two months ago my wife, June, and I traveled from Brazil to Chile. En route we stopped at Iguaçu, Brazil, to see the world’s largest waterfall.

We approached the falls first from the downstream side. We were awed by the thunderous avalanche of water spilling over the rocky precipice and cascading over 200 feet into the cataract below.

Later we walked through the state park several hundred feet above the falls. Here the wide Iguaçu River flows serenely between low forested banks, with only an occasional ripple of white to mark a few boulders in its path. Here the river appears placid and inviting. As we looked down stream toward what we knew to be the location of the mighty falls, we could see nothing to warn of their presence. From this point a boatman with no knowledge of the falls would have only a strange, distant roar to warn him of imminent disaster.

As I viewed this scene I thought of the circumstances of our nation. Prophetic voices have sounded warnings of a downfall ahead, of hazards that could deprive us of our freedom. Yet, as we look about us at this point, the flow of events seems serene, with only an occasional ripple. To see the danger we must rise above the immediate scene and tune our senses to identify changed conditions that threaten the future of our nation.

Responsibilities

A few months ago I received a letter from an old friend whose name and work should be familiar to all of us. Dr. Kenneth D. Wells is the founder of the famous Freedom Foundation at Valley Forge. Though now 85 years of age, this respected patriot, a convert to Mormonism, continues to do all that he can for the future of our nation. His letter, sent to many of his friends, cites the obvious malignancies that afflict our nation and concludes with these words:

In my heart and mind and soul, I know only as our consciences turn us to “Responsible Personal Conduct” will the dream that is America have any chance of survival. (Kenneth D. Wells, letter of March 30, 1994.)

Some of the responsible personal conduct that is necessary to save America is the kind of conduct that is enforceable by law and legal process, but much of it can only be encouraged. In the end, many of our most important personal, family, civic, and church responsibilities are entirely voluntary. As Elder Neal A. Maxwell said in his address at this Freedom Festival last year, “Our whole society really rests on the capacity of its citizens to give ‘obedience to the unenforceable.’”

At a time when most of our public discourse concerns rights, it may seem strange to speak of responsibilities. But a democratic republic needs patriotic citizens who are fulfilling their responsibilities as well as claiming their rights. No society is so secure that it can withstand continued demands for increases in citizen rights without producing corresponding increases in the fulfillment of citizen responsibilities. Responsibilities like honesty, respect for personal and property rights, self-reliance, and willingness to sacrifice for the common good are basic to the governance and preservation of our nation.

This evening I will speak of three fundamental responsibilities of citizenship in a democratic nation. In my lifetime each of these has been significantly compromised in theory and practice, and our nation has been significantly weakened in the process. One of these responsibilities has been undercut by the political Left. One has been undercut by the political Right. The third is being undercut by both the Left and the Right. These three fundamentals are the citizen responsibilities of (1) serving in the military, (2) paying taxes, and (3) participating in democratic government.

A Special Introduction for Church Members

Before I address these three responsibilities, I will provide a short introduction that I believe is needed by some members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The twelfth Article of Faith commits Latter-day Saints to “being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates,” and to “obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.” This belief is not unique in Christendom. The apostle Paul told the early Christians to be “subject to principalities and powers, [and] to obey magistrates” (Titus 3:1; also see Rom. 13:1). The apostle Peter taught “submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake” (1 Peter 2:13).

This principle is embodied in the LDS Declaration of Belief in the Doctrine and Covenants, which reads:

We believe that all men are bound to sustain and uphold the respective governments in which they reside, while protected in their inherent and inalienable rights by the laws of such governments. (D&C 134:5.)

Some Church members have questioned the meaning of the last clause. Some who have written me have claimed to be excused from their scriptural obligation to “sustain and uphold” their’ government because the government has not protected them in their inalienable rights. One letter included this statement:

What about the resistance movement during the conquering of Hitler’s National Socialist war machine? I personally know of an LDS family who during World War II defied the Nazis by secretly saving lives of people (many of them were Jews) by hiding and transporting them by boat from Denmark to Sweden. Yet today they are still faithful members of the Church. Are they under condemnation for not obeying and sustaining the totalitarian government they were under?

I feel sorry for persons whose knowledge of the relative actions of Nazi Germany and modern United States of America is so incomplete that they put these two governments in the same category in depriving their citizens of inalienable rights. We should all be able to recognize the difference between abuses that are individualized, and we surely have some of these in the United States today, and those that are deliberate government policy, as in Nazi Germany. A person who cannot tell the difference between a rat and a rhinoceros will be a poor source of advice on the control of animals.

At a clear and extreme level, violations of inalienable rights by a government might excuse citizens from the performance of some obligations of citizenship. But the history of Latter-day Saints’ relations to their governments shows that any such exceptions would have to be far more extreme than anything we have experienced in this country.

Even when victimized by what they must surely have seen as very severe government oppressions and abridgments of freedom, the Mormon people and their leaders have remained loyal to their government and its laws. Think of the persecutions in Missouri, the expulsion from Nauvoo, and the repressions suffered in the Utah Territory. As long as a government provides aggrieved persons an opportunity to work to enlarge their freedoms and relieve their oppressions by legal and peaceful means, a Latter-day Saint citizen’s duty is to forego revolution and disobedience of law. Our doctrine commits us to work from within. Even an oppressive government is preferable to a state of lawlessness and anarchy in which the only ruling principle is force and every individual has a thousand oppressors. (See D&C 134:6.)

Church members who seek to use LDS doctrine as a basis for concluding that government infringements on inalienable rights have excused them from obeying the law seem to have forgotten the principle of following the prophets. Until the prophets invoke this principle, faithful members will also refrain from doing so. We remain committed to uphold our governments and to obey their laws.

Military Service and Taxes

I come now to the first two fundamental citizen responsibilities that have been compromised in my lifetime in the United States: serving in the military and paying taxes.

Modern opponents of compulsory military service and of enforced payment of taxes have this common objection. Both claim that the government compulsion to do these unpopular things interferes with freedom. The issue, they say, is freedom versus slavery.

The problem with this argument is that it proves too much. It would take us back to the toothless Articles of Confederation from which our inspired Constitution rescued us. A government that cannot compel military service or a government that cannot compel the payment of taxes is not much of a government.

At root, these objections to government compulsion are objections to the whole idea of government. Such objections are contrary to Christian doctrine. Jesus did not preach sedition. He taught his followers to “Render… unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s” (Matt. 22:21). His apostles taught the same, as I have already noted.

Of course, there are legitimate technical objections to laws requiring military service and to certain tax laws, but these are objections to the terms of the law, not to the idea of compulsion. Technical objections should be presented in the forums provided by law.

During the Vietnam War, when I was a professor of law at The University of Chicago Law School, I knew some young men from the political Left who had a second type of objection to military service. They said they did not object to compulsory service in the military, but they did object to serving in the war in Vietnam because they opposed that war. The law, which must give equal protection to all citizens, did not recognize that kind of objection. Citizens cannot pick and choose which wars to support or which laws to observe. But there were many young men who asserted this objection, and there were times during the Vietnam War when the extent of draft evasion on this basis posed a serious problem for our nation.

Today there is a comparable objection to the payment of taxes, but this objection comes primarily from the political Right. People who object to some of the ways the government spends its tax revenues contend that they should not be forced to pay taxes to support activities they condemn. This picking and choosing which laws to support is the same legal approach the young men of the political Left used to try to avoid military service during the war in Vietnam.

One does not have to approve of all of the uses of military power nor all of the uses of tax revenues to see that taxpayers and young men of military age cannot resist compulsion on the basis of disagreements with some of the policies of the government that seeks to compel them. A government could not survive if the enforceable responsibilities of its citizens were divisible according to their individual preferences. We cannot be expected to welcome military service or to relish the payment of taxes, but we should recognize these as essential responsibilities of citizenship, even where we disagree with some of the actions of the government we support.

I know of no better commentary on taxes and big government than the consoling observation attributed to Will Rogers: “We’re just lucky we’re not gettin’ all the government we’re payin’ for.” I also enjoy most of the good-humored jokes about the Internal Revenue Service, which definitely does not qualify as everyone’s favorite bureau. Someone said that the IRS has solved the problem of what to give to the man who already has everything: give him an audit!

So much for politics. I come now to objections based on some type of legal theory.

The first legal objection is that the basic law is unconstitutional. I do not remember such arguments being made against the draft law during the Vietnam War. However, for reasons I cannot explain, some persons are now arguing that the federal income tax is unconstitutional.

Church members involved in various forms of tax protest have sent me many legal memoranda that purport to justify their positions. For the first several years of my service as a General Authority, I did a good deal of personal research to evaluate these legal theories in view of the principles I had learned during a quarter of a century in the legal profession, including several years teaching tax law in a major law school. In not one single instance have I found any merit in the legal theories asserted as a basis for these tax protests. Yet, some good people are still being misled by them, and their mistaken reliance on false theories is wrecking havoc with their financial prospects and even their spiritual lives.

A claim often made by protesting taxpayers is that the IRS is afraid to challenge them. Some who have written me have claimed that the merit of their position is evident in the fact that they have not filed a tax return for many years and nothing has happened to them. I received one such a letter from a prominent tax protestor in Utah, and then, a few months later, read a press account of his beginning service of a long prison sentence in a federal penitentiary. The wheels of justice grind slowly, but exceedingly fine.

For many in this audience, the ultimate mortal authority on religious doctrine is the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Just last year, the Council of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve gave this instruction:

Church members in any nation are obligated by the twelfth article of faith to obey the tax laws of that nation (see also D&C 134:5) …. A member who refuses to file a tax return, to pay required income taxes, or to comply with a final judgment in a tax case is in direct conflict with the law and with the teachings of the Church. (Bulletin, 1993-2, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; also see General Handbook of Instructions, p. 11-2.)

There is nothing inappropriate in taking political action to reduce taxes or in pursuing well-founded court challenges to a particular application of the tax laws. In their 1993 statement, the Church leaders declared:

If a member disapproves of tax laws, he may attempt to have them changed by legislation or constitutional amendment, or, if he has a well-founded legal objection, he may challenge them in the courts. (Ibid.)

However, contrary to the position of some tax protestors, this statement provides no justification for a general and persistent failure to pay taxes or to refrain from filing tax returns. The courts that our Constitution and laws have established to rule on such matters have uniformly upheld the constitutionality of the federal income tax law and have regularly rejected assertions that wages and salaries are not taxable, that federal reserve notes do not count as income, and that individuals or businesses can elect not to comply with the income tax laws. As a result, failures to obey the income tax law that are based on these and similar theories must be regarded as actions without “a well-founded legal objection” and therefore unacceptable to persons committed to uphold and sustain the law.

Theories to Free Citizens from the Authority of Governments

Other variations on the avoidance of citizen responsibilities are the recent theories that purport to allow persons to free themselves from the authority of federal, state, or local governments.

The first of these theories was espoused by the so-called Township Movement. Under this theory, a person could execute some kind of document that would excuse him or her from any compulsory government authority other than the so-called township government this person had participated in electing. This theory purported to be based on common-law precedents going back to the earliest of times. Its defect is its ignoring or denying of the authority of the federal and state constitutions and laws adopted in this nation. The proponents of the Township Movement view history through a peephole that shows nothing but the subjects they desire. Their legal claims have no merit whatever.

The second theory that purports to allow a person to free himself or herself from paying taxes or being subject to other federal or state laws is the so-called state citizenship movement, which makes prominent reference to sovereign citizenship or common-law citizenship. This theory starts with a valid principle, the sovereignty of the people, but it misapplies that principle and reaches an erroneous conclusion.

One of the most important of the great fundamentals of our inspired Constitution is the principle that the sovereign power is in the people, not in a state or nation just because it has the power that comes from force of arms. Along with many other religious people, Latter-day Saints affirm that God gave the power to the people, and the people consented to a Constitution that delegated certain powers to the federal and state governments and reserved the rest to the people.

However, it does not follow from this principle that each citizen is free to determine which laws he will obey or that one or more citizens are free to redefine the concept of sovereignty. That would result in anarchy, a system in which the only source of power is the sword. In that system, no person is free. The United States Constitution and the constitutions of the several states have defined the powers citizens have granted to their governments, the procedures for amending those grants, and the means by which controversies over the exercise of those powers can be resolved.

Now to the theory of state or sovereign or common-law citizenship. A knowledgeable proponent of this theory, whose recent, long letter to me purported to be representative of large numbers of adherents in California and across the nation, some of whom are members of my church, gave this description of the theory (letter of Mar. 15, 1994): The 1783 Treaty of Paris (which concluded the Revolutionary War) granted sovereignty to the people of the thirteen colonies. The sovereign people of these colonies (later states) had no national citizenship. There was no national citizenship in the United States until 1868. The citizenship granted by the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868 gives national citizens only “subject status,” not sovereignty. As a result, there are different classes of citizenship in the United States today, depending upon whether one’s citizenship is based on the inferior status conferred by the Fourteenth Amendment or on the inherent sovereign citizenship that devolved upon residents of the various states as a result of the 1783 Treaty of Paris.

There are four major problems with this theory. First, the Treaty of Paris did not grant sovereignty to the citizens of the thirteen colonies. It is a treaty between countries,” Great Britain and the United States of America. The treaty acknowledges the independence of the thirteen “states,” as it calls them, but it refers to them collectively “the United States of America.” Moreover, the treaty was ratified by the Continental Congress, not by the legislatures of the thirteen states.

Second, the theory of state citizenship ignores the effect of the United States Constitution, which was ratified five years after the Treaty of Paris. That constitution established an entirely new relationship between the states and the national government. and the citizens of the states and the nation ratified that relationship by the procedures they had specified.

Third, the argument that there was only state citizenship prior to the Fourteenth Amendment ignores over 75 years of congressional and judicial action defining the separate incidents of federal and state citizenship. (See James H. Kettner, The Development of American Citizenship 1608-1870 [Univ. No. Carolina Press, 1978].)

Finally, the asserted theory also ignores the effect of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, which defines national citizenship for all citizens of this nation and its constituent states.

Persons who believe in the so-called “state citizenship movement” are encouraged to sign and publicly file three “legal documents,” including a “Declaration of Citizenship and Status as a Common-law Citizen.” These documents are supposed to revoke the signers’ national citizenship and free them from tax and other legal obligations to the United States. Considering the care with which these meaningless documents are drafted and executed, I am reminded of a wise aphorism: “A task not worth doing at all is not worth doing well.”

One recent letter to Church headquarters even suggested that such persons have no legal need to get a marriage license, and therefore should be able to have a temple marriage without one. Persons who claim the right to pick and choose which laws of the land they will observe are not far from claiming to choose which laws of God they must observe.

I feel sad that persons can be so misled. The wise will beware of teachings on the Constitution that are based on peephole history and selective readings of historic documents. They should also beware of the related advice of persons who advocate private armies or the collection of heavy weapons or extraordinary quantities of private arms. Responsible citizenship has no shortcuts when the going gets tough–not draft avoidance, not tax evasion and not eccentric theories that purport to free us from the obligation to be subject to t constitutions and laws of our states and our nation.

Participating in Democratic Government

The solution to many of the major problems in our nation is for more citizens to participate more actively and more effectively in democratic government, by their votes and by their letters and other communications to elected representatives. This fundamental responsibility of citizenship is a prerequisite for the perpetuation of freedom.

I will cite three major national problems that I believe would yield, long-term. increased citizen participation.

1. The budget deficit. We know that our national government cannot continue indefinitely to spend more than it receives. If the citizen-voters of this nation continue to demand the current level of government expenditures that produces our deficits, then our citizen-taxpayers must accept the tax increases necessary to fund them. If we won’t raise taxes, we should accept cuts in various expenditures. We cannot continue much longer to fund our current levels of government expenditures by increased borrowings.

This problem cannot be solved by the popular but superficial action of merely opposing all tax increases. It cannot be solved by the phony solution of proposing spending cuts on every government program except our various personal favorites. This familiar approach shatters working coalitions and imposes gridlock on progress toward reducing deficits. Citizen-taxpayers have endured the resulting government paralysis on deficit reduction for years, until we are about to drift over the fiscal falls from the effects of the national debt.

Citizen-voters should demand that our elected President and lawmakers act decisively and courageously to reduce the steeply increasing debt we are leaving to our children and grandchildren and the progressively paralyzing proportion of current income our government must pay as interest on that debt.

2. The allocation of power between federal and state governments. For more than a half century, our national government has been acquiring additional powers by assuming functions previously left to state and local governments. This trend has now gone so far that the national government is beginning to direct what state and local governments must do and even how they must spend their limited revenues. This trend must be stopped and reversed, or we will cease to be the federal republic established in our inspired Constitution.

I am glad that some of our state governors are challenging this trend. I welcome their leadership in objecting to congressional action that commandeers the legislative and regulatory processes of the states to carry out federal directives not financed by the federal government. I hope many citizens will respond to such leadership and work to assure that state governments and their subsidiary local governments will continue to have a strong and effective role in our nation.

It is imperative that state governments have the power and the fiscal resources to respond to local needs and to capitalize on local strengths. That is the essence of federalism. But if federalism is to work, state governments must be willing to move against local and regional problems, such as clean air and water, and not wait for every such initiative to come from the national government. The current imbalance between the national and the state governments is just as much a product of state inaction as it is of national overreaching.

The balance I advocate between national and state powers is mandated by the Tenth Amendment, which provides:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

The Tenth Amendment’s reference to powers delegated to the United States by the Constitution leads me to a third subject of concern.

3. We need to reestablish the constitutional principle that our federal government is a government of limited powers.

A government of limited powers was the central premise of constitutional law during the first century and a half of our nation’s history. Constitutional discussions of that period generally focused not on questions of individual rights but on whether the Constitution granted power to authorize the government activity that was challenged.

In the aftermath of the great depression and World War II, this traditional assumption of limited federal government powers was gradually displaced by the idea that the national government presumably possesses law-making powers except to the extent prohibited by some person’s defined constitutional right. As a result of this change, current legal and political debate over excessive or undesirable government regulation tends to focus on whether some individual constitutional rights have been invaded.

In effect …. [this] shifts the burden of proof concerning the appropriateness of an exercise of government power from the state to the rightholder. New assertions of government power are no longer suspect. Where no constitutional right is clearly available as a shield, new assertions of government authority meet passive acquiescence.

… [We] need to revitalize the old wisdom that the protection of individual freedom often requires limiting government powers in ways that go beyond merely vindicating individual rights. We must cage the lion as well as arm the spectators. (W. Cole Durham, Jr., and Dallin H. Oaks, “Constitutional Protections for Independent Higher Education: Limited Powers and Institutional Rights,” in Church and College: a Vital Partnership. Vol. 3. Accountability, pp. 71-72 [National Congress on Church-related Colleges and Universities, Austin College, Sherman, Texas, 1980].)

Because it requires changing deeply held assumptions and fundamental constitutional interpretations, this third major problem will be the most difficult to resolve. But it is also the most important. In the pantheon of ideas in our divinely-inspired constitution, the idea that the government is limited to the powers expressly and impliedly conferred by the Constitution is second only to the principle that the people are sovereign.

I have advocated greater citizen participation to resolve three major problems: (1) our massive and increasing national deficits, (2) the need for states to reacquire powers and initiatives taken away by the federal government, and (3) the need to reestablish the principle that the federal government is a government of limited powers.

A Caution on Citizen Participation in Single-Interest Groups

Even as I call for greater citizen participation to resolve national problems, I must voice one caution about citizen participation. I believe that citizen participation in single-interest groups is actually weakening representative government.

Interest groups are inevitable and desirable in a democratic government. For example, political parties are interest groups, comprised of persons with many different specific interests. Political parties blunt the extreme effects of their constituent special-interest groups as those parties compel the internal compromises necessary to mold their constituencies into a working coalition. In contrast, single-interest groups confront government directly with uncompromised demands on a narrow spectrum of issues. These groups are so specialized that they lack the perspective to move against the large problems, and they also lack the incentive to make the pragmatic compromises that are the enabling force of democratic government in a pluralistic society.

Some of the most powerful influences in the government of our nation in this last decade of the twentieth century are the multitude of single-interest groups. Whether the subject is gun control, medical care, criminal punishment, welfare reform, government aid to this or that, or whatever, these single-interest groups are a formidable force in lobbying, in fund-raising, and in citizen involvement. None of these groups is powerful enough to steer the ship of state by itself, but many have sufficient power to prevent the vessel from being steered toward the solution of more general problems. In other words, single-interest groups are not able to lead toward the solution of general problems, but they are commonly able to block such solutions. And what they block can be the solution of the large general problems that affect the entire body politic, such as deficit-spending or others I have mentioned.

Contrast the example of the founding fathers. The United States Constitution could never have been drafted or ratified if each of the delegates to the convention had focused on his own special interest and had demanded full satisfaction as the price of his support. The history of our Constitution is replete with examples of far-sighted statesmen who were willing to support a document that failed to implement many of their personal preferences. For example, influential Thomas Jefferson, who did not serve as a delegate because he was in Paris negotiating a treaty, felt strongly that a bill of rights should have been included in the original Constitution. But Jefferson still supported the Constitution because he felt it was the best available at the time. Benjamin Franklin described that same approach when he said: “The opinions I have had of its errors, I sacrifice to the public good.” (Notes of the Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787. Reported by James Madison, p. 653.)

In other words, we must not go into blocking tactics when a representative body fails to satisfy us fully on our favorite special interest. We should not expect all our personal preferences in government action that must represent a consensus. Americans are well advised to support the best that can be obtained in the circumstances that prevail. The conduct of the most important business of our nation must not be held hostage to the fulfillment of every preference of every powerful special interest group. In a democracy and a society committed to pluralism, we must be willing to compromise on public policies from year to year, and then apply ourselves diligently to the tiresome tasks of education and persuasion and lobbying in order to obtain our way to an increasing extent as we win agreement from our fellow citizens.

One aspect of our current single-interest politics that is a special worry to me is the fear that many Americans will have their only political activity through a particular single-interest group. If most who are politically active see the political process and the future of our country only through the keyhole of one particular special interest, where will we get the vision and perspective necessary to guide the ship of state on the largest and most important issues that confront us? Responsible citizenship requires that we see our venture in self-government in broader terms than merely through the lens of one special interest, however important and however strongly felt.

I do not suggest that anyone refrain from pressing whatever special interest is important to him or her. But I am bold enough to suggest that no person should limit his or her political activity to a single subject. For example, a person who strongly supports one special interest should also make a conscious effort to help resolve larger government problems on which that person can unite with some of the same persons who are the opposition in the area of special interest. There are plenty of areas for general citizen participation on subjects not usually classified as single interests. In addition to deficit reduction and the other topics mentioned earlier, I would include education policy, transportation policy, environmental concerns, and the necessarily broad-based activities of political parties at the local, state, and national levels.

General citizen cooperative action that transcends special interests can also be achieved through the multitude of private volunteer organizations that are unique and so important to our nation. A partial list of these will include activities familiar to everyone in this audience.

1. The celebration of citizenship, patriotism, and national holidays and values, such as hundreds of volunteers do so well in this Freedom Festival.
2. Volunteer work in hospitals, museums, public radio and television, and various arts organizations such as symphony, ballet, and theater.
3. Assisting the great system of private education that is unique to the United States of America, at the elementary, secondary, and college/university level.
4. Helping to clean up the air, water, and soil that support us, including such simple yet meaningful tasks as recycling materials and picking up trash along the highways.
5. Working with activity and athletic programs for young people, such as Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Little League, and Special Olympics.
6. Supporting and helping in the charitable projects of numerous community, social, and fraternal organizations.

Responsibilities and Heroes

I have spoken about citizenship responsibilities. I close with some observations about the relationship of responsibilities to the matter of heroes. (I use the word heroes to include both male and female.)

My friend, President George Roche of Hillsdale College, gives many important insights in his book, A World without Heroes (Hillsdale, Michigan: Hillsdale College Press, 1986). Seeking to answer the important question of why our current generation seems to have no heroes, Dr. Roche observes that a hero gains that stature by courageously overcoming significant obstacles to make an extraordinary achievement that is generally recognized as a good thing. He observes that “The hero seeks not happiness but goodness” (Ibid. p.4).

The kinds of persons who are idolized in our current society, including sports figures and movie or rock stars, are substitutes for heroes, but they are not heroes. The current idols stand for a self-serving pursuit of happiness, not an unselfish sacrifice for goodness. A materialistic or self-serving world cannot produce heroes because such a world has no generally accepted measure to tell us what we should do in the service of others. The genuine hero achieves that status by accomplishments measured against a consensus of what is good and praiseworthy. We cannot have heroes without clear common ideas of what is good or right.

My nominees for heroes are the good mothers and fathers who sacrifice to bear and nurture the leaders of future generations. I wish we had a national consensus on the appropriateness of that characterization, but we live in a time when our national leaders cannot even state a consensus on the definition of family.

As I read Dr. Roche’s stimulating ideas on heroes, I found myself translating his ideas into the common terms of the law with which I am most familiar. I thought of rights and responsibilities.

As noted earlier, the last half-century of legal and public discourse has concentrated strongly on the language of rights. I suggest that there are few heroes in a world that focuses on rights. Is a person a hero for getting his or her rights? There is justice in that accomplishment, but its only service is self-service. On exceptional occasions some persons can rise to hero status by securing the rights of others, such as the civil rights volunteers of the sixties who put their lives in jeopardy in securing the voting rights of black citizens in the South. But most commonly the gladiators who fight for the rights of others are well paid by legal fees or by public office or prominence. No, the pursuit of rights is rarely the stuff of which heroes are made. And so, in a time of preoccupation with rights it should not surprise us that we live in a world with few heroes.

Heroes win that status by distinction in the fulfillment of responsibilities. If we could resurrect the prominence of responsibilities in our society, we would resurrect the framework of belief and the measures of distinction by which heroes can be recognized and honored.

The citizen responsibilities I have discussed provide such an opportunity. I therefore join my voice to the plea of Dr. George Roche:

If this tired old planet is to be healed, it will be the old-fashioned way, one by one, with each of us finding the best within us. We all have to be heroes! (Ibid., p. xviii.)

May God bless us in our efforts to fulfill our responsibilities and to rise to the best that is in us.

My beloved brothers and sisters, seen and unseen—and we are all brothers and sisters, children of the same Father in the spirit—humbly and gratefully I stand before you on this anniversary date of the organization of the restored church of Jesus Christ, 142 years ago. I love a general conference of the Church, except this particular part, and yet I rejoice in the opportunity to bear testimony to this, the greatest work in all the world.

Last fall I was invited by Baron von Blomberg, president of the United Religions Organization, to represent the Church as a guest of the king of Persia at the twenty-five hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Persian Empire by Cyrus the Great. Advised by the First Presidency to accept the invitation, I left immediately following the October conference to join with representatives of twenty-seven world religions, some fifty monarchs, and other notables at this historic celebration in Iran.

King Cyrus lived more than five hundred years before Christ and figured in prophecies of the Old Testament mentioned in 2 Chronicles and the book of Ezra, and by the prophets Ezekiel, Isaiah, and Daniel. The Bible states how “the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, King of Persia.” (2 Chr. 36:22.) Cyrus restored certain political and social rights to the captive Hebrews, gave them permission to return to Jerusalem, and directed that Jehovah’s temple should be rebuilt.

Parley P. Pratt, in describing the Prophet Joseph Smith, said that he had “the boldness, courage, temperance, perseverance and generosity of a Cyrus.” (Autobiography of Parley Parker Pratt [Deseret Book Company, 1938], p. 46.)

President Wilford Woodruff said:

“Now I have thought many times that some of those ancient kings that were raised up, had in some respects more regard for the carrying out of some of these principles and laws, than even the Latter-day Saints have in our day. I will take as an ensample Cyrus. … To trace the life of Cyrus from his birth to his death, whether he knew it or not, it looked as though he lived by inspiration in all his movements. He began with that temperance and virtue which would sustain any Christian country or any Christian king. … Many of these principles followed him, and I have thought many of them were worthy, in many respects, the attention of men who have the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” (Journal of Discourses, vol. 22, p. 207.)

God, the Father of us all, uses the men of the earth, especially good men, to accomplish his purposes. It has been true in the past, it is true today, it will be true in the future.

“Perhaps the Lord needs such men on the outside of His Church to help it along,” said the late Elder Orson F. Whitney of the Quorum of the Twelve. “They are among its auxiliaries, and can do more good for the cause where the Lord has placed them, than anywhere else. … Hence, some are drawn into the fold and receive a testimony of the truth; while others remain unconverted … the beauties and glories of the gospel being veiled temporarily from their view, for a wise purpose. The Lord will open their eyes in His own due time. God is using more than one people for the accomplishment of His great and marvelous work. The Latter-day Saints cannot do it all. It is too vast, too arduous for any one people. … We have no quarrel with the Gentiles. They are our partners in a certain sense.” (Conference Report, April 1928, p. 59.)

This would certainly have been true of Colonel Thomas L. Kane, a true friend of the Saints in their dire need. It was true of General Doniphan, who, when ordered by his superior to shoot Joseph Smith, said: “It is cold blooded murder. I will not obey your order. … and if you execute these men, I will hold you responsible before an earthly tribunal, so help me God.” (Joseph Fielding Smith, Essentials in Church History, p. 241.)

We honor these partners because their devotion to correct principles overshadowed their devotion to popularity, party, or personalities.

We honor our founding fathers of this republic for the same reason. God raised up these patriotic partners to perform their mission, and he called them “wise men.” (See D&C 101:80.) The First Presidency acknowledged that wisdom when they gave us the guideline a few years ago of supporting political candidates “who are truly dedicated to the Constitution in the tradition of our Founding Fathers.” (Deseret News, November 2, 1964.) That tradition has been summarized in the book The American Tradition by Clarence Carson.

The Lord said that “the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.” (Luke 16:8.) Our wise founders seemed to understand, better than most of us, our own scripture, which states that “it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority … they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion.” (D&C 121:39.)

To help prevent this, the founders knew that our elected leaders should be bound by certain fixed principles. Said Thomas Jefferson: “In questions of power then, let no more be heard of confidence in man but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.”

These wise founders, our patriotic partners, seemed to appreciate more than most of us the blessings of the boundaries that the Lord set within the Constitution, for he said, “And as pertaining to law of man, whatsoever is more or less than this, cometh of evil.” (D&C 98:7.)

In God the founders trusted, and in his Constitution—not in the arm of flesh. “O Lord,” said Nephi, “I have trusted in thee, and I will trust in thee forever. I will not put my trust in the arm of flesh; … cursed is he that putteth his trust in man or maketh flesh his arm.” (2 Ne. 4:34.)

President J. Reuben Clark, Jr., put it well when he said:

“God provided that in this land of liberty, our political allegiance shall run not to individuals, that is, to government officials, no matter how great or how small they may be. Under His plan our allegiance and the only allegiance we owe as citizens or denizens of the United States, runs to our inspired Constitution which God himself set up. So runs the oath of office of those who participate in government. A certain loyalty we do owe to the office which a man holds, but even here we owe just by reason of our citizenship, no loyalty to the man himself. In other countries it is to the individual that allegiance runs. This principle of allegiance to the Constitution is basic to our freedom. It is one of the great principles that distinguishes this ‘land of liberty’ from other countries.” (Improvement Era, July 1940, p. 444.)

“Patriotism,” said Theodore Roosevelt, “means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the President or any other public official save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. …

“Every man,” said President Roosevelt, “who parrots the cry of ‘stand by the President’ without adding the proviso ‘so far as he serves the Republic’ takes an attitude as essentially unmanly as that of any Stuart royalist who championed the doctrine that the King could do no wrong. No self-respecting and intelligent free man could take such an attitude.” (Theodore Roosevelt, Works, vol. 21, pp. 316, 321.) And yet as Latter-day Saints we should pray for our civic leaders and encourage them in righteousness.

“… to vote for wicked men, it would be sin,” said Hyrum Smith. (Documentary History of the Church, vol. 6, p. 323.)

And the Prophet Joseph Smith said, “… let the people of the whole Union, like the inflexible Romans, whenever they find a promise made by a candidate that is not practiced as an officer, hurl the miserable sycophant from his exaltation. …” (DHC, vol. 6, p. 207.)

Joseph and Hyrum’s trust did not run to the arm of flesh, but to God and correct eternal principles. “I am the greatest advocate of the Constitution of the United States there is on the earth,” said the Prophet Joseph Smith. (DHC, vol. 6, p. 56.)

The warning of President Joseph Fielding Smith is most timely: “Now I tell you it is time the people of the United States were waking up with the understanding that if they don’t save the Constitution from the dangers that threaten it, we will have a change of government.” (Conference Report, April 1950, p. 159.)

Another guideline given by the First Presidency was “to support good and conscientious candidates, of either party, who are aware of the great dangers” facing the free world. (Deseret News, November 2, 1964.)

Fortunately we have materials to help us face these threatening dangers in the writings of President David O. McKay and other church leaders. Some other fine sources by LDS authors attempting to awaken and inform us of our duty are: Prophets, Principles, and National Survival (Jerreld L. Newquist), Many Are Called But Few Are Chosen (H. Verlan Andersen), and The Elders of Israel and the Constitution (Jerome Horowitz).

But the greatest handbook for freedom in this fight against evil is the Book of Mormon.

This leads me to the second great civic standard for the Saints. For in addition to our inspired Constitution, we have the scriptures.

Joseph Smith said that the Book of Mormon was the “keystone of our religion” and the “most correct” book on earth. (DHC, vol. 6, p. 56.) This most correct book on earth states that the downfall of two great American civilizations came as a result of secret conspiracies whose desire was to overthrow the freedom of the people. “And they have caused the destruction of this people of whom I am now speaking,” says Moroni, “and also the destruction of the people of Nephi.” (Ether 8:21.)

Now undoubtedly Moroni could have pointed out many factors that led to the destruction of the people, but notice how he singled out the secret combinations, just as the Church today could point out many threats to peace, prosperity, and the spread of God’s work, but it has singled out the greatest threat as the godless conspiracy. There is no conspiracy theory in the Book of Mormon —it is a conspiracy fact.

And along this line, I would highly recommend to you a new book entitled None Dare Call it Conspiracy, by Gary Allen.

Then Moroni speaks to us in this day and says, “Wherefore, the Lord commandeth you, when ye shall see these things come among you that ye shall awake to a sense of your awful situation, because of this secret combination which shall be among you” (Ether 8:14.)

The Book of Mormon further warns that “whatsoever nation shall uphold such secret combinations, to get power and gain, until they shall spread over the nation, behold they shall be destroyed. …” (Ether 8:22.)

This scripture should alert us to what is ahead unless we repent, because there is no question but that as people of the free world, we are increasingly upholding many of the evils of the adversary today. By court edict godless conspirators can run for government office, teach in our schools, hold office in labor unions, work in our defense plants, serve in our merchant marines, etc. As a nation, we are helping to underwrite many evil revolutionaries in our country.

Now we are assured that the Church will remain on the earth until the Lord comes again—but at what price? The Saints in the early days were assured that Zion would be established in Jackson County, but look at what their unfaithfulness cost them in bloodshed and delay.

President Clark warned us that “we stand in danger of losing our liberties, and that once lost, only blood will bring them back; and once lost, we of this church will, in order to keep the Church going forward, have more sacrifices to make and more persecutions to endure than we have yet known. …” (CR, April 1944, p. 116.) And he stated that if the conspiracy “comes here it will probably come in its full vigor and there will be a lot of vacant places among those who guide and direct, not only this government, but also this Church of ours.” (CR, April 1952.)

Now the third great civic standard for the Saints is the inspired word of the prophets—particularly the living president, God’s mouthpiece on the earth today. Keep your eye on the captain and judge the words of all lesser authority by his inspired counsel.

The story is told how Brigham Young, driving through a community, saw a man building a house and simply told him to double the thickness of his walls. Accepting President Young as a prophet, the man changed his plans and doubled the walls. Shortly afterward a flood came through that town, resulting in much destruction, but this man’s walls stood. While putting the roof on his house, he was heard singing, “We thank thee, O God, for a prophet!”

Joseph Smith taught “that a prophet was a prophet only when he was acting as such.” (DHC, vol. 5, p. 265.)

Suppose a leader of the Church were to tell you that you were supporting the wrong side of a particular issue. Some might immediately resist this leader and his counsel or ignore it, but I would suggest that you first apply the fourth great civic standard for the faithful Saints. That standard is to live for, to get, and then to follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

Said Brigham Young: “I am more afraid that this people have so much confidence in their leaders that they will not inquire for themselves of God whether they are led by Him. … Let every man and woman know, by the whisperings of the Spirit of God to themselves, whether their leaders are walking in the path the Lord dictates, or not.” (JD, vol. 9, p. 150.)

A number of years ago, because of a statement that appeared to represent the policy of the Church, a faithful member feared he was supporting the wrong candidate for public office. Humbly he took the matter up with the Lord. Through the Spirit of the Lord he gained the conviction of the course he should follow, and he dropped his support of this particular candidate.

This good brother, by fervent prayer, got the answer that in time proved to be the right course.

We urge all men to read the Book of Mormon and then ask God if it is true. And the promise is sure that they may know of its truthfulness through the Holy Ghost, “and by the power of the Holy Ghost [men] may know the truth of all things.” (Moro. 10:5.)

We need the constant guidance of that Spirit. We live in an age of deceit. “O my people,” said Isaiah in the Book of Mormon, “they who lead thee cause thee to err and destroy the way of thy paths.” (2 Ne. 13:12.) Even within the Church we have been warned that “the ravening wolves are amongst us, from our own membership, and they, more than any others, are clothed in sheep’s clothing, because they wear the habiliments of the priesthood.” (J. Reuben Clark, Jr., CR, April 1949, p. 163.)

The Lord holds us accountable if we are not wise and are deceived. “For they that are wise,” he said, “and have received the truth, and have taken the Holy Spirit for their guide, and have not been deceived—verily I say unto you, they shall not be hewn down and cast into the fire, but shall abide the day.” (D&C 45:57.)

And so four great civic standards for the faithful Saints are, first, the Constitution ordained by God through wise men; second, the scriptures, particularly the Book of Mormon; third, the inspired counsel of the prophets, especially the living president, and fourth, the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

God bless us all that we may use these standards and by so doing bless ourselves, our families, our community, our nation, and the world, I humbly pray, as I bear my witness to the truth of this great latter-day work, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

My beloved brethren and sisters and friends: I deem this a signal honor, a truly great privilege, but a sobering responsibility. I pray for the inspiration of heaven and for an interest in your faith and prayers. My heart is full to overflowing with gratitude for the blessings which we enjoy and which are mine. I thank the Lord that in his infinite wisdom he has seen fit to call these great conferences of the Church. No One, I am sure, has benefitted more richly from these conferences than I have. I have literally received a spiritual uplift, for which I am most grateful to my heavenly Father.

In addition to attending the conference, I have had the glorious privilege of spending an hour or so in meditation in the temple of God to the east of us. I humbly acknowledge the sustaining power of my heavenly Father throughout my entire life, for which I am most grateful, and particularly for his Sustaining power during the last twenty months.

I am grateful for the faith, the love, and the confidence of my associates in the General Authorities; the support of my wife and family; for the prayers and the support of the Saints of Zion, as well as the millions of good people outside the Church. I know I shall never be able to express adequately the gratitude I feel for those who have so loyally and so helpfully sustained and supported me with their love, confidence, and prayers.

I am very grateful I have received a witness from the Almighty that at the present time, at least, I am serving where he Wishes me to serve. I have never had any doubts of that fact since that early morning hour when I met our great leader, my beloved associate, President David O. McKay, on the parking lot of the Church Office Building, band he made the statement to me, “My mind is clear. I know what the Lord wants you to do.”

So, my brethren and sisters, I am happy in the assignment which is mine. My one fear, and my one anxiety is that I may inadvertently sometime do something or say something that will cast an unfavorable light or bring discredit upon the Church and kingdom of God and the people whom I love so dearly, and upon this great nation which we all love. I pray that this may never happen.

I love this nation of which we are a part. To me it is not just another nation, not just a member of a family of nations. It is a great and glorious nation with a divine mission and it has been brought into being under the inspiration of heaven. It is truly a land choice above all others. I thank God for the knowledge which we have regarding the prophetic history and the prophetic future of this great land of America.

When I contemplate the great events that have transpired here, going way back to the days when our first parents were placed in the Garden of Eden, and recall that this garden was here in America, that it was here also where Adam met with a body of great high priests at Adam-ondi- Ahman shortly before his death and gave them his final blessing, and that to that same spot he is to return again to meet with the leaders of his people, his children–when I contemplate, my brethren and sisters, that here in this land will be established the New Jerusalem, that here in this land will Zion be built–when I contemplate that prophets of God anciently served here in this land, and that the resurrected Christ appeared unto them–and when I contemplate that the greatest of all visions, the coming of God the Father, and the Son to the boy Prophet in our day took place in this land, my heart fills with gratitude that I am privileged to live here, and that I have the honor and pleasure of not only serving in the Churc, but also of serving in the government of this great land. I consider it an honor and privilege.

I am grateful for the Founding Fathers of this land and for the freedom they have vouchsafed to us. I am grateful that they recognized, as great leaders of this nation have always recognized, that the freedom which we enjoy did not originate with the ‘Founding Fathers; that this glorious principle, this great boon of freedom and respect for the dignity of man, came as a gift from the Creator. The Founding Fathers, it is true, with superb genius welded together the safeguards of these freedoms. It was necessary, however, for them to turn to the scriptures, to religion, in order to have this great experiment make sense to them. And so our freedom is God-given. It antedates the Founding Fathers.

I am grateful, too, my brethren and sisters that they saw fit to state, among other things, that “we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights”–rights which cannot be conferred by any man or nation, rights which only the God of heaven can bestow–that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” As Brother Thomas E. McKay said, “not happiness, but the opportunity to pursue and earn happiness.”

When the God of heaven said to one of his ancient prophets, “. . . men are, that they might have joy,” (2 Ne. 2:25) he also implied that men should have free agency. They might have joy if through their efforts and the wise exercise of their free agency they lived to merit that joy. You will recall that through Moses the Lord said that Satan was cast Out of the great council in heaven because he ‘ 84, 84, 84, sought to destroy the agency of man, which I, the Lord God, had given him.” (Moses 4:3.) There is the source of free agency–”. . . which I, the Lord God, had given him.”

I have rejoiced, my brethren and sisters, that in recent years our great leader has ‘raised his voice from one end of this land to the other, and in foreign countries, pointing out the great blessings of freedom and free agency, and explaining so clearly the source of these priceless blessings.

I am grateful for the Constitution of this land. I am grateful that the Founding Fathers made it clear that our allegiance runs to that Constitution and the glorious eternal principles embodied therein. Our allegiance does not run to any man, to a king, or a dictator, or a president, although we revere and honor those whom we elect to high office. Our allegiance runs to the Constitution and to the principles embodied therein. The Founding Fathers made that clear and provided well for checks and balances and safeguards in an attempt to guarantee this freedom to those of us who live in this land.

I am grateful that the God of heaven saw fit to put his stamp of approval upon the Constitution and to indicate that it had come into being through wise men whom he raised up unto this very purpose. He asked the Saints, even in the dark days of their persecution and hardship to continue to seek for redress from their enemies “According,” he said, “to the laws and constitution . . . which I have suffered to be established and should be maintained for the rights and protection of all flesh.” (D. & C. 101:77.) And then he made this most impressive declaration:

And for this purpose have I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose, and redeemed the land by the shedding of blood. (Ibid., 101:80.)

It is gratifying that the Constitutions in many of the other lands Of our neighbors in the Americas are patterned very much after this divine-appointed Constitution, which the God of heaven directed in the founding of this nation. It isn’t any wonder, therefore, that Joseph Smith, the Prophet–a truly great American–referring to the Constitution, said,

[It] is a glorious standard; it is founded in the wisdom of God. It is a heavenly banner. . . . (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 147.)

Yes, my brethren and sisters, we have a rich heritage, but may I remind you that nations ofttimes sow the seeds of their own destruction even while enjoying prosperity, even before reaching the zenith or the peak of their power. I think history clearly indicates that this is often the case. When it appears that all is well, ofttimes the very seeds of destruction are sown, sometimes unwittingly. Most of the great civilizations of the world have not been conquered from without until they have destroyed themselves from within by sowing these seeds of destruction.

People who are willing–and we have some of them in this country–to trade freedom for security, are sowing the seeds of destruction and deserve neither freedom nor security. Yes, we have, and have had for a good many years, in evidence in this country–this land choice above all other lands–certain trends that strike, in my judgment, at the very foundation of much that we hold dear. There is not time to discuss these trends today, but I would like to emphasize that as nations tend to enjoy higher and higher standards Of living, greater and greater comforts, greater and greater material blessings, there seems to he a tendency for them to become more and more interested in preserving their luxuries and their comforts than in preserving and safeguarding the ideals and principles that have made them great. In other words, there is a tendency for them to become acted with the germs of decadent morality. As we look to the future and contemplate our responsibilities as American citizens, what is the duty o Latter-day Saints? What is the duty of the elders of Israel in safeguarding this freedom which has been purchased so dearly with the blood of millions of our brothers and sisters who have gone before?

Here again the God of heaven has given us guidance, as always, both in the revelations and in the word that has come from his living Oracles. He has told us some of the things we must do in order to preserve this freedom and safeguard the blessings we have today. May I refer to one of these revelations, a revelation given at a time when the Lord was counseling the Saints to accept patiently their persecutions and their hardships with the full assurance that all these things would eventually be for their good and benefit.

And now, verily I say unto you concerning the laws of the land, it is my will that my people should observe to do all things whatsoever I command them.

And that law of the land which is constitutional, supporting that principle . of freedom in maintaining rights and privileges, belongs to all mankind, and is justifiable before me. (D. & C. 98:4-5.)

It is very clear, my brethren and Sisters, that the Lord disapproves of force, coercion, and intimidation. It is also very clear from the history of the world that only free people are truly happy. The revelation continues:

Therefore I, the Lord, justify you, and your brethren of my church, in befriending the law which is the constitutional law of the land;

And as pertaining to law of man, whatsoever is more or less than this, cometh of evil.

I, the lord God, make you free, therefore ye are free indeed; and the law also maketh you free.

Then he points out this danger:

Nevertheless, when the wicked rule the people mourn. (Ibid., 98:6-9.)

Those of us who had the Opportunity of traveling in war-torn Europe at the end of the last war saw ample evidence of what befalls people when the wicked are permitted to rise to positions of leadership. “. . . when the wicked rule the people mourn. Saith the Lord,

Wherefore, honest men and wise men should be sought for diligently, and good men and wise men ye should observe to uphold; otherwise whatsoever is less than these cometh of evil. (Ibid., 98: 10.)

Now that is a commandment to his Church and to his Saints. To me it means that we have a responsibility as Latter-day Saints to use our influence so honest men and wise men and good men will be elected to public office in the community, in the county, in the state, and in the nation, To me this commandment of God is just as binding upon the Latter-day Saints as is the law of tithing, or the Word of Wisdom, or any other commandment which the God of heaven has given us.

As I read that for the first time some years ago I thought, “What an indictment of corrupt would- be political leaders in many parts of the world–demagogues who deal in half-truths, innuendos, and falsehoods! Here the God of heaven has pointed out the type of men he wants elected to public office among his people.” It is not enough, my brethren and sisters, just to stand on the sidelines and criticize what is taking place, and to point the finger of scorn at some political leader, It is our job, our duty, and our responsibility to take an active interest in these matters, and carry out the admonition and the commandment which God has given Us to see to it that men of character–good men, as measured by the standards of the gospel–are elected to public office.

So, today, I would like to throw out a challenge to the elders of Israel, my brethren Of the priesthood, that we put forth an effort to prepare ourselves for statesmanlike work. The Prophet Joseph, as you will recall, had something to say regarding the important part which the elders of Israel would play in the safeguarding, if not the saving, of the Constitution of this land. I recall the words of the Savior in which he said,

. . . for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. (Luke 16:8.)

I hope and pray that we will be wise as the children of light, as the children to whom God has revealed these glorious truths. It is my conviction that only in this land, under this God-inspired Constitution, under an environment of freedom, could it have been possible to have established the Church and kingdom of God and restored the gospel in its fullness. It is our responsibility, my brethren and sisters, to see that this freedom is maintained, so that the Church can flourish in the future.

Today I would like to propose four questions which every Latter-day Saint might well ask as he attempts to appraise any program, policy, or idea promoted by any would-be political leader. I mention these because I think they will provide a safeguard in electing to office men who will meet the requirements which the Lord has set forth in the revelations.

First, is the proposal, the policy, or the idea being promoted right as measured by the gospel of Jesus Christ? I assure you it is much easier for One to measure a proposed policy by the gospel of Jesus Christ if he has accepted the gospel and is living it,

Secondly, is it right as measured by the Constitution of this land and the glorious principles embodied in that Constitution? Now that suggests that we must read and study the Constitution, the Declaration Of Independence, and the Bill of Rights, that we might know what principles are embodied therein.

Thirdly, we might well ask the question: Is it right as measured by the counsel of the living oracles of God? It is my conviction, my brethren and sisters, that these living oracles are not only authorized, but are obligated to give counsel to this people on any subject which is vital to the welfare of this people and the upbuilding of the kingdom of God. So, that measure should be applied. Is it right as measured by the counsel of the living oracles of God?

Fourthly, what will be the effect On the morale and the character of the people if this or that policy is adopted? After all, as a Church we are interested in building men and women, building character, because character is the one thing we make in this world and take with us into the next. It must never be sacrificed for expediency.

So, my brethren, the Lord’s priesthood has a mission to perform for liberty-loving people everywhere. We cannot, any more than Jonah of old, run away from our calling. If the people shall accept the Lord’s solution of the world’s problems, even as those who listened to a repentant Jonah, then all shall be well with them. If they do not, however, they will suffer the consequences. Our responsibility, as in Jonah’s case, is to see to it that the people have a chance to choose decisively after they have been shown clearly the Lord’s way and what the Lord expects of them.

We must provide effective and courageous, God-inspired leadership so that the people among whom we labor may choose wisely between the issues. The choice is theirs, but providing them the opportunity to choose the right with a knowledge of the revelations of God and the counsel of the living Oracles, that is our responsibility as leaders in the priesthood.

The Prophet Joseph said in substance at one time: It is our duty to consecrate all our influence to make popular that which is sound and good, and unpopular that which is unsound.

It is right politically for a man who has influence–of course, influence for good–to use it.

I thought last night, my brethren, where could there be a greater influence for good in this world than in a magnified priesthood? Nineteen thousand members of the priesthood assembled last night. One quarter million hold the Melchizedek Priesthood! What a power and influence for good could be wielded in this blessed land if we would heed the admonition which the Lord has given and see to it that men who are wise and good and honest would have our vigorous support and receive our interest in their selection and election to high office in the community, county, state, and federal government. Let us, my brethren, seek to take an active part in our local, state, and national affairs. We are commanded by the Lord to do so. It is as binding on us as any of the Lord’s commandments. Actually, it is when good men do nothing that evil flourishes.

The priesthood of the Church and kingdom of God who magnify their callings are good men. Of course there will be opposition. There will be conflicts. There will be misrepresentation. We must stand firm, however, for that which we believe to be right as measured by these standards, for those things which we know to be good and true, and the God of heaven will sustain us.

We have approaching us a great election in this country. My plea with you today, my brethren and sisters, is that regardless of the political party with which you are affiliated, you will remember the standards which the God of heaven has given us, and that you and all of us will use our influence as a means of helping to safeguard the liberty of this country, and those noble concepts established under the inspiration of heaven. We must see to it that honest men, good men, wise men, are elected to public office in this land, choice above all others, men who will use their influence to protect and strengthen those basic concepts that have made this nation great.

In closing I quote these words from J. E. Hamilton:

How much now we need a leadership that will tell the truth and talk straight, not about what is expedient, . . . but about what is everlastingly right, and call our people to a crusade for it, and pledge America to the defense of it, so that all nations will be convinced that we mean it! We need men who will ignore the consequences, tell the truth, and take a long chance with God.

It is my prayer that the great promises which have been made by the prophets of God regarding this land will be realized because a righteous people will merit their fulfillment. May we do our duty as citizens and as members of the Church to see to it that the right kind of people are elected to public office, so that rich blessings which we now enjoy and which have been promised to us, may be realized in all the days to come.

I testify to you, my brethren and sisters, that this is a choice land, that God held this hemisphere, as it were, in the palm of his hand for hundreds, yea, thousands of ears in order that the great mission of this land might be undertaken and might be accomplished. The kingdom of God is again upon the earth. I testify to you that God has spoken again from the heavens in this land, in our day; that God the Father, and the Son did appear to the Prophet Joseph; that they revealed themselves unto him, and that through that greatest of all visions, a new gospel dispensation was opened up in preparation for the Second coming of the Master.

With all the power that I possess I invite men everywhere to investigate the truths of the claims of this people, that they too may join with us in building l the kingdom in preparation for that glorious day when the Redeemer will come again to dwell upon the earth as King of kings, and Lord of lords. I pray that this day may be hastened, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Humbly and gratefully I take as my theme for these brief remarks the following words from the inspiring opening address by President David O. McKay at the Friday morning session of this great conference.

“Efforts are being made to deprive man of his free agency, to steal from the individual his liberty. . . . There has been an alarming increase in the abandoning of the ideals that constitute the foundation of the Constitution of the United States. . . .”

I therefore speak on the subject: “Protecting Freedom–An Immediate Responsibility.”

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints proclaims that life is eternal, that it has purpose. We believe we lived as intelligent beings in a world of progress before this mortal life. Our life on this earth is a probation, a testing period, an opportunity for growth and experience in a physical world. It is all part of the plan of our Heavenly Father for the benefit and blessing of us, his children.

This is to be done through a great and all-wise plan–the gospel of Jesus Christ. This master plan, if lived, will build men of character, men of strength, men of deep spirituality, Godlike men.

Free agency to preserve freedom

Basic to this all-important plan is our free agency, the right of choice. Free agency is an eternal principle. We enjoyed freedom of choice in the spirit world as spirit children. In fact, a counter-plan to the gospel of our Lord was presented by Lucifer, a plan of force that would have robbed man of his freedom of choice. Lucifer’s plan was rejected, and the scriptures tell us that he, with one-third of the hosts of heaven, was cast out; and they continue their opposition to God’s plan, which is based on the freedom of the individual.

The scriptures make clear that there was a great war in heaven, a struggle over the principle of freedom the right of choice. (See Moses 4:1–4; D&C 29:36–38; 76:25-27; Rev. 12:7–9.)

History, both sacred and secular, clearly records that the struggle to preserve and safeguard freedom has been a continuous one. Prophets of God as watchmen on the towers, have proclaimed liberty. Holy men of God have led the fight against anarchy and tyranny. Moses was commanded to “proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.” (Lev. 25:10.)

Why have prophets of God been commanded to proclaim liberty and lead the battle to preserve freedom? Because freedom is basic to the great plan of the Lord. The gospel can prosper only in an atmosphere of freedom. This fact is confirmed by history, as well as by sacred scriptures. The right of choice–free agency–runs like a golden thread throughout the gospel plan of the Lord for the blessing of his children.

To a modern-day prophet the Lord declared that “it is not right that any man should be in bondage one to another.” In a revelation to the restored Church in 1833 the Lord declared:

“. . . that law of the land which is constitutional, supporting that principle of freedom in maintaining rights and privileges, belongs to all mankind and is justifiable before me.

“I, the Lord God, make you free therefore ye are free indeed; and the law also maketh you free.

“Nevertheless, when the wicked rule the people mourn.

“Wherefore, honest men and wise men should be sought for diligently and good men and wise men ye should observe to uphold; otherwise whatsoever is less than these cometh of evil.” (D&C 98:5, 8–10.)

A year ago in a great general conference address on freedom and how it is threatened today, our beloved President warned us, saying, “I do not know that there was ever a time in the history of mankind when the Evil One seemed so determined to take from man his freedom.” He went on to explain that “pernicious efforts and sinister schemes are cunningly and stealthily being fostered to deprive man of his individual freedom and have him revert to the life of the jungle.” (“Man’s Free Agency,” The Improvement Era, Dec. 1965, pp. 1073, 1099.)

War against wisdom

Still earlier the First Presidency warned the Saints that “Satan is making war against all the wisdom that has come to men through their ages of experience. He is seeking to overturn and destroy the very foundations upon which society, government, and religion rest. He aims to have men adopt theories and practices which he induced their forefathers, over the ages, to adopt and try, only to be discarded by them when found unsound, impractical, and ruinous. He plans to destroy liberty and freedom–economic, political, and religious, and to set up in place thereof the greatest, most widespread, and most complete tyranny that has ever oppressed man. He is working under such perfect disguise that many do not recognize either him or his methods. . . . Without their knowing it, the people are being urged down paths that lead only to destruction. Satan never before had so firm a grip on this generation as he has now.” (“Message of the First Presidency,” The Improvement Era, Nov. 1942, p. 761.)

In spite of the scriptural evidence and the counsel of modern-day prophets during the past more than 100 years, there are still some who seem to feel we have no responsibility to safeguard and strengthen our precious God-given freedom. There are some who apparently feel that the fight for freedom is separate from the gospel. They express it in several ways but it generally boils down to this: Just live the gospel; there’s no need to get involved in trying to save freedom and the Constitution or to stop Communism.

Of course, this is dangerous reasoning, because in reality you cannot fully live the gospel without working to save freedom and the Constitution, and to stop Communism.

In the war in heaven, what would have been your reaction if someone had told you just to do what is right–there’s no need to get involved in the fight for freedom?

War in Heaven continues on Earth

Of course, the war in heaven over free agency is now being waged here on earth, and there are those today who are saying “Look, don’t get involved in the fight for freedom. Just live the gospel.” That counsel is dangerous, self-contradictory, unsound.

The Book of Mormon pays tribute to General Moroni in these words: “And Moroni was a strong and a mighty man; he was a man of perfect understanding, yea, a man that did not delight in bloodshed; a man whose soul did joy in the liberty and the freedom of his country, and his brethren from bondage and slavery; . . .

“Yea, and he was a man who was firm in the faith of Christ, and he had sworn with an oath to defend his people his rights, and his country, and his religion, even to the loss of his blood.” (Alma. 48:11,13.)

And then Moroni is paid this high tribute: “Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men.” (Alma. 48:17.)

Now, part of the reason we may not have sufficient priesthood bearers to save the Constitution let alone to shake the powers of hell, is because unlike Moroni, I fear, our souls do not joy in keeping our country free, and we are not firm in the faith of Christ nor have we sworn with an oath to defend our rights and the liberty of our country.

Need for action now

Moroni raised a title of liberty and wrote upon it these words: “In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children.” Why didn’t he write upon it: “Just live your religion; there’s no need to concern yourselves about your freedom, your peace, your wives, or your children”? The reason he didn’t do this was because all these things were a part of his religion, as they are of our religion today.

Should we counsel people, “Just live your religion. There’s no need to get involved in the fight for freedom”? No, we should not, because our stand for freedom is a most basic part of our religion; this stand helped get us to this earth, and our reaction to freedom in this life will have eternal consequences. Man has many duties, but he has no excuse that can compensate for his loss of liberty.

As members of the Church we have some close quarters to pass through if we are going to get home safely. We will be given a chance to choose between conflicting counsel given by some. That’s why we must learn–and the sooner we learn, the better–to keep our eye on the Prophet, the President of the Church. And that Prophet today is President David O. McKay.

On the day the Church was organized, the Lord gave a revelation, too often overlooked, that he expects members of the Church to “give heed unto all his words and commandments which” the Prophet and President “shall give unto you as he receiveth them, walking in all holiness before me;

“For his word ye shall receive, as if from mine own mouth, in all patience and faith.” (D&C 21:4–5.)

Wisdom needed

All men are entitled to inspiration, especially men who bear the priesthood, but only one man is the Lord’s mouthpiece. Some lesser men have used in the past, and will use in the future, their offices unrighteously. Some will, ignorantly or otherwise, use their office to promote false counsel; some will use it to lead the unwary astray; some will use it to persuade us that all is well in Zion: some will use it to cover and excuse their ignorance. Keep your eye on the Prophet, for the Lord will never permit his Prophet to lead this Church astray. Let us live close to the Spirit, so we can test all counsel.

Now, after all the counsel that has been given, what did President McKay have to say to the priesthood at our last annual world conference in April? Fortunately, his inspired words were printed on the editorial page of the June Improvement Era and have been reprinted in folder form by the Deseret Book Company as “the position of the Church.” It would be well if every family in America could have a copy. You who have felt that you can righteously avoid standing up for freedom, heed these words:

Counsel given

“In order that there may be no misunderstanding by bishops, stake presidents, and others regarding members of the Church participating in non-church meetings to study and become informed on the Constitution of the United States, Communism, etc., I wish,” said President McKay, “to make the following statements that I have been sending out from my office for some time and that have come under question by some stake authorities, bishoprics, and others.

“Church members are at perfect liberty to act according to their own consciences in the matter of safeguarding our way of life. They are, of course, encouraged to honor the highest standards of the gospel and to work to preserve their own freedoms. They are free to participate in non-church meetings that are held to warn people of the threat of Communism or any other theory or principle that will deprive us of our free agency or individual liberties vouchsafed by the Constitution of the United States. . . .

“The position of this Church on the subject of Communism has never changed. We consider it the greatest satanical threat to peace, prosperity, and the spread of God’s work among men that exists on the face of the earth.

“In this connection,” President McKay continues, “we are continually being asked to give our opinion concerning various patriotic groups or individuals who are fighting Communism and speaking up for freedom. Our immediate concern, however, is not with parties, groups, or persons, but with principles. We therefore commend and encourage every person and every group who are sincerely seeking to study Constitutional principles and awaken a sleeping and apathetic people to the alarming conditions that are rapidly advancing about us. We wish all of our citizens throughout the land were participating in some type of organized self-education in order that they could better appreciate what is happening and know what they can do about it.

“Supporting the FBI, the police, the congressional committees investigating Communism, and various organizations that are attempting to awaken the people through educational means is a policy we warmly endorse for all our people.” (The Improvement Era, June 1966, p. 477.)

Everyone should study the complete statement. This statement is timely and clear. The need for such a Church position has never been greater. I realize that it is sometimes unpopular to speak the solemn warning truth. As a people, we do not like to be disturbed from our comfortable complacency. But today we are face to face with an increasingly successful, ruthless conspiracy. Our remaining liberties are hanging in the balance.

Hear President McKay’s further counsel:

“Next to being one in worshiping God, there is nothing in this world upon which this Church should be more united than in upholding and defending the Constitution of the United States.” (The Instructor, Feb. 1956, p. 34.)

President J. Reuben Clark, Jr., emphasized this fact as he discussed the freedom-slavery issue, from which I quote:

“Now, what has business and industry done about all this revolutionary activity? . . . Business and industry neither planned nor did anything effective. There was no concerted effort. . .

“A common cause with a united front would have worked salvation for us. But business officials were afraid of their stockholders and their outcry against loss of dividends; the lawyers were afraid of getting whipped in the courts, businessmen felt strong vigorous action might further disturb business; bankers (I am a bank director) shivered at their own shadows.

“So one constitutional right after another yielded without any real contest, our backs getting nearer to the wall with each retreat. It is now proposed we retreat still further. Is not this suicide? Is there anyone so naive as to think that things will right themselves without a fight? There has been no more fight in us than there is in a bunch of sheep, and we have been much like sheep. Freedom was never brought to a people on a silver platter, nor maintained with whisk brooms and lavender sprays….

“And do not think that all these usurpations, intimidations, and impositions are being done to us through inadvertence or mistake.

“The whole course is deliberately planned and carried out, its purpose is to destroy the Constitution and our constitutional government; then to bring chaos out of which the new Statism, with its Slavery, is to arise, with a cruel, relentless, selfish, ambitious crew in the saddle, riding hard with whip and spur, a red-shrouded band of night riders for despotism.

“. . . if we do not vigorously fight for our liberties, we shall go clear through to the end of the road and become another Russia, or worse.” (Church News, Sept. 25, 1949.)

“A bunch of sheep.” An old adage declares, “A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves.”

In a general conference, President Clark issued this sobering warning:

“. . . I say unto you with all the soberness I can, that we stand in danger of losing our liberties, and that once lost, only blood will bring them back; and once lost, we of this church will, in order to keep the church going forward, have more sacrifices to make and more persecutions to endure than we have yet known, heavy as our sacrifices and grievous as our persecutions of the past have been.

“We face a war to the death, a gigantic worldwide struggle. We must face it, enter it, take part in it. In fact, we are all taking part in the struggle, whether we will or not. Upon its final issue, liberty lives or dies.” (The Improvement Era May 1944.)

Yes, we all love the gospel–or should do. We should all strive to live according to its precepts. But the basic thread running through the gospel plan is the freedom, the right of choice, of the individual. The gospel can prosper only where there is freedom.

Loss of freedom

I have personally witnessed the heart-rending results of the loss of freedom. I have been close to the godless evil of the socialist-communist conspiracy on both sides of the iron curtain, especially during my service as European Mission president at the close of the war and today, and also during eight years in the Cabinet.

I stood in Czechoslovakia and witnessed the ebbing away of freedom, resulting in the total loss of liberty. I visited among the liberty-loving Polish people and talked with their leaders, as the insidious freedom-destroying philosophy moved in, imposing the chains of bondage on a Christian nation.

In both of these freedom-loving nations were members of the Church, striving, as we are, to live the gospel. But it was not enough. It did not stop the Communists. Our members were few in number, and the danger to freedom seemed far away. One trembles at the thought of members of the Church today in the Communist slave labor camps.

In fact, freedom-loving people have been brought under Communist bondage at the average rate of 6,000 per hour, 144,000 per day, 52 million per year since the end of World War II.

Priesthood to save freedom

But here in America, the Lord’s base of operations–so designated by the Lord himself, through his holy prophets–we of the priesthood, members of his restored Church, might well provide the balance of power to save our freedom. Indeed we might, if we go forward as General Moroni of old and raise the standard of liberty throughout the land.

Today our Prophet and President has said: “No greater immediate responsibility rests upon members of the Church, upon all citizens of this Republic and of neighboring Republics than to protect the freedom vouchsafed by the Constitution of the United States.” Is this plain enough? In view of this solemn warning, how can any member of the Church fail to act to help save our freedom? We must not be lulled away into a false security

We have a Prophet today. What we need is a listening ear. Let us live the gospel in its fullness, and by so doing we will work unceasingly to preserve and strengthen our God-given freedom.

I bear witness that David O. McKay is a Prophet of God–I know it as I know that I live–and that through him the Lord reveals his will for each of us, our families, and the kingdom of God on earth. God grant we may heed his inspired counsel, I humbly pray, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.