Topic: Christianity, Matches 27 quotes.

But everybody seems still to pin faith to economic and technological reconstructions. We hear much about elevating the standard of living of peoples. But almost exclusively those improvements seem to be conceived of as providing more things—greater physical satisfactions, greater ease, more leisure, less work, more guarantees of physical security. Long ago Jesus taught that “life consisteth not in the abundance of the things one possesseth” and that “life is more than meat and the body more than raiment.” Principles are pushed aside in the interest of immediate gain. When the American colonies were having their disputes with the mother country, the latter fixed it so that they could buy their tea and pay the tax cheaper than they could smuggle the tea in without tax. It was thought this would beguile them into yielding and paying the inconsequential tax. But the colonists were standing for a principle. If they could be subjected to a small tax, they could, when the custom was firmly established, be subjected to a larger tax. They resisted and took the consequences. That is the essence of spiritual supremacy. What is needed today in Christendom is a revived faith in the spiritual basis upon which it was built rather than more machines and things. Devotion to principle rather than victims of the bribery of easy satisfaction through immediate gain!

The war is not the cause of the world’s trouble; it is only the outward manifestation of an inner decay. When the war is over, the trouble will not be over, which is the reason for the great concern about the postwar world. The world will still have the spiritual sickness, which is the real cause of the war, to deal with. The moods and notions which have permeated the minds of men cannot be shot with bullets. They will still be rampant when the fighting is over. We may not flatter ourselves that they are confined to the aggressor countries. In one degree or another they have penetrated into all lands. They are doing their work of corroding, corrupting, undermining, destroying.

You can’t pick up peace and put it on people; it is a state of the spirit. You can’t hand over liberty or freedom as a gift to people who are not spiritually prepared to receive it. Disputes about means of accomplishing ends agreed upon are of little consequence, but when the ends themselves are in dispute you have a difference that goes right into the heart and spirit of things.

And the disputes which divide the peoples of the world today are disputes about ends, about the whole spirit that governs in human relationships. Nothing but spiritual unity will work the cure.

And that spiritual essence must rest in a power standing above all to command their allegiance. It must rest in God.

Source: Elder Albert E. Bowen
General Conference, April 1945

Topics: America, History; Christianity; Morality; Taxes

Liberty and Christianity

Liberty, like Christianity, has been tried but never wholly adopted. It isn’t that these ways of life have been found wanting. It is that they have been found difficult and rejected by many. ... To the extent that government takes sides among the citizens-plundering some for the “benefit” of others, granting special privileges-to that extent has government become incapable of performing its legitimate function of protecting the life and livelihood of all citizens equally. It is a self-evident fact that no person or agency can protect the honest fruits of one’s labor while at the same time forcibly taking the fruits of one’s labor. In short, the more government acts aggressively, the less it can act protectively or defensively.

The history of government’s acting aggressively coincides with the history of government. Is there a single instance where government has been limited to the defense of creative energy and its uninhibited exchange? Even in America in 1789—the nearest known approach to strict limitation—slavery and tariffs were acknowledged as appropriate aggressive acts of government. The principle of aggression, once admitted, had either to be denied and destroyed or approved and expanded. While Negro slavery was later denied and destroyed, the principle of government aggression was not stamped out. Some of the aggressive seed remained in embryonic stage; and by 1900, governmental actions were taken which led to the development of the embryo. By 1913 this perverse principle was so thoroughly established that we inscribed on our American banner—proclaimed and adopted as national policy—the Marxian ideal. This Marxian ideal, the Sixteenth Amendment—the progressive income tax—legalized a new slavery in lieu of the Negro slavery earlier disposed of.”

Source: Leonard E. Read
Government—An Ideal Concept, p76-77

Topics: Christianity; Income Tax; Liberty

In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government, ought to be instructed . . . . No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people.

Source: Noah Webster
Reply to a Letter of David McClure on the Subject of the Proper
Course of Study in the Girard College, Philadelphia. New Haven
October 25, 1836

Topics: Christianity; Education

All regularly organized and well established governments have certain laws by which, more or less, the innocent are protected and the guilty punished. The fact admitted that certain laws are good, equitable and just, ought to be binding upon the individual who admits this, and lead him to observe in the strictest manner an obedience to those laws. These laws when violated, or broken by the individual, must, in justice, convict his mind with a double force, if possible, of the extent and magnitude of his crime; because he could have no plea of ignorance to produce; and his act of transgression was openly committed against light and knowledge. But the individual who may be ignorant and imperceptibly transgresses or violates laws, though the voice of the country requires that he should suffer, yet he will never feel that remorse of conscience that the other will, and that keen, cutting reflection will never rise in his breast that otherwise would, had he done the deed, or committed the offense in full conviction that he was breaking the law of his country, and having previously acknowledged the same to be just.

It is not our intention by these remarks, to attempt to place the law of man on a parallel with the law of heaven; because we do not consider that it is formed in the same wisdom and propriety; neither do we consider that it is sufficient in itself to bestow anything on man in comparison with the law of heaven, even should it promise it. The laws of men may guarantee to a people protection in the honorable pursuits of this life, and the temporal happiness arising from a protection against unjust insults and injuries; and when this is said, all is said, that can be in truth, of the power, extent, and influence of the laws of men, exclusive of the law of God. The law of heaven is presented to man, and as such guarantees to all who obey it a reward far beyond any earthly consideration; though it does not promise that the believer in every age should be exempt from the afflictions and troubles arising from different sources in consequence of the acts of wicked men on earth. Still in the midst of all this there is a promise predicated upon the fact that it is the law of heaven, which transcends the law of man, as far as eternal life the temporal; and as the blessings which God is able to give, are greater than those which can be given by man. Then, certainly, if the law of man is binding upon man when acknowledged, how much more must the law of heaven be! And as much as the law of heaven is more perfect than the law of man, so much greater must be the reward if obeyed. The law of man promises safety in temporal life; but the law of God promises that life which is eternal, even an inheritance at God’s own right hand, secure from all the powers of the wicked one.

Source: Joseph Smith
Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 49

Topics: Christianity; Free Agency; Law

Peace will come and be maintained only through the triumph of the principles of peace, and by the consequent subjugation of the enemies of peace, which are hatred, envy, ill-gotten gain, the exercise of unrighteous dominion of men. Yielding to these evils brings misery to the individual, unhappiness to the home, war among nations, with resultant misery and death.

Two thousand years ago Jesus wept over Jerusalem, the inhabitants of which were blind to the things which pertained to their peace. Today contention, strife and hatred are manifest between capital and labor unions, and bitterness among advocates of Nazism, Fascism, Communism, and Capitalism. No matter how excellent any of these may seem in the minds of their advocates, none will ameliorate the ills of mankind unless its operation in government be impregnated with the basic principles promulgated by the Savior of men. On the contrary, even a defective economic system will produce good results if the men who direct it will be guided by the spirit of Christ.

Source: President David O. McKay
General Conference October 1944

Topics: Christianity; Free Agency; Government, Downfall; Peace

The founders of this great republic had faith in the economic and political welfare of this country because they had faith in God. Today it is not uncommon to note an apologetic attitude on the part of men when they refer to the need of God governing in the affairs of men. Indeed, as has already been said, the success of communism depends largely upon the substitution of the belief in God by belief in the supremacy of the state.

Source: President David O. McKay
General Conference, April 1952

Topics: Christianity; Communism; Free Agency

It seems to me that in the present state of world affairs it is particularly important that men should examine the state of their inner feelings about this matter [being a Christian]. It is frequently stated from many different sources that the present overshadowing conflict in the world is essentially between that which is Christian and that which is anti-Christ. I recognize that there may be many not religiously inclined who would not accept this generalization. Many would probably prefer to define the issues as drawn between the political concepts and systems of the so-called free world and the ideologies of statism and communism. However the issue may be defined, I am personally convinced that the cause of the free world may be immeasurably promoted and furthered by an enlarged acceptance of the Christian concept. That concept, better than anything else, it seems to me, furnishes the fundamental understanding of man’s inherent right to freedom. However much illustrations from the past may serve to justify the eternal quest ad struggle for liberty, there is nothing in all history which so thoroughly supports the struggle as does the knowledge and understanding of the nature and origin of man himself.

Where may we find that all-essential explanation? I think I may answer for all Christian believers, in the Christian theology, where man is given a dignity and majesty of birth and purpose transcending any sphere which may be created for him by the imaginative rationalization of man. This man of Christian origin is as a matter of divine right a free man, invested with the power of choice, without restraint, except that necessarily imposed to give all his fellows the same measure of freedom and liberty.

Source: President Stephen L. Richards
General Conference, April 1955

Topics: Christianity; Free Agency

I begin to wonder about young men and about people in general who do not believe in God. There are lots of them. Do you know that about 75 million Americans do not even belong to any church? Do you know that about 25 million more who do belong to churches take no part whatever in them, making a total of about 100 million Americans who, for some reason or another, have almost completely excluded God from their lives?

When I talk with young people about such a situation, I always like to ask them to consider the fruits of godlessness. What does it do to you to be without God? What does it do to you to be without religion? Can it benefit you, or can it hurt you? I ask them to look around and see what kind of people the godless people are. I read a very interesting discussion the other day by one of our great Americans, Mr. J. Edgar Hoover, a man whom I respect highly. He pointed out in this discussion that one of the outstanding fruits of godlessness in the world right now is Communism. Communism, he says, is a direct result of godlessness. Men who do not believe in God, who fight God, who put God out of their lives, and try to eliminate him from the lives of everybody else are the ones who produced Communism.

Is Communism something that you would like to take into your life? It is one of the fruits of godlessness. Do you want to have within you the fruits—or rather I should say the seeds of Communism? Do you realize that the seeds of Communism are sprouting even now from godlessness?

You know what Communism has done to the world. You know how it has spread. You remember Hungary, don’t you? And you remember Poland? Do you want to have anything like that in your life? Do you want the fruits of godlessness to become a part of you and your future?

Source: Elder Mark E. Petersen
General Conference, October 1960

Topics: Christianity; Communism

When I think of these wise men, George Washington and Jefferson and Franklin, I think of men who were servants of God, raised up for the purpose of establishing the Constitution and establishing this great government. Thomas Jefferson was endowed from on high with prophetic power. If you will study the Doctrines of Democracy as advocated by Thomas Jefferson one hundred thirty years ago, you will find that in many respects we have departed from the principles that made us a great and powerful nation.

Source: Elder Joseph L. Wirthlin
General Conference, October 1946

Topics: America, Heritage; Christianity; Government, Downfall

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