Topic: Politics, Matches 42 quotes.

I think the business men are largely to blame for these chaotic conditions. The Lord says: “Search out good and wise men”—not of any party; not of any church, but search out these good men and put them in charge of our civil affairs. But if you ask a business man to run for office, he becomes a Pharisee, a political Pharisee. He says: “I don’t like to enter into the slime of politics.” But who has made it a slime? The men who were unworthy to hold office. Business men say: “We can’t be elected.” Well, when, in the name of heaven, will you be any stronger? Why not enter the conflict? There ought to be common ground where good and wise men may stand, and their influence will be felt at headquarters in Washington.

Source: Elder Charles A. Callis
General Conference, October 1941

Topics: Politics; Voting

Give me control of a nation’s money and I care not who makes it’s laws.

Source: Mayer Amschel Bauer Rothschild

Topics: Economics; Politics

The present hour witnesses a crisis, the like of which we have never known before in our history. The fine morale of the nation has been broken, and this has brought about a condition of bitterness and hate, for people have lost their regard for the power of government and for the sanctity of the law. Envy and jealousy, and hate of neighbor for neighbor have crowded out our nobler altruistic feelings. Groups of men, unmindful of human rights, are clamoring for changes in our government. Our resources are being wasted. The looting of the public wealth has become a recognized industry, and the men who practice it are as highly trained as men in the skilled employments and professions. The sorrowful thing is that these men are entrenched behind the walls of political trickery. One of the greatest plagues today is the disregard for authority and law in government, and there is growing up in our social world an aversion toward hard work. Can it be that modern thought is discarding the influence of Providence in the affairs of men? The truth that government is instituted by the hand of God was uppermost in the minds of our forebears when the Constitution was formulated; this thought inspired the very lives of Washington and Lincoln; and Jesus Christ our Lord taught us that governments without the spirit of humble faith in the Master, cannot live.

Source: Elder Levi Edgar Young
General Conference, April 1936

Topics: Freedom, Loss of; Government, Wealth Transfer; Politics

Honesty And Truthfulness In Politics

We are now engaging in a campaign for political purposes. It is important that every one who engages therein shall be careful to be honest and truthful in the statements that he or she shall make, so that we may not indulge in acrimonious discussion and develop antagonism and ill feeling which is contrary to proper principles of political activity and of government. Our statements should be matters of fact and not of assumption. Our political views should be constructive and not destructive. Any candidate who makes wild promises or advocates specious plans impracticable of fulfilment, or who has not previously proven him-self worthy of trust, should be rejected. Honest, dependable and capable citizens should be sought for positions in government. It is our business as voters to analyze carefully the character of the candidates and their viewpoints on public questions.

Source: Elder Sylvester Q. Cannon
General Conference, October 1934

Topics: Politics

The Present Political And Economic Situation

I said that we are living in an age of shifting uncertainties. Recently I saw an expressive cartoon which depicted an engine on an old railroad track, from which a train loaded with people was being pulled in another direction by a tractor which had left the rails and started out over an unbeaten track. The President of the United States was the engineer. It is expressive of our political and economic situation today. Some of us may not know just where we are going, but we are trusting our leader.

Source: Elder David O. McKay
General Conference, October 1933

Topics: Politics

Experimental Policies

We are now called upon to support what purports to be a very comprehensive program for recovery. It is a complex program. In many respects it is an experiment, acknowledged so to be. Those who are students of our governmental history recognize the fact that in it there have been and are wide departures from established policies, some of which seem to contravene the very fundamental tenets of our governmental faith. I freely acknowledge that as I hear criticisms of this character directed toward some of the policies that are sought to be carried out, I find it difficult, if not impossible, to answer, in terms of our old principles and procedure, the objections that are urged. Nevertheless, for a while, I feel constrained, by very force of all the circumstances, to be patient for the outcome of these experimental policies.

Source: Elder Stephen L. Richards
General Conference, October 1933

Topics: Politics

We of the Church believe in sustaining government. Wherever our people are located, they are admonished to support, not only the form of government under which they live, but those who preside over them, kings, rulers and potentates. It is a part of our creed.

Source: Elder Stephen L. Richards
General Conference, October 1933

Topics: Politics; Responsibility

Lack of Political Honor

Much as I hesitate to reflect upon our government, I cannot refrain from calling attention to governmental practises which I am sure have contributed to the decline of private and public honor. The old saying that all is fair in love and war seems to be painfully applicable to politics as well. Since no campaign is in progress at the present time, one can speak without great hazard of being accused of partisan motives. False representations of persons and parties, innuendoes and half truths designed to besmirch character, and promises given with no intention of fulfilment, are all so common in our political procedure that our inclination is to suspect rather than to believe, and we seldom take a candidate, party or promise at face value. Sectionalism, trading for advantage and pork barrel legislation have degraded our politics to such an extent that real statesmanship is indeed at a premium. With hundreds of thousands of persons in the nation directly or indirectly feeding at the public crib, utilizing every available means at their disposal, either fair or foul which may escape the penalties of the law, for the retention of their positions, and with other hundreds of thousands seeking to displace them, not imbued in the main with any motives other than to put themselves in lucrative positions; will any one contend that such conditions have not tended to reduce materially the standards of public and private integrity throughout the country?

So long as public patronage continues to be the major item in public service, it cannot be otherwise. So long as we tolerate a system of political ethics which permits a man to brazenly announce his own candidacy and more brazenly still appeal and contrive for public support to win for himself an office as if it were a personal perquisite, so long as men call themselves instead of awaiting the call of country, we can scarcely hope for better days in the cause of common political honor.

Source: Elder Stephen L. Richards
General Conference, April 1933

Topics: Politics; Virtue; Welfare

Demoralizing Integrity Of Our Citizenship

I am driven to the conclusion, much as I should like to avoid it and the reflection which it entails, that the great institution of politics which in its true essence is the science of civil government has harbored so much of personal and group selfishness, so much of craftiness, chicanery, misrepresentation and vilification to gain the ends of self-seekers, that it must be counted as one of the large contributing factors in the demoralization of the integrity of our citizenship. You know and I know that many of the country’s best and most capable men positively decline participation in political affairs for reasons which I have mentioned. It is a great pity. We all suffer because of it. I wish we might rectify such conditions. I believe that there is a serious-minded disposition on the part of great numbers of our citizens to do so. The times are fortuitous for a change. God grant that it may come speedily.

In saying the things I have said it is not my purpose to cast reflection upon all of our public servants. There are many notable exceptions to the general observations I have made, but they are exceptions unfortunately. They are not the rule in American politics today.

Source: Elder Stephen L. Richards
General Conference, April 1933

Topics: Politics; Responsibility

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