Topic: Free Agency, Matches 41 quotes.

[A]ny system which deprives men of their free agency, which weakens the home and family, which depends on butchery for power, which denies all moral responsibility, which holds that man lives by bread alone, and which denies the existence of God, is of the devil.

This is the communist philosophy. There is no real evidence that it has been changed in the last forty years.

Knowledge of the enemy and knowledge of ourselves give us the strength to fight the good fight for freedom and world peace.

May it never come to pass that “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge,” (Hosea 4:6).

Source: Elder Ezra Taft Benson
General Conference, April 1960

Topics: Free Agency; Freedom, Loss of

But there are developing tendencies, sponsored by selfishness, greed, and ambition that, if unchecked, will soon or late bring sorrow and ruin to our country. Among these tendencies is that of “something for nothing,” at least “more and more for less and less”—more pay for less work. And as I see it, in whatever words these tendencies are expressed, they all lead to some type of national socialism. And generally, socialism is an enemy of free enterprise in the development of which, I repeat, this country has become the greatest on earth. Then why does any honest, patriotic, intelligent citizen of America prefer socialism to free enterprise? Is it not in free enterprise that free agency, a divine gift to every human being, finds an environment favorable to growth and development and to living in harmony with our beautiful doctrine of eternal progression?

Source: Elder Joseph F. Merrill
General Conference, April 1950

Topics: Free Agency; Socialism

Economic Peace Through Application of the Golden Rule

If a full sense of brotherhood, actuated by the real spirit of the Golden Rule, were in the mind and heart of every employer and of every employee in America, and of every one else who has any kind of relations with his fellow men, then industrial, social, and economic peace in America would be born in a day. But alas this ideal condition is not in the offing. Instead we are faced with reality and a condition so pregnant with evil that we can save ourselves only by immediate, unceasing, wise, and powerful efforts. The preservation of our inherited liberties and of our God-given free agencies is worth every thing necessary for us to give in order that we might repossess and maintain them. Otherwise, will not the America of the future be devoid of the essentials that have made the America we inherited, a land of glorious promise?

Source: Elder Joseph F. Merrill
General Conference, October 1941

Topics: Free Agency; Freedom, Threats to

Coercion In Government Not The Lord’s Way

The Lord Himself has always favored government by the people. You will remember that in the days of Samuel the Prophet the Lord instructed him to let the people have whatever form of government they desired. They clamored for a dictator, a king, and because the Lord respected the right of free-will and human choice, because He recognized the right of men to govern themselves, and that it is better that humanity be self-governed, even though they are poorly governed, than to be compelled to obey even the divine law, He told the Prophet to let the people have a king, a dictator, since they insisted upon it. And the Bible tells us that after the decision of the Israelites to have a king, their dictatorial rulers wasted the substance of the people, they took away their personality and their freedom, and oppressed them with heavy taxes and other burdens. Instead of making a government for the people, as in a democracy, the people became the subjects of the dictators who did not rule for the good of the many but to bring power, wealth and idleness to a few.

Our government is founded on the principle laid down by the Lord Himself: that a man is capable of self-government. This is in harmony with the divine intent expressed by the Creator when He said:

“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness and let them have dominion . . . over all the earth.”

This important statement of man’s right and ability to rule is expressed in our Declaration of Independence thus: “Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.” And no doubt those forms of government in which there is an assumption to rule without the consent of those who are to be governed are responsible for that forceful expression, “Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.”

Source: Elder Richard R. Lyman
General Conference, October 1940

Topics: Free Agency; Freedom, Loss of; Government; Government, Ideal; Taxes

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