Topic: Freedom, Religious, Matches 16 quotes.

Whoever lives to see the Kingdom of God fully established upon the earth will see a government that will protect every person in his rights. If that government was now reigning upon this land of Joseph, you would see the Roman Catholic, the Greek Catholic, the Episcopalian, the Presbyterian, the Methodist, the Baptist, the Quaker, the Shaker, the Hindo, the Mahometan, and every class of worshipers most strictly protected in all their municipal rights and in the privileges of worshiping who, what, and when they pleased, not infringing upon the rights of others. Does any candid person in his sound judgment desire any greater liberty?

Source: Brigham Young
JD 6:342-343.

Topics: Freedom, Religious; Government, Good; Rights

All governments are more or less under the control of the Almighty, and, in their forms, have sprung from the laws that he has from time to time given to man. Those laws, in passing from generation to generation, have been more or less adulterated, and the result has been the various forms of government now in force among the nations; for, as the Prophet says of Israel, “They have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinances, and broken the everlasting covenant.”

Whoever lives to see the kingdom of God fully established upon the earth will see a government that will protect every person in his rights. If that government was now reigning upon this land of Joseph, you would see the Roman Catholic, the Greek Catholic, the Episcopalian, the Presbyterian, the Methodist, the Baptist, the Quaker, the Shaker, the Hindoo, the Mahometan, and every class of worshippers most strictly protected in all their municipal rights and in the privilege of worshipping who, what, and when they pleased, not infringing upon the rights of others. Does any candid person in his sound judgment desire any greater liberty?

The Lord has thus far protected and preserved the human family under their various forms and administrations of government, notwithstanding their wickedness, and is still preserving them; but if the kingdom of God, or a theocratic government, was established on the earth, many practices now prevalent would be abolished.

Source: Brigham Young
Journal of Discourses, Vol.6, p.342-3, July 31, 1859

Topics: Freedom, Religious; Heavenly Interest in Human Events

I consider the government of the United States [the federal government] as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises. This results not only from the provision that no law shall be made respecting the establishment or free exercise of religion [the First Amendment], but from that also which reserves to the States the powers not delegated to the United States [the Tenth Amendment]. Certainly, no power to prescribe any religious exercise or to assume authority in any religious discipline has been delegated to the General [federal] Government. It must then rest with the States.

Source: Thomas Jefferson
Memoir, Vol. IV, pp. 103-104, to Samuel Miller on January 23, 1808.

Topics: Freedom, Religious; US Constitution, Amendments

We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.

We believe that, and this is the relationship that should exist between us and all nations, regardless of where we may live; as the Priesthood and the government of the Lord Jesus Christ we have a definite responsibility in connection with the Constitution of these United States. I am sure if there is a people in all the world that appreciates the Constitution it is this people, for under this divine instrument it was possible for Joseph Smith to bring into existence the Church of Jesus Christ, in a nation where there are equal rights, the right to worship God according to the dictates of one’s conscience.

Source: Elder Joseph L. Wirthlin
General Conference, October 1938

Topics: Freedom, Religious; US Constitution, Inspired

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

Thus the very first thing which our fathers sought to secure for themselves and for their posterity was freedom to worship as they wished. I do not need to call to your minds the trials and persecution which this people have suffered in the past, in order to bring home to you the conviction that nothing else in the great document, the Constitution, is so important to this people as is this guarantee of religious freedom, because underneath and behind all that lies in our lives, all that we do in our lives, is our religion, our worship, our belief and faith in God. We need the Constitution and its guarantees of liberty and freedom more than any other people in the world, for, few and weak as we are, we stand naked and helpless except when clothed with its benign provisions.

Source: President J. Reuben Clark, Jr.
General Conference, April 1935

Topics: Freedom, Religious

Few people think of the discovery of America, the Revolutionary War, and the establishment of a constitutional form of government here as being steps toward the fulfillment of the Lord’s ancient covenant with Abraham. But it is a fact that they were.

The covenant was to be fulfilled through the preaching of the gospel to, and the gathering of, the house of Israel, who were scattered worldwide. Through their acceptance of the gospel, they would receive its blessings and be gathered and would thus have fulfilled upon their heads the promises to Abraham made so long ago. His sheep would recognize the voice of the Good Shepherd and would follow him.

But the true gospel had been lost through centuries of apostasy. It could not be given to Israel of today until it was restored, and the restoration could come only under favorable conditions, in a free country, where men could worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience.

Source: Mark E. Peterson
The Great Prologue, p3-4

Topics: Freedom, Religious

Despotism, Destructive To Religion And Government Ideals

My brethren and sisters, there are abroad in the world forces—and this I have been saying to you on every occasion that presented itself for the last fifteen years, here in this pulpit—there are forces abroad that do not come from God. There is no dictatorship in the world today, whether that dictatorship be of one man or of a group exercising such control as exists in Russia, that is not striking first and foremost at religion. They are trying to tear down the worship of God and to substitute something else in its stead, and I regret to say that in some parts of this country, in some states of this Union, the issue now seems to be between an ordered, law-governed society and a despotism destructive of religion and of all that our government stands for. I assume this because of the past record of those who are advocating the measures to which I refer.

May I say this: We believe that Christ will come and reign personally upon the earth. But that is no reason why I should advocate the establishment of a monarchy to overturn the government of the United States. We believe in the United Order, something that was taken away from us because we could not live it, and the lesser law was given, the law of tithing—which we are not living either; but our belief in the United Order is no reason why we should support a movement for Communism, to the overturning of our government. These two propositions are absolutely parallel, the one as rational and reasonable as the other. When the Lord wants his people to move into the United Order he will use his anointed servant to direct the way.

Source: President J. Reuben Clark, Jr.
General Conference, October 1934

Topics: Freedom, Religious; United Order

Loyalty To Country

“Mormonism” was made possible, humanly speaking, by the establishment of the government of the United States, whose constitutional guarantee of religious liberty paved the way for the coming forth of this “marvelous work and wonder.”

Source: Elder Reed Smoot
General Conference, October 1933

Topics: Freedom, Religious

God And The People

Let it not be supposed, however, that this recognition of “government of the people, by the people, for the people”—as Lincoln expressed it—shuts God out of the question. It may do so in the mind of a godless politician, or a pseudo, make-believe Christian, but not in the mind of a true Latter-day Saint or a Christian of genuine stamp. The United States is a republic, in which the people are looked upon as the one source of political power.

Source: Elder Orson F. Whitney
General Conference, October 1930

Topics: Freedom, Religious

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