God hath made them free

And now, in your epistle you have censured me, but it mattereth not; I am not angry, but do rejoice in the greatness of your heart. I, Pahoran, do not seek for power, save only to retain my judgment-seat that I may preserve the rights and the liberty of my people. My soul standeth fast in that liberty in the which God hath made us free. . . . according to the Spirit of God, which is also the Spirit of freedom which is in them.

God will deliver them, yea, and also all those who stand fast in that liberty wherewith God hath made them free.

Source: Alma 61:9, 15, 21

Topics: Freedom

Constitutional Amendments

If we are to have a [constitutional] amendment by the will of one man, or of a small group of men, if they can amend the Constitution, then we shall lose the Constitution; because each succeeding person or group who comes into a position of place and power where they can ‘amend’ the charter, will want to amend it again, and so on until no vestige of our liberties shall remain. Thus it comes that an amendment of our Constitution by one person or by one group is a violation of the revealed will of the Lord to the Church, as that will is embodied in that inspired Constitution.—

Brethren, let us think about that, because 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.

Source: President J. Reuben Clark, Jr.
General Conference, April 1944

Topics: US Constitution, Amendments

Power of the Book

The Book of Mormon brings men to Christ through two basic means. First, it tells in a plain manner of Christ and His gospel. It testifies of His divinity and of the necessity for a Redeemer and the need of our putting trust in Him. It bears witness of the Fall and the Atonement and the first principles of the gospel, including our need of a broken heart and a contrite spirit and a spiritual rebirth. It proclaims we must endure to the end in righteousness and live the moral life of a Saint. Second, the Book of Mormon exposes the enemies of Christ. It confounds false doctrines and lays down contention (see I Nephi 3:12). It fortifies the humble followers of Christ against the evil designs, strategies, and doctrines of the devil in our day. The type of apostates in the Book of Mormon are similar to the type we have today. God, with His infinite foreknowledge, so molded the Book of Mormon that we might see the error and know how to combat false educational, political, religious, and philosophical concepts of our time.

Source: Ezra Taft Benson
“The Book of Mormon Is the Word of God”
Regional Representatives Seminar, Salt Lake City, Utah, 4 April 1986.

Topics: Book of Mormon; False Concepts

Part-Time Patriots?

There is no place here in America for part-time patriots. This nation is face to face with the greatest danger ever to confront it, a sinister and deadly conspiracy which can be conquered only by an alert, informed citizenry.

Source: David O. McKay quoting J. Edgar Hoover
Conference Report, April 1962, p.125

Topics: Citizenship

Peace at Any Price?

There are those, however, who act as though they do not believe in eternity or a resurrection. They cower at the thought of nuclear war, and to save their own bodies they would have peace at any price.

Yet the best assurance of peace and life is to be strong morally and militarily. But they want life at the sacrifice of principles. Rather than choose liberty or death, they prefer life with slavery. But they overlook a crucial scripture “. . . fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matt. 10:28.)

The Lord could, I suppose, have avoided the war in heaven over free agency. All he needed to do was to compromise with the devil, but had he done so he would have ceased to be God.

While it is more difficult to live the truth, such as standing for free agency, some of us may in the not-too-distant future be required to die for the truth. But the best preparation for eternal life is to be prepared at all times to die—fully prepared by a valiant fight for right.

Let us act like men, men who are sons of God, men with a sure knowledge that there will be a resurrection and a final judgment.

Source: Ezra Taft Benson
Conference Report, April 1964, p.120

Topics: Peace; Responsibility

Tyranny at Once?

Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of the day; but a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period, and pursued unalterably through every change of ministers, too plainly prove a deliberate, systematical plan of reducing us to slavery.

Source: Thomas Jefferson

Topics: Freedom, Loss of; Slavery

Dictatorships in America?

We do not need to go to Europe or to Russia to find absolute dictators. We have them here in America. Probably not as mayors and governors and presidents, but we do have them in organizations in which members have no voice in their own affairs, for fear of reprisals, and in which taxes are levied and dues collected on a compulsory basis.

Each one of us must see to it that we do not become a party to setting up any dictatorships in America, in business or labor or politics or education or in any other walk of life.

Our destiny is to be free. Our religion teaches us to be free. Dictatorships wipe out freedom.

Source: Mark E. Peterson
Church News, 5/9/59

Topics: Dictatorships

Are we Serfs?

We shall abide all constitutional law, as we always have done; but while we are Godfearing and law-abiding, and respect all honorable men and officers, we are no craven serfs, and have not learned to lick the feet of oppressors, nor to bow in base submission to unreasoning clamor. We will contend, inch by inch, legally and constitutionally, for our rights as American citizens, and for the universal rights of universal man. We stand proudly erect in the consciousness of our rights as American citizens, and plant ourselves firmly on the sacred guarantees of the Constitution; and that instrument, while it defines the powers and privileges of the President, Congress and the judiciary, also directly provides that “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.

Source: John Taylor
Journal of Discourses, Vol.23, p.67

Topics: Freedom, Loss of; Rights

Plain and Simple Issue

The plain and simple issue now facing us in America is freedom or slavery.

Our real enemies are communism and its running mate, socialism....

And never forget for one moment that communism and socialism are state slavery.

...the paths we are following, if we move forward thereon, will inevitably lead us to socialism or communism, and these two are as like as two peas in a pod in their ultimate effect upon our liberties....

This country faces ahead enough trouble to bring us to our knees in humble honest prayer to God for the help which He alone can give to save us....

Do not think that all these usurpations, intimidations, and impositions are being done to us through inadvertency or mistake, the whole course is deliberately planned and carried out; its purpose is to destroy the Constitution and our Constitutional government...

We have largely lost the conflict so far waged. But there is time to win the final victory, if we can sense our danger, and fight.

Source: J. Reuben Clark
Deseret News, “Church Section,” Sept. 25, 1949, pp. 2, 15.
As quoted in General Conference, April 1963

Topics: Communism; Freedom, Loss of; Socialism

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