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.

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

Topics: Free Agency; Kings

Two Antagonistic Forces At War

These great present-day battles, to which I have referred, the greatest of all time, are contests between two forces which are utterly antagonistic. One of these is impelled by the despotic passion to rule mankind and rob human beings of their free agency, and the other has for its cherished ideal the right and ability of man to rule himself. The one contemplates government dominated by dictators; the other is the plan of the Almighty who created men free and equal and endowed them with the right and the intelligence to be their own sovereigns. The Creator never intended that a tyrant should assume the role of dictator and lord it over the sons and daughters of God under the despotic motto: “Might makes right.”

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

Topics: Free Agency; Tyranny

From the scorching fires of every persecution there has arisen some leader with a tongue of fire who has been inspired by the love of Jesus Christ to call men to a higher, a purer and a better life. Jesus promoted the rights of mankind. He is the Creator, he is the Architect of the republican form of government.

Source: Clarence True Wilson
As quoted by Elder Richard R. Lyman in General Conference, October 1940

Topics: Rights

We live in this land choice above all other lands. Are we worthy to enjoy its incomparable blessings? Do we discipline ourselves, self-imposing upon us whatever struggles and sacrifices may be necessary in order that we shall preserve inviolate the principles bequeathed to us by the fathers of our country, many of whom spilled their blood and gave their lives that their descendants might be free?

Source: Elder Joseph F. Merrill
General Conference, October 1940

Topics: America, a Choice Land; Morality

American Ideals Corrupted

One of the great wrongs going on in America today is the idea held by millions of people that they have the right to enjoy the things of life which they have never earned. It is a form of dishonesty that is corrupting the youth of today, it has already corrupted millions. It has produced an aversion to hard work. Idleness and the love of pleasure have taken away many of our American ideals given to us by the fathers of this nation. The hate of man for man has grown in this country as it has grown in the lands across the seas. These forces have torn down religious ideals, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord finds little lodgment in the hearts of men. Our civilization is suffering from a breakdown in character because our teachings have not had a sufficient effect on the actions and lives of individuals. We speak of reforms. Human nature can only be reformed by a strengthening of prophetic religion. A new day for social betterment can come only through the revelations of God to his people—the pure Gospel of Jesus Christ. Benjamin Franklin warned us in the Constitutional convention at the very birth of this nation that our government will end in despotism if the people become corrupt. This nation must turn back to God.

Source: Elder Levi Edgar Young
General Conference, October 1940

Topics: Culture; Government, Wealth Transfer; Welfare

Fundamentals In Discard

Humanity is passing through one of its most crucial experiences. We are in the midst of a revolution both of thought and mode of life. Beliefs of parents are questioned, old ideals are in the discard. Communism, Naziism, Fascism, Totalitarianism are giving birth to new conceptions that strike relentlessly at beliefs and teachings which were accepted a decade ago as fundamentals and unassailable. “Under the influence of a science as superficial as proud,” writes M. Paul Gaultier, a leading publicist of France, “old beliefs have been turned into ridicule, conscience is treated as a superstition, and honesty as a prejudice. Self-interest alone remains as a motive, and pleasure as the sole end of life. For too many people,” he continues, “evil consists not in infringing social laws, but in getting caught. Morality and duty figure in their eyes as so many prejudices out of fashion, and vestiges of centuries gone by.”

Source: President David O. McKay
General Conference, October 1940

Topics: Culture; Freedom, Threats to

Liberty A Principle Of Life

Of this we can be sure: Liberty is a thing of the spirit. A man must nourish it and cherish it in his heart as he does love for his wife and children. Except for its manifestation as a quality in human life it has no existence. Governments cannot confer it; they can only protect the individual in the enjoyment of it. Navies and armies cannot bestow it; they can only defend its exercise. No people can possess it unless they make themselves worthy of it.

Source: Elder Albert E. Bowen
General Conference, October 1940

Topics: Liberty

We are saying that we face a great crisis, that the very existence of our nation is at stake. And yet one class of people is being told and is telling itself that it will not give up one whit of certain alleged gains it has made. It is willing to prepare for the emergency provided that it is not called upon to sacrifice anything. Another Class is demanding assurance against loss, and still another as a matter of self interest and expediency is willing to let vital things wait. By sections and communities we are joining in the mad scramble. I read that the defense commission is being harassed and hampered by the clamors of localities, chambers of commerce, pressure groups, and politicians for the location of this or that industry in this or that place without regard for military requirement or efficiency of the whole program. We want to save our country if we can conveniently, but if it goes down we want to be able to say that our congressman got us a liberal part of the public funds and be sure that we hand ourselves over to the conqueror with plenty of public works on hand and our local vanity satisfied.

Source: Elder Albert E. Bowen
General Conference, October 1940

Topics: Government, Spending; Responsibility

We have used our freedom to renounce all discipline, and in the marvelous achievements of this industrial and scientific age we have grown arrogant and have discarded our ancient faith. The iconoclasts have been at work. Those egotists who cannot rest happy so long as an unsullied name, eclipsing their own, is allowed to stand untarnished, have been busy with their smear pots. They are called by the very ugly but very appropriate name de-bunkers. Nothing so much needs de-bunking as they themselves. Because they cannot dissect God and examine His parts they have denied that He is; they have scoffed at the divinity of Jesus and because His benignity and purity and unselfishness and all-embracing compassion so far transcend their cynical powers of comprehension, they have characterized Him a pretender and notoriety-seeking rabble rouser. The Ten Commandments are ridiculed as a defenseless and untrue imposition upon a primitive, uncultured and migrant people. Washington and Lincoln and the other great characters of history they have with profane hands dragged down from their high pedestals and have dissected bit by bit, searched out and with malicious glee thrown upon the screen the distorted and magnified image of their every foible and blemish. The founders of our government, the framers of our Constitution are converted into self-seeking aristocrats bent only on preserving their advantages of station, while that great instrument itself is made the embodiment of palpably absurd and now outmoded eighteenth century philosophy. They are determined that nothing shall remain sacred or be revered. They have succeeded only too well. To maintain itself strong in the present a people must be sustained by the consciousness of a noble past and the hope of a glorious future. Too much of the nobility of the past and the hope for the future has gone into eclipse.

Source: Elder Albert E. Bowen
General Conference, October 1940

Topics: Freedom, Loss of

•  ⟨⟨ 
•  ⟨ 
•   |  
•  ⟩ 
•  ⟩⟩