After and above all, as was stated in the financial report, while the Church Welfare aims, of course, to help those in need, its real purpose is not merely to substitute Church gratuities for others furnished by charitable or governmental agencies but to rebuild the characters of its members and to promote and to foster the patriotic, civic, and spiritual qualities of the people.

Source: President J. Reuben Clark, Jr.
General Conference, April 1938

Topics: Uncategorized

The loftiest ambition of any person is not to receive the plaudits of the world but to be honest, honorable and patriotic in every act of life. A truly religious man cannot help but become a better citizen, no matter in what country he may reside. “In faith, nothing wavering,” is and has been a fundamental principle of our Heavenly Father’s Church in every dispensation of the world’s history.

Source: Elder Reed Smoot
General Conference, October 1933

Topics: Uncategorized

We are living in trying times—international struggles are imminent—“Nation rising against Nation” for supremacy and existence. Civilized governments are threatened by internal and destructive agencies in the form of Communism. This secret organization assumes different names and forms. It is Communism in France, Socialism in Germany, Internationalism in Spain and Italy, Nihilism in Russia, and similar sentiments and principles are cloaked under a variety of titles in America and Great Britain. All these organizations are opposed in spirit to all the restraints of law and order.

Source: Elder Reed Smoot
General Conference, April 1933

Topics: Uncategorized

Fears Paternal Government

I fear this, that under existing conditions we are gradually drifting toward a paternal government, a government which will so intrench itself that the people will become powerless to disrupt it, in which the lives and liberty of the people at large may be jeopardized. They are pouring millions of dollars in this time of need into sources for the benefit of the people and it is a great benefit and perhaps salvation, but it is going to result in this—I am going to make this statement—that if the present policy is continued it will not be long until the government will be in the banking business, it will be in the farming business, it will be in the cattle and sheep business, for many of these debts will never be paid. That will mean the appointment of innumerable agencies. The government now is overloaded with commissions and agencies, some of them administering the very laws that Congress itself has enacted. Someone else should be administering those laws. If you want to save yourselves from the bondage of debt and political influences which are not of your own choosing I ask you to think of what I have said.

Source: President Anthony W. Ivins
General Conference, October 1932

Topics: Uncategorized

Why Men Establish Governments

One fundamental political truth which will be considered is that men establish governments for the purpose of compelling the citizens to obey a code of private morality. This code is contained in a set of laws which govern human conduct. Such laws may be classified into these two types: (1) Those which condemn and punish certain conduct as evil and harmful; (2) Those which compel the performance of other conduct considered good and beneficial.

When men make laws, and thus determine which conduct is so evil it should be punished and which is so good it should be compelled, they do so by referring to their own religious, ethical or moral beliefs. Indeed there is no other point of reference for distinguishing good from evil. And so no matter who makes the laws, be they kings, dictators, legislatures or the people themselves, they express their most intensely held moral convictions in the laws they favor.

Source: H. Verlan Andersen
The Moral Basis for a Free Society

Topics: Uncategorized

Have you ever thought, my brethren and sisters, of the miracle of the establishment of this government, and the blessings which you enjoy under it as compared with other people? The Lord did not give the dominance of the United States to a certain race, that the traditions, language and prejudices of the old world might be established here as they were in all of the great country to the South of us.

To the devoted faith of the Puritan separatists of New England was added the industry and patriotism of the Dutch reformers who had settled at New York, the gallantry and chivalry of the English cavaliers of Virginia, and the light-hearted energy and patriotism of the French at New Orleans. Protestants, Catholics and people without church affiliations united together, just the combination of elements to give us the Declaration of Independence which won our freedom, and the Constitution, which is the foundation upon which our system of government rests.

These men, whom the old world referred to as a mob, declared that in this country all men should be equal before the law. They declared that men were born with certain rights which could not in justice be taken from them, among which was the right to worship God according to the dictates of conscience, or not worship at all if they so desired; that all men were entitled to life, to liberty, the possession of property, freedom of speech and the press, and above all and most important, that they should enact and administer their own laws and that they should not be deprived of any of these privileges without due process of law. The most sacred privilege granted us was the right of franchise by which every citizen was entitled to cast his ballot for the men who were to represent him in enacting and administering the law. It is upon the proper use of this sacred heritage, bequeathed to us by our fathers, that the perpetuity of our government depends. It may declare war or maintain peace, it may bring peace and good order to society, or tribulation, confusion and final dissolution. It controls your property and mine. We come or go at its behest. Our very life depends upon the proper use of it.

Source: President Anthony W. Ivins
General Conference, October 1928

Topics: Uncategorized

The Lord says: “When the wicked rule, the people mourn.” Wise men, good men, patriotic men are to be found in all communities, in all political parties, among all creeds. None but such men should be chosen.

Source: “Can This Be True?”, signed by The First Presidency
January 1928

Topics: Uncategorized

Is there anything which will contribute more to the peace and happiness of mankind than chaste living? The perpetuity of our government depends upon the stability of our homes, and the stability of our homes depends upon the purity of the parentage in those homes, the fathers as well as the mothers.

Youth of the land, when we say, keep the faith, we are but asking you to be patriots as well as to be true men, to be strong in your youth, that you may be worthy of fatherhood; young women, that you may possess the beauty of honorable and worthy motherhood. Thus you will contribute to the strength of your community, to the strength and perpetuity of the nation you love.

Source: Elder David O. McKay
General Conference, October 1928

Topics: Uncategorized

Other nations might boast of their kings, but the King of America, proclaimed by the patriotic fathers who founded it and established it, is the great God of heaven. This must continue to be the sentiment of the people of America if these glorious institutions shall be preserved, and in our hands is the sacred keeping of these great and glorious principles.

Source: Elder Melvin J. Ballard
General Conference, October 1928

Topics: Uncategorized

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