President McKay has said a lot about our tragic trends towards socialism and communism and the responsibilities liberty-loving people have in defending and preserving our Constitution. Have we read these words from God’s mouthpiece and pondered on them?
We are not here to sit by complacently while our birthright of freedom is exchanged for a mess of socialist-communist pottage. …May we be at least as valiant for freedom and righteousness, here and now, as we were when we fought for these principles in the pre-existence.
To have been on the wrong side of the freedom issue during the war in heaven meant eternal damnation. …The issues [in this life] are the same: “Shall men be compelled to do what others claim is for their best welfare” or will they heed the counsel of the prophet and preserve their freedom?
This preparation must consist of more than just casual membership in the Church. You must learn to be guided by personal revelation and the counsel of the living prophet so you will not be deceived…
People who are willing—and we have some of them in this country—to trade freedom for security, are sowing the seeds of destruction and deserve neither freedom nor security.
This freedom must be continually guarded as something more priceless than life itself. Any program that would tend to weaken this freedom is inherently dangerous and should be guarded against.
I wonder if [our pioneer fathers] would not recognize that our liberties have already been abridged, that there has been too much of a tendency for us to call upon our federal government every time we felt the need for the accomplishment of any particular objective. …which our forefathers would have done willingly for themselves.
If we are living the gospel, we will feel in our hearts that the First Presidency of the Church not only have the right, but are also duty bound under heaven to give counsel on any subject which affects the temporal or spiritual welfare of the Latter-day Saints, regardless of whether or not some men may think such counsel may have political implications.
Let us as Latter-day Saints stand on our own feet. Let us not be inclined to run to a paternalistic government for help when every problem arises, but to attack our problems jointly, and through effective cooperative effort, solve our problems at home.
As a watchman on the tower, I feel to warn you that one of the chief means of misleading our youth and destroying the family unit is our educational institutions.