First Presidency

President Dieter F Uchtdorf, General Conference April 2017

Perfect Love Casteth Out Fear

‘The Lord has said that “when we … exercise control or dominion or compulsion upon the souls of the children of men, in any degree of unrighteousness, … the heavens withdraw themselves [and] the Spirit of the Lord is grieved.” There may be moments when we are tempted to justify our actions by believing that the end justifies the means. We might even think that to be controlling, manipulative, and harsh will be for the good of others. Not so… Christ’s perfect love overcomes temptations to harm, coerce, bully, or oppress.’



Marion G. Romney

Work and Welfare: A Historical Perspective

“That fall [of Rome], in large measure, was due to the purchasing of votes with unearned benefits, such as entertainment, circuses, and food. The government’s actions built up in the people an expectation and demand which eventually could be kept down only by the establishment of a dictatorship. Many of our members live in countries where this history has repeated itself. In the United States, our treasured American work ethic is waning and the purchasing of votes with unearned benefits is dangerously common.”


President J. Reuben Clarke, Jnr.

Postwar Planning

“…I would like to say to the priesthood of the Church, among whom there are many who are steadiers of the ark—please do not be too much concerned. The Lord will take care of the Church, if we shall but take care of ourselves.”



Marion G. Romney

“In Mine Own Way”

“We cannot afford to become wards of the government, even though we have a legal right to do so. It requires too great a sacrifice in self-respect and in political, temporal, and spiritual independence. Let us work for what we need. Let us be self-reliant and independent. Salvation can be obtained on no other principle. Salvation is an individual matter, and we must work out our own salvation, in temporal as well as in spiritual things.”


President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

After Love, Then What?

‘If we truly love our fellowmen, we extend ourselves to help “the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted.” For they who do these selfless acts of compassion and service, the same are disciples of Jesus Christ.’




President J. Reuben Clarke, Jnr.

Political Thought and Life of J. Reuben Clark, Jr.

“…these two systems have had an almost deadly rivalry for the control of society, the Civil Law and its fundamental concepts being the instrument through which ambitious men of genius and selfishness have set up and maintained despotisms; the Common Law, with its basic principles, being the instrument through which men of equal genius, but with the love of mankind burning in their souls, have established and preserved liberty and free institutions…”