Spiritual and Temporal Security
“Economic kings cannot answer the prayers of the people, for they are but false prophets. They are comparable to the gods of Baal… In return the people were rewarded with slavery and subjection.”
Liberty
“…one unfailing Light…”
“If we would make the world better, let us foster a keener appreciation of … freedom and liberty.”
“Preservation of Freedom”
“Next to the bestowal of life itself, the right to direct that life is God’s greatest gift to man. Among the immediate obligations and duties resting upon members of the Church today, and one of the most urgent and pressing for attention and action of all liberty loving people, is the preservation of individual liberty.”
Agency and Responsibility
‘Freedom of speech, freedom of action within boundaries that do not infringe upon the liberty of others are … divine gifts “essential to human dignity and human happiness.”’
Preserving Religious Freedom
“We must never see the day when the public square is not open to religious ideas and religious persons. The religious community must unite to be sure we are not coerced or deterred into silence by the kinds of intimidation or threatening rhetoric that are being experienced. Whether or not such actions are anti-religious, they are surely anti-democratic and should be condemned by all who are interested in democratic government. There should be room for all good-faith views in the public square, be they secular, religious, or a mixture of the two.”
Dedicatory Prayer – London England Temple
“It is fitting that we express appreciation of the signing of the Magna Carta in the County of Surrey, the same county in which we meet today wherein the promise is given that no freeman shall be taken or imprisoned or disseized or outlawed or exiled…without proper trial by his peers or by the law of the land. This protection of the individual is in keeping with Thy divine will; and any group of men who advocate an ideology that would deprive man of this individual right and heritage and make him a vassal of the state stamp themselves at once as enemies of Thy divine purposes. …O Father, help people everywhere more clearly to realize that government exists for the protection of the individual, not the individual for the government.”
Insights from My Life
“I fear that, as conditions worsen, many will react to the failures of too much government by calling for even more government. Then there will be more and more lifeboats launched because fewer and fewer citizens know how to swim. Unlike some pendulums, political pendulums do not swing back automatically; they must be pushed. History is full of instances when people have waited in vain for pendulums to swing back.”
The Divinely Inspired Constitution
“… the most desirable condition for the effective exercise of God-given moral agency is a condition of maximum freedom and responsibility. In this condition men are accountable for their own sins and cannot blame their political conditions on their bondage to a king or a tyrant. This condition is achieved when the people are sovereign, as they are under the Constitution God established in the United States.”
Our Strengths Can Become Our Downfall
“…My social conscience should not cause me to coerce others to use their time or means to fulfill my objectives. We are not blessed for magnifying our calling with someone else’s time or resources. We are commanded to love our neighbors, not to manipulate them, even for righteous purposes…”
“Watchman, Warn the Wicked”
“How strong is our will to remain free—to be good? False thinking and false ideologies, dressed in the most pleasing forms, quietly—almost without our knowing it—seek to reduce our moral defenses and to captivate our minds. They entice with bright promises of security, cradle-to-grave guarantees of many kinds. They masquerade under various names, but all may be recognized by one thing—one thing they all have in common: to erode away character and man’s freedom to think and act for himself. …Again, let us not be misled. Freedom can be killed by neglect as well as by direct attack.”