“…what is the real cause of this trend toward the welfare state, toward more socialism? In the last analysis, in my judgment, it is personal unrighteousness. When people do not use their freedoms responsibly and righteously, they will gradually lose these freedoms.”
“…There is the feeling that the government should step in and take care of one’s needs, one’s emergencies, and one’s future. …[Thus] can an entire people be imperceptibly transferred from individuals, families, and communities [responsible for their own sowing and planting] to [placing those responsibilities on] the federal government”
“…we should not…expect our leaders to organize projects for us. But as youth, men, women, and families, we can join in this great humanitarian endeavor.”
“Wo unto you rich men, that will not give your substance to the poor, for your riches will canker your souls; …Wo unto you poor men…whose hands are not stayed from laying hold upon other men’s goods…who will not labor with your own hands!”
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?
…I pray…That we will develop the understanding, the desire, and the courage, born of the Spirit, to eschew socialism and to support and sustain, in the manner revealed and as interpreted by the Lord, those just and holy principles embodied in the Constitution of the United States for the protection of all flesh, in the exercise of their God-given agency.
Ezra Taft Benson discusses some principles and laws of the celestial kingdom and “some of the fallacies of their perverted counterfeits in the world”, which counterfeits include both communism and socialism. Elder Benson warns of the dangers of both of these political philosophies calling them “incompatible with man’s liberty”.
It is generally agreed that the most important single function of government is to secure the rights and freedoms of individual citizens. But, what are those rights? And what is their source? Until these questions are answered, there is little likelihood that we can correctly determine how government can best secure them.