Unfortunately, there has been fostered in the minds of some an expectation that …we should look to either the Church or government to bail us out. Forgotten by some of our members is an underlying principle of the Church welfare plan that “no true Latter-day Saint will, while physically able, voluntarily shift from himself the burden of his own support.”
“…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”
Moral values are being neglected and prayer expelled from public schools on the pretext that moral teaching belongs to religion. At the same time, atheism, the secular religion, is admitted to class, and our youngsters are proselyted to a conduct without morality. …Because we do know and because we do care, we must teach the rules of happiness without dilution, apology, or avoidance. That is our calling.
“Even as we seek to be meek and to avoid contention, we must not compromise or dilute our commitment to the truths we understand. We must not surrender our positions or our values.”
“…We recognize that when God the Eternal Father presented His plan to us at the beginning of time, Satan wanted to alter the plan… But there was an unacceptable cost—the destruction of man’s agency, which was and is a gift given by God.”
“If the hunger for liberty destroys order, the hunger for order will destroy liberty.” In this connection, how can there possibly be a disturbing loss of individual impulse control without a corresponding loss of collective freedom?
Moroni raised a title of liberty and wrote upon it these words: “In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children”. Why didn’t he write upon it: “Just live your religion; there’s no need to concern yourselves about your freedom, your peace, your wives, or your children”? The reason he didn’t do this was because all these things were a part of his religion, as they are of our religion today.
Our forefathers…believed that we must have some government but it must be bound down by the chains of our Constitution, so that it will not slip farther and farther over into the realm of “GOVERNMENTISM” whether it be Communism, Nazism, Fascism, Welfare-Statism or some other form of Socialism.
We must be careful that we are not led to accept or support in any way any organization, cause, or measure which, in its remotest effect, would jeopardize free agency, whether it be in politics, government, religion, employment, education, or any other field. It is not enough for us to be sincere in what we support. We must be right!