I was reading a few talks by President Ezra Taft Benson, who was the thirteenth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was United States Secretary of Agriculture for both of the administrations of U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower. President Benson brought a renewed emphasis to being a true American and becoming educated and taking a stand for the principles upon which this nation was founded. Here are a few of my favorite quotes which has given me a great deal to ponder...
"In this great struggle for free agency, think what a power for good we could be in this world if we were united. God will hold us responsible. Let us not be deceived in the sifting days ahead. Let us rally together on principle behind the prophet as guided by the promptings of the Spirit. We should continue to speak out for freedom and against socialism and communism. We should continue to come to the aid of patriots, programs, and organizations that are trying to save our Constitution through every legal and moral means possible. God has not left us in darkness regarding these matters. We have the scriptures ancient and modern. We have a living prophet, and we may obtain the Spirit. The time is fast approaching when it will require great courage for Latter-day Saints to stand up for their peculiar standards and doctrine–ALL their doctrine, including the more weighty principles such as the principle of freedom...The longer we wait, the heavier the chains, the deeper the blood, the more the persecution, and the less we can carry our God-given mandate and worldwide mission. The war fought in heaven still rages on earth today."
This quote was given years ago. Do you think it may be still relevant today? My belief is that it may be even more relevant today than it was years ago. I have heard many say, 'well I will wait for the prophet or general authorities of the church to tell me what I must do and what organizations I must join and how to go about standing up for what is right, I just do not think it is right (other than promote these teachings in my own home) to do anything other than this.' To these people I again quote from the words of President Benson who left no question as to what our responsibility is in regards to this type of thinking...
"And now as the last neutralizer that the devil used most effectively – it is simply this: Don’t do anything in the fight for freedom until the Church sets up its own specific program to save the Constitution. This brings us right back to the scripture of those slothful servants who will not do anything until they are “compelled in all things”. Maybe the Lord will never set up a specific Church program for the purpose of saving the Constitution. Perhaps if he set up one at this time it might split the Church asunder, and perhaps he does not want that to happen yet, for not all the wheat and tares are fully ripe. The Prophet Joseph Smith declared it will be the elders of Israel who will step forward to help save the Constitution, not the Church..... "We had better take our small pain now than our greater loss later. There were souls who wished afterwards that they had stood and fought with Washington and the founding fathers, but they waited too long - they passed up eternal glory. There has never been a greater time than now to stand up against entrenched evil. And while the gentiles established the Constitution, we have a divine mandate to preserve it! But, unfortunately, today in this freedom struggle, many gentiles are showing greater wisdom in their generation than the children of light. (Pres Ezra Taft Benson)
And in conclusion, these final thoughts;
"The fight for freedom is God’s fight. No matter what the temporary outcome, the Lord has endowed this matter of freedom with such everlasting repercussions that it sifted the spirits of men before this world in the Great War in heaven. And, it seems today, to be the central issue that is sifting those who are left in the world. No one can delegate his duty to preserve his freedom, for the price of liberty is eternal vigilance. You cannot effectively fight for freedom and not be attacked. We also should not expect the Lord to do for us what we can do for ourselves.
The basic purpose of life is to prove ourselves – not to be with the majority when it is wrong. Proving ourselves means showing whether or not we are going to stand up for freedom. Less spiritually advanced people have to be commanded in all things. Those who are spiritually alert look at the objectives, check the guidelines laid down by the Lord, and then prayerfully act without having to be commanded.
This attitude prepares men for godhood. Sometimes the Lord waits on his children to act on their own, and when they do not, they loose the greater prize. The more He has to spell it out, the smaller is our reward....
To be on the wrong side of the freedom issue in heaven meant eternal damnation. How then can Latter-day Saints expect to be on the wrong side in this life and escape eternal consequences? Will they heed the counsel of the prophet and preserve their freedom? Those who want to lead the quiet, retiring life but still expect to do their full duty can’t have it both ways. This fight for freedom might never become popular in our day, and if you wait until everybody agrees in this Church, you will be waiting through the second coming! The Lord will not protect us unless we do our part." (President Ezra T. Benson)
Let us all remember these words, ponder them and then act on them. The first step is to become educated. We must know what principles we are to fight for and against and be able to clearly articulate what our position is. We must be prayerful and have the spirit of discernment with us as we look for others and join with other organizations who are fighting for freedom. The price to pay is worth the reward. Our eternal salvation may be at stake. My prayer is that each of us, as individuals, may have the courage and the wisdom to fulfill our duty in this great battle. Let us unite!
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Friday, August 1, 2008
Letter to the Founders from the American People
So I got an email from a group called the "Cause of Liberty". They send out a newsletter called 'The Sentinel' about once a month. I was intrigued by this month's edition so much that I decided to post it here in my blog. And since last month's posting was so intellectually stimulating, I thought I ought to post something a bit satirical to give some of your brains a break. Here it is:
Dear Founders,
Forgive us if this is short—we have just a few minutes between "American Idol" and "Desperate Housewives" to write.
Dear Founders,
Forgive us if this is short—we have just a few minutes between "American Idol" and "Desperate Housewives" to write.
Since, according to a few paragraphs we’ve read in our school textbooks, you seemed to have played a mildly important role in our nation (although your contribution is a bit overrated if you ask us), we thought you might appreciate a quick update on how everything has turned out.
You’ve undoubtedly heard about the Civil War. Sure, it was tough and bloody, but thankfully we were able to make the federal government a lot stronger and give it a lot more power as a result. What a mistake it was to give the states that much power. Don’t worry—we don’t fully blame you, for how could you have known how everything would turn out? I mean, it’s not like you studied history or anything, right?
Everything went pretty good after that, until we realized how undemocratic our government was. That one document we’ve heard about—you know, the one with all the rules for the government—was okay, but it had a bunch of big words and complicated concepts and we thought it best to simplify the whole thing and give more power to the People.
You’ve undoubtedly heard about the Civil War. Sure, it was tough and bloody, but thankfully we were able to make the federal government a lot stronger and give it a lot more power as a result. What a mistake it was to give the states that much power. Don’t worry—we don’t fully blame you, for how could you have known how everything would turn out? I mean, it’s not like you studied history or anything, right?
Everything went pretty good after that, until we realized how undemocratic our government was. That one document we’ve heard about—you know, the one with all the rules for the government—was okay, but it had a bunch of big words and complicated concepts and we thought it best to simplify the whole thing and give more power to the People.
Honestly, couldn’t you have made it just a bit easier to understand? And what was the deal with that whole republic thing? Don’t you think that was a little old-fashioned?
We’re sure you had good intentions, but we quickly figured out that democracy is where it’s at. That’s what all the cool nations have, and we’re certain that you wouldn’t want us to be uncool. It didn’t take much for us to fix some major problems with your document—just a couple amendments was all—and we were back in the game.
Of course, we had a big depression soon after that, but once again we realized that it was the product of one of your quaint but outdated ideas—the free market. Luckily, a few really smart bankers and really nice politicians had set up a great monetary system that helped us to create more money, just to make sure that we wouldn’t run out.
And we don’t know what we would have done without our benevolent Leader who quickly set things right and started giving us the benefits that we have always deserved. You could have saved us all the trouble from the beginning, but hey, you live and learn, right?
Oh, and we were also able to get past all your petty hang-ups about so-called “entangling alliances” and we formed the United Nations. That was really cute of you to be worried about international affairs, but we think it’s much nicer to cooperate with others, instead of playing that obsolete “sovereignty” game.
Things were great for awhile, aside from a short eight years where one of our presidents tried to reverse all of the good we had done. Then, of course, September 11th changed everything.
We weren’t really sure what to do, since none of our TV shows or public education had prepared us (you can’t expect us to know everything, can you?), but we were fairly certain that if we imposed our awesome form of government—democracy—in the Middle East that things would settle down.
We’re sure you had good intentions, but we quickly figured out that democracy is where it’s at. That’s what all the cool nations have, and we’re certain that you wouldn’t want us to be uncool. It didn’t take much for us to fix some major problems with your document—just a couple amendments was all—and we were back in the game.
Of course, we had a big depression soon after that, but once again we realized that it was the product of one of your quaint but outdated ideas—the free market. Luckily, a few really smart bankers and really nice politicians had set up a great monetary system that helped us to create more money, just to make sure that we wouldn’t run out.
And we don’t know what we would have done without our benevolent Leader who quickly set things right and started giving us the benefits that we have always deserved. You could have saved us all the trouble from the beginning, but hey, you live and learn, right?
Oh, and we were also able to get past all your petty hang-ups about so-called “entangling alliances” and we formed the United Nations. That was really cute of you to be worried about international affairs, but we think it’s much nicer to cooperate with others, instead of playing that obsolete “sovereignty” game.
Things were great for awhile, aside from a short eight years where one of our presidents tried to reverse all of the good we had done. Then, of course, September 11th changed everything.
We weren’t really sure what to do, since none of our TV shows or public education had prepared us (you can’t expect us to know everything, can you?), but we were fairly certain that if we imposed our awesome form of government—democracy—in the Middle East that things would settle down.
We quickly realized that principles are highly overrated when it comes to political expediency, so we told our leaders to do whatever they wanted, just as long as we could stay comfortable in our massive homes and watch sports on our big screen TVs.
We even deployed over 369,000 troops in more than 150 countries. It’s weird—we know—but none of this has seemed to make much of a difference on terrorism. It probably because we don’t have yet enough military might spread across the globe, so we’re going to keep it up.
We even deployed over 369,000 troops in more than 150 countries. It’s weird—we know—but none of this has seemed to make much of a difference on terrorism. It probably because we don’t have yet enough military might spread across the globe, so we’re going to keep it up.
$12 billion per month really isn’t that much—we are, after all, the strongest and best country in the world and we always seem to find the money from somewhere. That’s the government’s problem anyway; we’ve got our own money issues to deal with.
We’re probably not supposed to admit this, but right now things seem to be a bit shaky and we’re getting kind of worried. We’re sure having a hard time making ends meet personally, but our leaders undoubtedly know more than us, and they’re telling us that we’re just in a temporary slow-down. We’re not sure why our dollars buy us less and less, but who has time for economic theory and monetary policy?
Besides, that stuff is for nerds, and we’re too cool for that. Who wants to study government and economics when we’re anxiously awaiting the latest iPod? That’s so boring compared to keeping up with the latest gossip on Brad and Angelina. John Locke and Montesquieu don’t have anything to tell us that we can’t learn from People magazine.
Furthermore, we suspect that our current struggles have something to do with your naïve mistakes, as we’ve seen throughout our development. And since we’ve done a great job of fixing your mistakes so far, we’re confident that if we keep innovating that we’ll get it right.
As you well know, massive change doesn’t happen overnight, so we’ll just keep chipping away at your flawed foundations. Persistence is the mark of a great nation, we always say, although complacence is just as good as long as the government takes care of everything.
You’ll be please to know that we have a couple of great candidates to choose from in this upcoming presidential election. It probably won’t matter much either way, but that McCain fellow seems kind of stuffy and we really like the fun slogan of the other guy.
Change—now that’s something that we can all believe in, especially since we’ve figured out that you guys didn’t get much right. What kind of change, you ask? We’re not entirely sure—but c’mon, doesn’t your heart just swell with patriotic pride every time you hear that special word?
Well, whatever, we’ve got TV shows to get to and bills to pay. Thanks for all the good things you probably did (heaven knows it wasn’t establishing good government), and we probably won’t be in touch. So much entertainment, so little time! Can you blame us?
Sincerely,
The American People, 2008
We’re probably not supposed to admit this, but right now things seem to be a bit shaky and we’re getting kind of worried. We’re sure having a hard time making ends meet personally, but our leaders undoubtedly know more than us, and they’re telling us that we’re just in a temporary slow-down. We’re not sure why our dollars buy us less and less, but who has time for economic theory and monetary policy?
Besides, that stuff is for nerds, and we’re too cool for that. Who wants to study government and economics when we’re anxiously awaiting the latest iPod? That’s so boring compared to keeping up with the latest gossip on Brad and Angelina. John Locke and Montesquieu don’t have anything to tell us that we can’t learn from People magazine.
Furthermore, we suspect that our current struggles have something to do with your naïve mistakes, as we’ve seen throughout our development. And since we’ve done a great job of fixing your mistakes so far, we’re confident that if we keep innovating that we’ll get it right.
As you well know, massive change doesn’t happen overnight, so we’ll just keep chipping away at your flawed foundations. Persistence is the mark of a great nation, we always say, although complacence is just as good as long as the government takes care of everything.
You’ll be please to know that we have a couple of great candidates to choose from in this upcoming presidential election. It probably won’t matter much either way, but that McCain fellow seems kind of stuffy and we really like the fun slogan of the other guy.
Change—now that’s something that we can all believe in, especially since we’ve figured out that you guys didn’t get much right. What kind of change, you ask? We’re not entirely sure—but c’mon, doesn’t your heart just swell with patriotic pride every time you hear that special word?
Well, whatever, we’ve got TV shows to get to and bills to pay. Thanks for all the good things you probably did (heaven knows it wasn’t establishing good government), and we probably won’t be in touch. So much entertainment, so little time! Can you blame us?
Sincerely,
The American People, 2008
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