I’ll start to write and eventually find my thoughts, thoughts on how America has drifted away from its sure anchor. I should acknowledge a story related by Elder Jonathan C. Roberts of the Seventy who recently attended our Stake Conference.
Elder Roberts had taken his family on vacation to a lake in the Ozarks, boated across the expanse of water to the middle where they deployed a large inflatable deck which they would use as a base. His wife had forgotten to bring along the food and he jumped on one of the motorized ski contraptions to retrieve it.
Not being familiar with the lake he took notice of key landmarks prior to embarking across the water, making good use of his scouting skills lest he be unable to find his way back. Once he’d recovered the food he headed back, taking note of his position with respect to the aforementioned landmarks. He traveled to where he thought he’d started and had a sinking feeling he might have made a mistake, not being able to see the boat or inflatable deck in spite of having the landmarks lined up as his memory permitted.
He scoured the horizon and saw something far off in the distance and made his way closer, the speck growing larger to resemble the shape of a boat and later, as he got even closer, his family playing on the inflatable deck. Upon arrival he asked why they’d moved from their original spot; except his wife told him, “We haven’t moved.”
Elder Roberts checked the landmarks which no longer matched those he originally had depended upon at which time he realized they hadn’t been on a lake at all; rather, a very slow moving river. They had drifted a considerable distance from their original position.
I immediately jotted down a secondary thought, one regarding how this story could be used to explain America and how it has drifted from its starting place, so much so that our landmarks are no longer able to be seen or of much use.
Last week I started to write my thoughts regarding God Given Rights and found myself wandering off on tangents with little progress; this story, along with some of the other thoughts I jotted down during conference seem to adapt easily to what I wanted to say.
For the sake of simplicity, rights come from God and He is magnanimous, enough to permit those who don’t acknowledge His gifts to enjoy them anyway; in short, all individuals have certain inalienable rights, rights which no other individual or group of individuals, to include governments and their associated agencies may trample upon without violating the laws of God, laws which have been in existence from before the world was made .
I grew up hearing how our nation was formed, listening to explanations, mostly from my parents, of the importance religion and a strong belief in God played in the destiny of this country. As I grew older and put many pieces of the puzzle together in my mind; Columbus’s visions and accomplishment to what he considered a God given quest, the Puritans and others who sought only to be able to live their religious beliefs to the extent possible without repression along with our Founding Fathers, individuals who methodically transformed raw thoughts regarding man’s interrelations in society and within the framework of government so as to fine tune their ideas into documents revered to this day as being divinely inspired.
“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
And yet today I hear many, some in high places and considered “enlightened”, distancing themselves and the direction of our nation away from those landmarks which, hardly recognizable now, anchored us to our starting place. In most instances the subject of religion is not simply omitted; but is unwelcomed. Reference to God has been labeled a disease carried by right wing extremists, a way to marginalize anyone who might attempt to remind a nation’s conscience of their having strayed from a path of righteousness; this is how we are ignored by those with a different agenda, an agenda which stifles individual agency in favor of some protracted social order.
The Founders understood the principles which unite God and His children along with the social involvements which prevail, not only among those who acknowledge and adhere to God’s commandments, laws, restrictions and blessings; but with an understanding of those who would stand in defiance of these same commandments, laws, restrictions and blessings. Our Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights are an acknowledgement of the eternal order of things being made of and through Him, not the institution of a denomination or establishment of a particular faith.
The perversion of language skills, intentional and divisive, a failure to acknowledge God as the Author of our liberties, our freedoms; in short our individual agency to act within the framework provided, our constitution, does not mention of a separation of church and state as declared by our Supreme Court. The wedge used at first now divides a nation; now precludes the very mention of Him as an integral part of our social order.
I act on the knowledge, as supplied in the scriptures, that man was made in the image of God , we being His children and heirs to all, no different than heirs listed in the reading of a will, it becomes “self evident” as stated by our Founders when they put pen to paper, to act upon this information so as to acknowledge not only God; but His commandments, laws, restrictions and blessings which He has provided in order for His children to accomplish mortality in a manner pleasing unto Him. As a matter of extension, all laws instituted by men would, of necessity, adhere within God’s laws rather than be in opposition to those eternal principles.
If we are also to act upon the knowledge that our nation was divinely inspired, for at one time such a notion was prevalent and widely accepted, then what has happened? Has God changed or have we strayed so far as to not recognize the landmarks placed for our own good? The imagery supplied by Elder Robert’s story fits our situation so well as to make it impossible to ignore.
I heard reference to a scripture, “Did I not speak peace to your mind concerning the matter? What greater witness can you have than from God?” Doctrine and Covenants 6:23 The message of this particular scripture actually should start in verse 21 and goes through verse 24 where the Lord declares himself to the Prophet Joseph Smith. Again, has the Lord changed or have we turned a deaf ear to Him? I fear far too many are incapable of feeling the promptings of the Spirit, a means of distinguishing good from evil, truth from error and by so doing drift further from their origins and from God.
Upon being reminded of this passage a certain peace did settle on my mind, a witness of the divine origins of the United States of America, the founding documents and our place in the world as it should be; something which has become a concern as I’ve watched the direction we have taken, more appropriately, our wandering down forbidden paths, letting the winds move us according to each daily poll’s results.
My thoughts turn to the Bill of Rights; a means of protecting individual’s God Given Rights from our own government, for such is needed to insure the continuation of our divinely inspired government. Our Founders understood how power corrupts those in office. Having documents in place to secure these sacred rights has worked, more or less for these past two hundred years. Each successive year, however, has shown the effects of erosion, through both neglect and deceit, of these once generally understood individual rights, rights which could only come from God.
Take for example the 1st Amendment, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
How in the name of Heaven could freedom of speech, a God given right, be extended to include pornography or profanity? The answer, it doesn’t and never did; such interpretations are in defiance of God Himself and will come crashing down on us if we accept such blatant abuses of language to rationalize our inability to be obedient.
Moroni, an ancient prophet whose words are found in the Book of Mormon warned:
“And I would exhort you, my beloved brethren, that ye remember that he is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and that all these gifts of which I have spoken, which are spiritual, never will be done away, even as long as the world shall stand, only according to the unbelief of the children of men.” Moroni 10:19
God being the same to one generation as He is with all his children is an accepted ideology with most Christians as well as the Jewish faith. Were this not so God would be a respecter of persons and His words would hold no promise. I could go on and on listing scripture; but to what avail, those who discount God hold no respect for those who are guided by His council?
What about the 2nd Amendment, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”, are we to throw out yet another God given right to satisfy the whims of a corrupted government unwilling to recognize an individual’s right to self defense; preferring instead to sight numerous abuses and violations of our laws by a segment of our society with no regard for either man’s laws or God’s?
I’ve heard it stated by some how mankind doesn’t have the necessary self control to be entrusted, to have individuals in control of firearms and how nothing good can come of such a disregard for human life. Quite to the contrary, were it not for the ability to defend against tyranny and force from those without any regard for the law’s of man or of God, social order as we know it could not exist. The only ones in power would always be those who crushed anyone who didn’t agree or comply, total and complete tyranny with a never ending battle field strewn from one tyrant’s imposed territory to a never ending supply of fellow tyrants intent of claiming or recovering their own areas of conquest; in short, it would look like much of the Middle East. (No pun intended, just the facts.)
The concept of a nation’s government dominated by self rule has, built within the fabric, the self evident precept of individual discipline consistent with our eternal lineage, our being sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father, the Creator and Author of Liberty. How is it that one generation is ordained to fulfill the destiny of self discipline, to be worthy of unalienable rights while following generations are not? The answer comes back, as stated by Moroni, “…that ye remember that he is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and that all these gifts of which I have spoken, which are spiritual, never will be done away, even as long as the world shall stand, only according to the unbelief of the children of men.”
I wrote in a recent article , “The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is no force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. Property must be secured or liberty cannot exist.” ( John Adams. )
The idea of individual property ownership has been a part of our national attitude from our earliest documents; altered somewhat at the onset, the Pursuit of Happiness being a means of getting around the issue of slavery in order to get consensus at the time of the signing.
What have we come to when our Supreme Court voids property rights, favoring one group of investors over an individual’s prior right to a given property in the Kelo decision? How far along the path of property rights dissolution are we when the EPA can regulate the use of private property against the wishes of the owners to such a degree as to make such ownership meaningless?
That last reference has so many violations which could be listed; however the one which comes to mind at this moment would be the shutting down of water to farmers making it impossible to sustain their crops and for what; to prevent the extinction of some bug or toad which has taken residence on the land. We would rather destroy the livelihood of the rightful land owners than protect their right to do as they please with property they own, as if our collective consciousness in the name of environmentalism supersedes that of the rightful owner.
I’m not sure how it has happened, only that it has; nearly half of America actually believes in the false principle of having their neighbor pay for his/her way through life, as if creature comforts were an entitlement which the government could use taxpayer funds to support. Beyond class envy, which has been used to stoke divisiveness, the mentality of entitlement has crossed beyond reason into a “quasi-right” frame of mind; such quasi-rights do not exist and never have, they being an enticement used by politicians to obtain votes neither deserved or sustainable. At some point the well runs dry because those paying for everything eventually run out of resources or simple leave the pool, having no desire to be shorn like sheep.
We have reached a point, a dangerous point, where segments of our society have seen fit to deny certain individuals their agency to act, as if the collective had such powers. Our form of government was designed to prevent that very situation and by ignoring the framework, the built in protections for individuals, this herd mentality has prevailed.
Our legislators, ever aware of the need to satisfy desires get voted out, have included in the workings of everyday legislation terms which mandate appropriate responses at the expense of individual God given rights with little regard for the consequences of such laws. The majority of folks who would blindly permit taxing the rich to pay for anything and everything has grown over the years.
Politicians have successfully suggested that housing, transportation, medical care and entertainment are “rights” rather than being honest and associating such as the fruits of individual labor. The list is endless; after all, the rich can afford it and they really didn’t earn all that money, the least they could do is share it with everyone less fortunate.
Now as I look out across the expanse, spotting familiar landmarks, individual integrity, self reliance and honor, landmarks which once marked the location of America, they are harder to find, having drifted off from its sure anchor. What appeared to be a slow moving river, hardly discernable in motion, now finds us ever closer to the precipice, the speed at which we travel towards oblivion increasing at a frightening pace.
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