Lynn D. Wardle

It was not only individual, between each man and God; it was also public, respecting the formation of Churches and of civil government.” 8 Other denominational preachers wrote along these lines, too. In addition, God had ordained civil government to promote the good of the people and protect their rights.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > September 1989

Spencer W. Kimball

Early in this dispensation the Lord made clear the position his restored church should take with respect to civil government. Furthermore, in order to implement our divine charge to seek for such “civil officers … as will administer the law in equity and justice,” we urge Church members to attend the mass meetings of their respective political parties and there exercise their influence.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > May 1974

Arvo Van Alstyne

The same principles are specifically mentioned in modern revelation as the desired basis for government. Since the document was intended as a framework for government, these principles seem to relate primarily to the relationships between government and citizen, defining the rights of the people and circumscribing the powers of the government.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > August 1987

N. Eldon Tanner

Though I wish to deal with the priesthood as it pertains to the latter days, we must realize, as Brigham Young explained, that the priesthood is the law by which the worlds are, were, and will be brought into existence and peopled. In fact, if one began to sign papers as their representative, without having been properly appointed, he would be accused of forgery and handled by the law.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > June 1973

Ezra Taft Benson

God’s law is a law of truthfulness. 10. But God said, “Thou shalt not covet.” These are the foundation principles upon which all civilized government and our present civilization is built.

Gospel Library > Magazines > New Era > July 1978

Spencer W. Kimball

Early in this dispensation the Lord made clear the position his restored church should take with respect to civil government. Uphold and sustain the law, but work within the law to be an influence for good, as the Prophet Joseph Smith counseled us.

Gospel Library > Magazines > New Era > March 1981

Lance B. Wickman

And by the law no flesh is justified; or, by the law men are cut off. For under man’s law it is frequently said that “ignorance of the law is no excuse”; man’s justice then exacts the penalty anyway.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > June 2000

James E. Faust

For decades, whenever government tried to pass a law that interfered with any right guaranteed under the Constitution, the law was given careful scrutiny by the courts. According to the court, religious exclusions to public policy are “a luxury we can no longer afford.” As a result, any government (federal, state, or local) can now pass any law that infringes upon individual religious liberty as long as the law applies generally to everyone.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > October 1992

Marion G. Romney

Latter-day Saints should strictly obey the laws of the government in which they live. Revolutionary movements that aim at the abolition of government itself are contrary to the law of God.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > February 1973

Davis Bitton

Davis Bitton New Era May 1977 What was life like for a young Mormon in Brigham City, Utah, during the 1890s? Fortunately for us, young Chauncey West, in his 19th year and preparing to go on a mission, kept a diary for several months of 1895. It

Gospel Library > Magazines > New Era > May 1977

N. Eldon Tanner

Now, regarding the laws of the land, or the laws of man, it is necessary that we be governed by laws, which are made not alone to curb the evildoer, but to protect the rights of all. There are many who question the constitutionality of certain acts passed by their respective governments, even though such laws have been established by the highest courts in the land as being constitutional, and they feel to defy and disobey the law.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > November 1975

Dallin H. Oaks

Thus, for many citizens, religious liberty provides the reason all other civil liberties are desired. Later, as a lawyer and law professor for more than twenty years, I did some of that grappling myself.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > July 1990

Dallin H. Oaks

Earlier in his career he had taught at the University of Utah College of Law. As a lawyer and law professor for more than twenty years, I have studied the United States Constitution.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > February 1992

Edwin Brown Firmage

That he had learned that it was good to have laws, while God after existing from eternity and having power to create man, had not found out that it was proper to have laws for His government? A fifth principle of government is the necessity of the consent of the governed.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > June 1976

G. Homer Durham

These quotations express the doctrine of “higher law”—law designed to protect the free agency of man, law toward which religious men should aspire in their civil pursuits. Constitutional, or higher, law undertakes to protect that principle by defining the role and limits of civil authority.

Gospel Library > Magazines > New Era > September 1987

Stephen E. Robinson

The civil dimension of the word appears in Acts 19:32, where assembly in the KJV is a translation of the Greek ekklesia. When the civil governments (the kings of the earth) commit fornication with the false religion—that is, when church and state are joined together—then the wine of their fornication makes all the world drunk, and her sins and plagues reach unto heaven.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > January 1988

The Constitution neither states nor implies that churches shall not involve themselves in moral issues pertaining to government, only that government shall not establish a religion or prohibit the exercise of religion and free speech. see p. 15 18. The Church recognizes men and women as equally important before the Lord and the law.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > March 1980

Even when victimized by what they must surely have seen as very severe government oppressions and abridgments of freedom, the Mormon people and their leaders have remained loyal to their government and its laws. When we see the oppressions our forefathers endured (such as imprisonment and deprivation of civil rights for acts then required by their religion) without repudiating their basic commitment to observance of law, and when we reflect on the considerable opportunities our democratic government offers for the lawful redress of grievances (such as the legal ch

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > June 1976

Max H Parkin

This and the economic system the Church followed there—the law of consecration, wherein Bishop Edward Partridge distributed Church lands to the Saints—added to the unrest. 6 4.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > July 2001

Dallin H. Oaks

Some moral absolutes or convictions must be at the foundation of any system of law. In that same decade, the American Civil Liberties Union took the position that any pro-life abortion law was illegitimate because it must necessarily be founded on religious belief. 4 A few years ago some Protestant and Jewish clergymen challenged a federally financed program to promote abstinence from sexual activity among teenage youngsters.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > October 1992