This year’s class curriculum is on church history (the
history of this religion, what led to its founding in 1830, and mainly what
happened in the first few decades). The book of study for this year is the
Doctrine and Covenants, a set of statements of revelation guiding the early
leaders, often in answer to particular questions and circumstances, but also,
as other scripture, applicable in our lives today as well.
So this week’s lesson was on Doctrine and Covenants Section134, written August 17, 1835. It is a declaration of belief regarding
governments and laws in general, twelve verses long, about two pages. I’d like
to first share some highlights:
1.
We believe that governments were instituted of
God for the benefit of man; and that he holds men accountable for their acts in
relation to them, both in making laws and administering them, for the good and
safety of society.
So, two things: governments can be a blessing for a society,
for our good and safety; and we are accountable for the making and
administering of laws to meet that purpose.
6
…[leaders are] placed for the protection of the
innocent and the punishment of the guilty; and that to the laws all men show
respect and deference, as without them peace and harmony would be supplanted by
anarchy and terror…
In Spherical Model terms, laws protect us from the tyranny
of anarchy—the southern (tyranny) hemisphere, the western (anarchy) quadrant.
Include the limitation of government’s purpose, and we can avoid the
southeastern (statist tyranny) quadrant as well.
There is another item of Mormon doctrine, from a list of
beliefs called The Articles of Faith, referring to our status as citizens of
nations in the world. This is Article 12:
We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and
magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.
As a people dedicating our lives to God, we are submissive to
the governments where we live—even tyrannical governments, while striving to
bring about as much freedom as we can.
The next verse of D&C 134 refers to the free exercise of
religion, which I plan to spend a full post on soon, because of cases before
the Supreme Court this year.
7
We believe that rulers, states, and governments
have a right, and are bound to enact laws for the protection of all citizens in
the free exercise of their religious belief; but we do not believe that they
have a right in justice to deprive citizens of this privilege, or proscribe
them in their opinions, so long as a regard and reverence are shown to the laws
and such religious opinions do not justify sedition nor conspiracy.
So there is a two-part expectation of governments: they must
protect the free exercise of religion, and they must not deprive citizens of
the free exercise of religion. In return, religious persons will not hide
behind their so-called beliefs to commit sedition or conspire against the
government or the people.
This sounds very much like the two-part religious freedom
included as the very first words in our Constitution’s First Amendment: “Congress
shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof.” So there must be freedom to believe as we choose,
without special privilege toward any state-sponsored religion; nor can there be
government interference in our religious practices.
One more verse, in case you wondered about the 2nd
Amendment:
11
…we believe that all men are justified in
defending themselves, their friends and property, and the government, from the unlawful
assaults and encroachments of all persons in time of exigency, where immediate
appeal cannot be made to the laws, and relief afforded.
If you’ve submitted to a government for protection, you have
not relinquished your right to defend yourself at times when the protectors can’t
get there. Someone breaks into your home, you don’t have to wait for the police
to arrive.
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| Latter-day Saints force out of Illinois cross frozen Mississippi image from LDS.org |
It’s interesting to look at the times when these things were
written. The Church was founded in upstate New York—in the area of Palmyra (which
you can visit if you’re ever in the neighborhood of Niagara Falls). Persecution
there soon led to a move to the area around Kirtland, Ohio. In just a few
years, persecution there led to a move to Missouri. Persecution there soon led
to a move to Missouri counties on the other side of the state. Persecution
there—including an extermination order, which made it “legal” to murder Mormons
in Missouri, not rescinded until just a few decades ago—led to a move to a
swampland near Quincy, Illinois. The swamps were drained, and the city of
Nauvoo was built, where the Mormons, in some isolation, thrived for a few
years. (Some of my Mormon ancestors date to this period.) But persecution grew
(are you seeing a pattern?) including the murder of the Prophet Joseph Smith
and his Brother Hyrum. Promises of protection from the governor were broken,
and by 1846 the Mormons were forced out of their homes yet again, in winter, across the
Mississippi to Iowa and Nebraska, where they gathered in tents and dugout homes
to survive until they could ready themselves to cross the plains, which they
did in 1847, eventually arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, where the isolation
for a longer period of time, in a place no one else wanted, allowed them to
thrive.
The sesquicentennial of that trek across the plains was
celebrated in 1997. There was a reenactment of people making all or part of
that trek. A family (a mother and daughters—her husband stayed home on their
farm) near where we lived in eastern Washington did the trek, experiencing as
much reality as they could. She sewed her own tent. She dried her own buffalo
jerky. She learned to drive a team of horses. (The originals drove mainly oxen,
but for various reasons, sturdy horses were used in the reenactment trek.) I
was asked to write about her and send her story to the media.
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| Pioneer Trek reenactment photo from LDS.org |
Sometime after that I got a call from a reporter at Germany’s
Der Spiegel newspaper. The question
the reporter had for me was about freedom of religion. This was America, where
we had freedom of religion guaranteed in our Constitution since its beginning.
How could the Mormons be treated this way? And all I could say was that this
was the frontier, and a lot of wild things happened on the frontier that might
not have been tolerated in the more settled parts of America.
It was at that time, while suffering persecution for
their religion, with government entities failing to do their duty toward them,
that the people declared their support of the principles of limited government
to protect our God-given rights. The principles are true, regardless of whether
the government is “true” to its proper purpose.
Back to the question of how to be good citizens:
· Vote—if you’re a citizen, you are obligated to
vote.
· Attend precinct meeting—the grassroots meeting
where you decide on what to contribute to the party platform and delegates for
the next level. I believe that if we had a God-respecting person familiar with
the Constitution at every precinct meeting, that would be very powerful for
good.
· Contact your leaders. For every contact, the legislator
assumes there are 10 constituents who hold that opinion; for an in-person visit
they estimate there are 100 others who hold that opinion. Be the one to do the
contacting.
· Help in campaigns.
· Work at the polls.
· Volunteer as a poll watcher.
· Share information with your friends, in person
or through online media.
This list is just participation in the world of
government. Being a good citizen also includes respecting the law, living a
moral life, and volunteering and serving in the community.
One way to prevent government from stepping in to “do good”
is to be doing the good that needs to be done, using our free will, rather than
government coercion. If we want to live in the northern
freedom/prosperity/civilization part of the sphere, we need to live according
to those principles.
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