Our Decline: Apathy

“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free . . . it expects what never was and never will be” (Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Colonel Charles Yancey, January 6, 1816.)

“Now I tell you it is time the people of the United States were waking up with the understanding that if they don’t save the Constitution from the dangers that threaten it, we will have a change of government.” (Joseph Fielding Smith, Conference Report, April 1950.)

“Constitution So Far gone That Tremendous Dedication Required To Save It

“How urgent is it that Latter-day Saints commence their efforts to save the constitution? In the Spring of 1966 Clarence Manion, Dean of Notre Dame Law School and a constitutional law professor for many years, spoke in the Tabernacle in Salt Lake City. It was interesting to hear him begin his talk by saying that he had heard that the Mormons had a prophesy that the Constitution would one day hang by a thread, and they would be the means of saving it. Then he very earnestly said that if the Mormons are going to save the Constitution, they had better wake up and get going, because it seemed to him that it was already almost too far gone to save.” (Dean of Notre Dame Law School and Constitutional Law Professor Clarence Manion, The Elders of Israel and the Constitution, p. 198. 1966.)

“If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too.” (W. Somerset Maugham, Strictly Personal, 1941.)

“Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them.” (Frederick Douglass)

“…the spirit of the times may alter, will alter. Our rulers will become corrupt, our people careless...They will be forgotten, therefore, and their rights disregarded. They will forget themselves, but in the sole faculty of making money, and will never think of uniting to effect a due respect for their rights.” (Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, Chapter 17. February 27, 1787.)

“For he saith, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent: and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man: And my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people: and as one gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped.” (Scriptural, Isaiah referring to evil men in the last days who would find a way to gather the riches of the people without an outcry. Isaiah, Bible, 10:13-14.)

“Moroni wasn’t speculating about a conspiracy, he said very plainly that in our day there would be the same kind of secret combination, at the head of government, that was the cause of the destruction of both the Jaredite and Nephite civilizations. He said our duty was to not turn a blind eye to it, or pretend that it doesn’t exist, but do everything in our power to expose it and overthrow it. He also taught us how to identify it. And just to be sure, so that we would be left without excuse, prophets in our day have confirmed it. But the only thing I hear in the latter-day saint community, as with the rest of the world, when someone asserts “conspiracy” is to ridicule and get angry, or ignore the person making the assertion. If someone has evidence of what Moroni said would be among us, you would think that latter-day saints of all people would want to know what it was, and study it out.

“We fail to realize the magnitude of what we’re facing, and the result is a more casual attitude about the gospel, than what would be if we were armed with the truth.” (M B, September 14, 2008.)

“But our civilization and our people are seemingly afraid to be revolutionary. We are too ‘broadminded’ to challenge what we do not believe in. We are afraid of being thought intolerant, uncouth, ungentlemanly. We have become lukewarm in our beliefs. And for that we perhaps merit the bitter condemnation stated in Revelation 3:16: ‘So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.’

“This is a sad commentary on a civilization which has given to mankind the greatest achievements and progress ever known. But it is an even sadder commentary on those of us who call ourselves Christians, who thus betray the ideals given to us by the Son of God himself.” (Ezra Taft Benson, Conference Report, October 1960.)

“Any nation that permits a secret combination to gain control of its government shall be destroyed; such is the everlasting decree of a just God.” (Elder Bruce R. McConkie, The Millennial Messiah: The Second Coming of the Son of Man, p. 65. 1982.)