Politics and religion

As a boy scout I received a Patriotism award and for whatever reason it has meant a great deal to me since. This country is in the midst of change for better or worse, who is yet to know, but patriotism seems to be something that is slowly diminishing. Maybe it’s living here in Utah where pioneer day is a bigger holiday than the 4th of July, I am not sure. One thing I will always stick by is this ‘In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children' as a banner as to where I stand.

It seems to me that the Constitution has been greatly abused and greatly overused as an excuse or explanation for belief. I say this because some see the Constitution as a document that is final and finite in its purpose, others see it as something that was written over two hundred years ago that had meaning only to those revolutionaries. My philosophy falls somewhere in between. When I took an American History class at a local college I was amazed at the effort the Founders used to battle against the tugging of human nature and wrote a document that took many years to write. Compared to the legislation that is passed today, that is inspired by human nature and is sped through the legislative process. How can this be good for our country? To those who see this sacred document as final say, I say open your mind, this country changes every 10-15 years and the words written on the Constitution have different meaning. It even has different meaning for different groups of people and this will ALWAYS be changing. I am not in anyway saying to dismiss the Constitution, but to use it as a reference and tool to know what is appropriate to legislate.

Lincoln said this
“We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.
“It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the Offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.” (“A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America,” March 30, 1863, as cited in Richardson, Messages and Papers of the Presidents, Washington, D.C.: United States Congress, 1897, pp. 164–65.)
Unless we as citizens of this nation forsake our sins, political and otherwise, and return to the fundamental principles of Christianity and of constitutional government, we will lose our political liberties, our free institutions, and will stand in jeopardy before God…

Yes, I repeat, righteousness is an indispensable ingredient to liberty. Virtuous people elect wise and good representatives. Good representatives make good laws and then wisely administer them. This tends to preserve righteousness. An unvirtuous citizenry tend to elect representatives who will pander to their covetous lustings. The burden of self-government is a great responsibility. It calls for restraint, righteousness, responsibility, and reliance upon God.
Ezra Taft Benson, “The Constitution—A Glorious Standard,” Ensign, May 1976, 91

My belief is that God has a huge role in this country of ours. The above statements I completely agree with and try to remember when thinking about political issues. Some will disregard the statements of Ezra Taft Benson because he was an LDS prophet, and that is unfortunate because his words ring more true today then they did 34 years ago.

Ezra T. B. was a very inspired man. Great quote.