Recent developments in rural Oregon have prompted Church leaders to respond to the claims of some Latter-day Saints who have taken up arms to protest the actions of the United States federal government.
For over one hundred years, Church presidents and apostles have warned against “religious hobbies” or “gospel hobbies,” which President Joseph F. Smith described as “dangerous because they give undue prominence to certain [gospel] principles or ideas to the detriment and dwarfing of others just as important, just as binding, just as saving” as the doctrines an individual may personally favor (Gospel Doctrine, p. 143).
In 2003 Elder Quentin L. Cook, then a member of the Seventy, explained:
The Lord said regarding important doctrine, “Whosoever declareth more or less than this, the same is not of me” (D&C 10:68) and “That which is more or less than this cometh of evil” (D&C 124:120). We are looking beyond the mark when we elevate any one principle, no matter how worthwhile it may be, to a prominence that lessens our commitment to other equally important principles or when we take a position that is contrary to the teachings of the Brethren.
Warning specifically against the gospel hobby of “all-consuming patriotism,” Elder Dallin H. Oaks taught in 1992:
Love of country is surely a strength, but carried to excess it can become the cause of spiritual downfall. There are some citizens whose patriotism is so intense and so all-consuming that it seems to override every other responsibility, including family and Church. I caution those patriots who are participating in or provisioning private armies and making private preparations for armed conflict. Their excessive zeal for one aspect of patriotism is causing them to risk spiritual downfall as they withdraw from the society of the Church and from the governance of those civil authorities to whom our twelfth article of faith makes all of us subject.
(“Our Strengths Can Become Our Downfall,” Ensign, October 1994.)
Knew a man in California who worked for Fish and Game. He had nothing but bad words to say about them while working for them and even worse after the great retirement package they gave him. Ci surely did not understand.
I’m not saying I disagree to this blog or the leaders of the Church. I just wanted to share what Joseph Smith said in his days. Joseph Smith taught that it was sometimes necessary for men to take up arms because of their religious obligation to defend their families:
“It may be that the Saints will have to beat their ploughs into swords, for it will not do for men to sit down patiently and see their children destroyed. (HC 6:365.)
“There is one principle which is eternal; it is the duty of all men to protect their lives and the lives of the household, whenever necessity requires, and no power has a right to forbid it, should the last extreme arrive, but I anticipate no such extreme, but caution is the parent of safety. (HC 6:605.)
“Peace be still, bury the hatchet and the sword, the sound of war is dreadful in my ear. [But] any man who will not fight for his wife and children is a coward and a bastard.” (An American Prophet’s Record: The Diaries and Journals of Joseph Smith, p. 298.)
LdsMarco,
Thank you for sharing those quotes. I like them as well, and have used them myself to explain man’s inalienable right to self-defense.
Do you believe that the situation in Oregon matches the Prophet’s description of when this right should be exercised?
And do you believe that this right should be exercised, as a group, without instructions from Church leaders?
(D&C 98 is instructive here.)
Has anyone really looked at the abuse the Government has done to this family so far? I suppose it would be just as easy to “walk away” from house, land, animals, and one’s income. If the government did it in the past.. they can and are doing it again to these people. But I suppose there is always the Church to fall back on once you are forced to lose everything.
Rights are to be exercised when and where an individual chooses, however, they must suffer from the consequences.
Church leaders have more to loose and may fail to act as soon as required to secure victory, whereas an individual, with much more to lose personally, may act rashly and/or in haste.
Hindsight is always 20/20, but rights not expressly exercised by individuals are soon lost.
Perhaps it is better for some to lose their life and save their soul, but then their own children and grandchildren may be forced into slavery.
I will not be first, but I will not be last, either.
Leaders must lead.
I might not wait for ‘instructions’ from the Church leaders.
Great comments about gospel hobbies with no acknowledgement of the problem at hand (the over-reach of the Federal government) nor a solution, or a proper course of action. Shall we put our heads in the sand? I prefer a course of action, rather than inaction.
We need to make our voice heard at the ballot box and in the courts. If the government is wrong, we need to change it. The situation, such as in Oregon, cannot be resolved by force but by changing the government to abide by the concepts of our Constitution. We must not become anarchists.
All who have the gift of the Holy Ghost are responsible to use it. That makes me a bit nervous. If you don’t understand what’s being revealed to you, that is your problem and your responsibility. When you are going to kill somebody that can get heavy. I don’t just want to be saved, I want to be exalted. That can be a big difference. I hope if that should come, I will know what to do. Know one who is close to God needs a leader to do what is right. You will feel what is right and you will do it. If God comes to a leader and tells him what is to be done and the leader tells you what that is then the leader can only give you that information; the leader cannot give you revelation. You must find out from God that the leader has spoken the truth. Those who are close to God will know that what the leader has spoken is true and they will know that immediately .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1JzuQf4DMU
For those who care about the truth instead of calling people crazy, or not following Church doctrine etc., this video and the further expouding below should make your blood boil.
Essentially, the Hammonds set two brush fires that they were charged with, one was entirely legal, but due to the nature of fires it got out of hand some and went onto government owned “sagebrush” land.
Not only that, but the government themselves admitted the fire was actually a good thing, not bad, it improved the value of the land.
Another fire they were charged with was an emergency in which Hammond property was threatened, so they again did a controlled burn to create a “backfire”, but this one wasn’t authorized by the government, and that fire burned just “one” acre of government land.
This fire also the government themselves said the fire was a good thing, that it improved the land.
The government then decides to charge the Hammonds under a “Terrorist” law, and called the fires “Arson”.
The law actually states that a fire started must be “malicious” to meet the statute, AND there must be “damage”. Yet in both cases, there was neither malicious action nor actual damage done because it one was in the middle of knowwhere and the fires actually improved the land.
The judge I don’t know why he didn’t just throw the case out, but he wasn’t willing to at least give the “mandatory” sentence of at least 5 years due to the fact that it was just stupid (my non-legal adlib), and so he sentenced them to much less.
The government then clearly being the liberal fascists they are entirely vacate the judges rulling and punishment, and absolutely demand the 5 years, comparing the actions of the Hammonds to Terrorism, evil Arsonists, etc. when there was nothing of the sort.
So basically, this was a complete miscarriage of justice, and this is what the Bundy people are standing against.
This kind of thing has been occuring for years, constant, nationwide etc. because liberal environmental nutjobs clearly have control of these agency’s, because after all, there are only so many types of jobs environmental fascists can do. So, people that live this life are tired of the constant abuse of power by the Federal Government.
Follow up more detailed history…..
US Federal Government vs Oregon Ranchers: Cruel and Unusual Punishments
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI9IlziWphY
Anyway, if anyone is actually interested in the actual truth in contrast to liberal lying media and sadly the misinformed Church Public Affairs, you will watch these videos.
leeuniverse,
Speaking for myself and not on behalf of FairMormon, I completely agree that justice has not been served and the federal government is in the wrong in its persecution of the Hammonds.
But does any of that justify raising an armed militia?
The way this blog reads on my iPad, Mike Parker’s photo and bio line is much closer to the response above his, than his own. I was thinking it was his. I had to keep double checking who wrote which post.
Thanks, Shanon. I’ll bring it to the attention of our tech person!