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This is a wonderful, really wonderful, article - Page 2 - Mormon Doctrine Studies - Posted: 14th Aug, 2008 - 4:48am
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Seek To Be Elected? - Page 2
This is a wonderful, really wonderful, article from 1972 New Era, the first in a series of lectures from the Commissioner of the CES - Neal A. Maxwell. I think it speaks directly to the idea of members becoming involved in our democratic process.
The Lonely Sentinels of Democracy
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| It was G. K. Chesterton who first warned us about what can happen to a 'tired democracy," a democracy in which the people are willing to leave their chores to a few "lonely sentinels." There are many who now believe that American democracy is, in fact, a 'tired democracy," with "deliberate apathy" eating away at the vitals of our society. There are also those who argue that things are so complex now and the consequences of decisions so grave that democracy will falter simply because-by its very nature-democracy leaves, in the words of Chesterton again, terribly important things up to ordinary people. .... I am intrigued by the scriptures that describe a time when men's hearts shall fail them. Presumably, the despair level at that point in human history will be so great that many will doubt, and doubt deeply, man's capacity to cope with the challenges around him. But democracy need not drive men toward despair; in fact, it offers them an excellent way of avoiding that consequence, if the "voice of the people" chooses wisely. But democracy does not automatically produce results simply as a function of intellectual commitment. The Prophet Joseph Smith understood that democracy involves a collision of values and ideas, and he urged us to do what we could to make good causes popular and bad ones unpopular. This is sober counsel from one who was both gored and ignored in the arena of opinion. .... We are given a sobering warning in the 121st section of the Doctrine and Covenants [D&C 121] about the tendency of "almost all" men to abuse power-a harsh indictment of human nature! Political systems seek to hedge power with restraints and with checks to avoid abuse. In the last analysis, however, just as there is the occasional rogue cop who runs amok, we can have political leaders who are in crucial positions, who make decisions that are far-reaching, and who are encapsulated in an enclave of supporters who do not level with the leaders-who, alas, finally cannot be reached except by their own conscience, and that is a very, very small and a very still voice in some cases. Preston Nibley, in an article written nearly a quarter of a century ago, describes the transmission of the words of the Prophet about the Constitution of the United States and its coming to peril point eventually. There is some question, because of failures to record and memory differences, as to whether or not the Constitution (which in all versions would be in jeopardy) would be saved by the "elders" of this Church, or whether "if the Constitution be saved at all, it will be by the elders of this Church." Whatever version is correct, we do seem to have rendezvous with history concerning the American Constitution. We can best prepare ourselves for that time by thinking through our commitment to constitutional government, by involving ourselves in and contributing to the process of that government in appropriate ways, as did Mosiah in Nephite society and Joseph in Egypt, by understanding the lessons of secular history, and by drawing upon the scriptures in which we have so much longitudinal information about men's past struggles to be free as they faced the issues of their times. This rendezvous can best be kept by individuals who avoid both naïvete and despair. We must be as resilient as John Taylor and Brigham Young who saw the Saints fail to get constitutional protection in difficult circumstances but still venerated that document. It can be a rendezvous best kept by men and women who are devoted to the whole document of the United States Constitution; the wise men who authored both the Constitution and the Bill of Rights on which we, as a people, may need to rely were as wise about one part of the First Amendment as another. We cannot seek shelter under the tree of the Constitution if we cut off some of its branches or fail to nourish the whole tree. |
Honestly, this is a great read, and I recommend it to anyone feeling the apathy present in current American politics.
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