In the Book of Mormon there was a leader by the name of Amalickiah. He was clever, charismatic, flattering, and managed to convince a ton of people to follow him and do some questionable things. Well, things we might call wicked. His main focus was to "destroy the church of God, and to destroy the foundation of liberty which God had granted unto them". Christians. He sought to destroy Christians and their beliefs and freedoms. This is was in about 73 B.C. that this took place.
I don't know about any of you, but it sounds awfully familiar.
There was a great captain of a Nephite army named Captain Moroni who heard what Amalickiah's intentions were and became angry. Just as I expect we would, who does that guy think he is boasting that he'll destroy all the Christians in the land? I'd be angry too.
In Alma chapter 46 verses 12-16 we read:
"12 And it came to pass that he rent his coat; and he took a piece thereof, and wrote upon it—In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children—and he fastened it upon the end of a pole.
13 And he fastened on his head-plate, and his breastplate, and his shields, and girded on his armor about his loins; and he took the pole, which had on the end thereof his rent coat, (and he called it the title of liberty) and he bowed himself to the earth, and he prayed mightily unto his God for the blessings of liberty to rest upon his brethren, so long as there should a band of Christians remain to possess the land—
14 For thus were all the true believers of Christ, who belonged to the church of God, called by those who did not belong to the church.
15 And those who did belong to the church were faithful; yea, all those who were true believers in Christ took upon them, gladly, the name of Christ, or Christians as they were called, because of their belief in Christ who should come.
16 And therefore, at this time, Moroni prayed that the cause of the Christians, and the freedom of the land might be favored."
So courageous and inspiring the humble actions and courage of Moroni. Do we turn off the television when we hear a story like this on the news? Do we find out as much knowledge as we can and become proactive thinking of things that we might be able to do? Do we prepare ourselves in our homes to raise a flag in memory of our God, our religion, our freedom and our peace? It is better to live by the words you believe and become a light and an example to the world we live in, than to simply state it in word only. It needs to more than just a passing thought or mumbled word. We must stand up and be counted as Christians.
President J. Reuben Clark, Jr., put it well when he said:
“God provided that in this land of liberty, our political allegiance shall run not to individuals, that is, to government officials, no matter how great or how small they may be. Under His plan our allegiance and the only allegiance we owe as citizens or denizens of the United States, runs to our inspired Constitution which God himself set up. So runs the oath of office of those who participate in government. A certain loyalty we do owe to the office which a man holds, but even here we owe just by reason of our citizenship, no loyalty to the man himself. In other countries it is to the individual that allegiance runs. This principle of allegiance to the Constitution is basic to our freedom. It is one of the great principles that distinguishes this ‘land of liberty’ from other countries.” (Improvement Era, July 1940, p. 444.)
To truly fight for our freedom, to truly be good and decent citizens, we must not turn away from the God that gave us this land of liberty, but rather, towards Him. We must continue to fight for our religious freedoms, good moral standings, and do our patriotic duty to love, support and defend our country with diligence, faith and devotion.
“Patriotism,” said Theodore Roosevelt, “means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the President or any other public official save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. …
“Every man,” said President Roosevelt, “who parrots the cry of ‘stand by the President’ without adding the proviso ‘so far as he serves the Republic’ takes an attitude as essentially unmanly as that of any Stuart royalist who championed the doctrine that the King could do no wrong. No self-respecting and intelligent free man could take such an attitude.” (Theodore Roosevelt, Works, vol. 21, pp. 316, 321.) And yet as Latter-day Saints we should pray for our civic leaders and encourage them in righteousness.
I challenge us all to find our knees aren't broken and neither is God's ears. If we trust in the Lord He will see fit to continue to bless this land with liberty. He will continue to make it a beacon of light to the world and an example of true freedom.
