Liberty in Law

The second verse of America the Beautiful really stuck out to me when we sang it last Sunday.

America! America! God mend thine every flaw.  

Confirm thy soul in self-control, thy liberty in law.

Sometimes we mistakenly think that liberty and agency mean no laws. But the truth is that laws make it possible to have freedom.

Laws of the road make it possible to freely travel on the roads. Without those laws, chaos would reign and we would not have the same ability to safely travel. Also, it is important to note that speed limits are not just arbitrary numbers picked by someone to restrict your "freedom". If you go faster than the speed limit on the freeway, you are physically not capable of stopping your vehicle in time if you go around a bend and see traffic stopped.

God did give us agency, the freedom to act for ourselves. But that agency only works if there are laws (2 Nephi 2:16). The scriptures also teach us that if there is no law, there is no God (2 Nephi 2:13, Alma 42:17-23). Satan's plan, as I understand it, was to take away the law which would take away our agency. If there is no law, there is no punishment, and we would all make it back to heaven. Sounds good, right? But the purpose of God's plan was not just to make it back to heaven, but to actually become like our Father in Heaven. This could only be done through agency and laws.

King Mosiah established the law according to the laws of God (Mosiah 29:11-14). He also believed in doing things by the voice of the people (Mosiah 29:25-27), desiring "this land to be a land of liberty" (Mosiah 29:32).

One of the major themes of the Book of Mormon is the promise that if we keep the commandments we will prosper in the land, and if we do not, we will be cut off from His presence. The Book of Mormon teaches this specifically at least 36 times. And the entire Book of Mormon is a history of 2 nations (the Nephites, and the Jaredites) who prospered in the land when they kept the commandments, but who were eventually destroyed because they ceased to remember God.

For me, I believe the Book of Mormon teaches that we should strive to uphold the law of God as the law of the land. I do believe that in order for us to prosper as a nation, we must keep the commandments of God. I believe that God has all knowledge, and His commandments are not arbitrary, but are the very things that will allow us to prosper and keep our freedom. Just as the engineer who designs the freeway knows the correct speed for safe travel, God knows the correct way to live that will bring peace and prosperity.

These are things I believe. And the Constitution grants me the right to act on these beliefs. And yes, I have the right to act politically on these beliefs.

First Amendment:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

I keep hearing that religion has no business with regards to the law. People keep yelling "Separation of church and state." But that's actually a phrase coined by Thomas Jefferson, and does not actually appear in the Constitution. And here's the thing. Everybody has a religion. Your religion is your set of beliefs. It's not just about organized religion. The First Amendment gives you the right to believe anything you want and to act in accordance with those beliefs.

Now we obviously have laws in place to keep our society safe. You can't just go around killing people because you believe it is right. But who gets to decide the laws?

We are supposed to be governed by the voice of the people. We have the responsibility to vote on laws and to elect public officials to represent us. And our Constitution grants us the freedom to make those decisions based on our beliefs.

As citizens of the United States of America, we each have the responsibility to politically act in the way we honestly believe will "promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity." We are a nation of many people from many different backgrounds. We will obviously disagree on many things. But there should be love and respect for all people who are trying to do what they believe is best for our country. We should not act like children who resort to name-calling.

I believe King Mosiah summed it up nicely:

"Now it is not common that the voice of the people desireth anything contrary to that which is right; but it is common for the lesser part of the people to desire that which is not right; therefore this shall ye observe and make it your law—to do your business by the voice of the people. And if the time comes that the voice of the people doth choose iniquity, then is the time that the judgments of God will come upon you; yea, then is the time he will visit you with great destruction even as he has hitherto visited this land." (Mosiah 29:26-27)

May we each have the courage to raise our voice according to our beliefs, whatever they may be. And may we each show love and respect for those with different beliefs.