The Constitution--A Glorious Standard

On September 16, 1986, President Ezra Taft Benson delivered an address at BYU entitled The Constitution--A Glorious Standard.  This Brigham Young University devotional was later reprinted in the Ensign in September, 1987.  It is well worth our time to read the entire address.  The following are a few excerps:

"To understand the significance of the Constitution, we must first understand some basic, eternal principles.  These principles have their beginning in the premortal councils of heaven.

"The first basic principle is agency.  The central issue in that premortal council was: Shall the children of God have untrammeled agency to choose the course they should follow, whether good or evil, or shall they be coerced and forced to be obedient?  Christ and all who followed Him stood for the former proposition-freedom of choice; Satan stood for the latter--coercion and force.


"The second basic principle concerns the function and proper role of government.. . .The most important single function of government is to secure the rights and freedoms of individual citizens.

"The third important principle pertains to the source of basic human rights.  Rights are either God-given as part of the divine plan, or they are granted by government as part of the political plan.

"If we accept the premise that human rights are granted by government, then we must be willing to accept the corollary that they can be denied by government.  I, for one, shall never accept that premise.  We must ever keep in mind the inspired words of Thomas Jefferson, as found in the Declaration of Independence:

'We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights; that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.'

"The fourth basic principle we must understand is that people are superior to the governments they form.  Since God created people with certain inalienable rights, and they, in turn, created government to help secure and safeguard those rights, it follows that the people are superior to the creature they created.

"The fifth and final principle . . .basic to our understanding of the Constitution is that governments should have only limited powers.  The important thing. . .is that the people who have created their government can give to that government only such powers as they, themselves have in the first place. . .they cannot give that which they do not possess." (Ezra Taft Benson, "The Constitution--A Glorious Standard," Ensign, September 1987.)

No blind followers Part II

". . .because I said so!"  Who hasn't heard that phrase?

As parents, we may have very good reasons for expecting children to follow our lead, yet rarely do we succeed in getting them to do just what we want.  Have we failed as parents when our children question our authority?  No!  Agency is just as precious to them, as it is to us.  Where we may have fallen short of the mark isn't in wanting our children to do what was right or expedient, it was in trying to use force to get what we want done, in the way we want it done or in the time we want it done.  Conflict arises when we expect our children to be blind followers.

"Free agency, given us through the plan of our Father, is the alternative to Satan's plan of force.  With this sublime gift, we can grow, improve, progress, and seek perfection.  Without agency, none of us could grow and develop by leaning from our mistakes and errors and the mistakes and errors of others.

"Because of his rebellion, Lucifer was cast out and became Satan, the devil, "the father of all lies, to deceive and to blind men, and to lead them captive at his will, even as many as would not hearken unto [his] voice.' (Moses 4:4). . . .

"Let us not become so intense in our zeal to do good by winning arguments or by our pure intention in disputing doctrine that we go beyond good sense and manners, thereby promoting contention, or say or do imprudent things, invoke cynicism, or ridicule with flippancy.  In this manner, our good motives become so misdirected that we lose friends and, even more serious, we come under the influence of the devil.  I recently heard this truth: 'Your criticism may be worse than the conduct you are trying to correct.' "  James E. Faust, Reaching Up for the Light ( Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1990), 105-6.