Politics

Consequences of the bad habit of judging and criticizing others. 7 Nov 1833 - The shores of the Missouri River in Jackson County, Missouri, were lined with Latter-day Saints waiting for their turn on the ferry to cross over the river into Clay County where they would find temporary peace.  Hundreds of people in tents and wagons struggled to survive under a heavy, cold rain.  Husbands were trying to locate their families they had been separated from when the mobs attacked.  The Prophet Joseph records, "The scene was indescribable, and would have melted the hearts of any people upon the earth, except the blind oppressor, and the prejudiced and ignorant bigot" (History of the Church, 1:437).

7 Nov 1841 - After Elder William O. Clark had preached to the Saints reproving them for their lack of solemnity and holy living in the" rigid sectarian style," the Prophet Joseph stood and reproved Elder Clark as pharisaical and hypocritical and not edifying the people.  He "showed the Saints what temperance, faith, virtue, charity, and truth were" and charged the Saints not to accuse each other of sin.  The Prophet also taught, "If you have no accuser you will enter heaven, and if you will follow the revelations and instructions which God gives you through me, I will take you into heaven as my back load.  If you will not accuse me, I will not accuse you.  If you will throw a cloak of charity over my sins, I will over yours"  (History of the Church, 4:445).

"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 29:27 )

"This warning has gone out to the people dwelling in this land today that unless they keep the commandments of the Lord like destruction will eventually overtake them.  And what the Lord says of this land is also true in a large measure of other lands.  History records the rise and the downfall of nations.  We have before us the history of Babylon, of Assyria, of Egypt, of Rome, and other nations.  Why were they destroyed?  Because they refused to hearken to the spirit of truth, to the voice of righteousness, and to walk in that spirit before the Lord.  In the days of their iniquity trouble came upon them, and the Lord's anger was kindled against them, and they fell from their high and exalted positions"  (Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation,3:321).

Read the statement from the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve concerning yesterday's U.S. elections www.lds.org. "We invite Americans everywhere, whatever their political persuasion, to pray for the President, for his administration and the new Congress as they lead us through difficult and turbulent times."

"Wherefore, be of good cheer, and do not fear, for I the Lord am with you, and will stand by you; and ye shall bear record of me, even Jesus Christ, that I am the Son of the living God, that I was, that I am, and that I am to come."

"Now, my brothers sisters, as you read of troubles in so many parts of the world, remember that the Lord knew these problems would come, and that even with these problems he has foreseen the growth of this Church and its people.  Be of good cheer, for the Lord is guiding his Church"  (The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, p. 438).