Heber
J. Grant
7th President
1918–1945
The
United States
Constitution
The
Bill of Rights
Declaration
of
Independence
Heber
J. Grant
Born: 22
November 1856
Ordained
an Apostle: 16 October 1882
President of the Twelve: 23 November 1916
President of the Church: 23 November 1918 - 14 May 1945
Died: 14 May 1945
As an Apostle
1.
That man
Joseph Smith, when he stood as the prophet and the leader of the people,
proclaimed that the Constitution of our country was inspired by God. I ask
if intelligent people are going to believe that the Latter-day Saints,
guided by a prophet who proclaimed that the Constitution of our country
was inspired, are in rebellion against the political system of our
country? I say that the statement is absolutely false. (JH [30 Apr
1889] 10)
2.
As a boy I was taught to love the institutions of my country and the
liberty guaranteed under it. I then looked forward hopefully to the time
when I should be a man and should enjoy the rights and assume the
responsibilities of manhood. Now that I am a man I want every right that
my country gives to other men. ("Speech of Hon. H. J. Grant" 1)
As the President of the Church
3.
Perhaps there is nothing of greater importance, next to our spiritual
growth, than a determination on the part of the Latter-day Saints to
observe the laws of our country. . . .
One of the Articles of our Faith [no. 12] declares that we believe in sustaining the law and supporting the rulers. ("President Heber J. Grant's Conference Message" 677-78)
4. Our declaration to all the world, through the Prophet Joseph Smith, that the men who wrote the Constitution of this country were inspired of the living God . . . give[s] the lie to all the liars who are perpetually saying that we are opposed to this country. . . . We believe absolutely in the inspiration of God to the men who framed our Constitution. (CR [Oct 1919] 33)
5. All Latter-day Saints believe absolutely that the Constitution of our Country was inspired of God, and that he used wise men, noble men, as instruments in his hands for establishing that Constitution, and when any law is enacted and becomes a constitutional law, no man who spends his money to help men break that law can truthfully say that he is a loyal citizen. (CR [Oct 1927] 5)
6. The Latter-day Saints believe absolutely that the Constitution of our country was written by inspired men. We believe in upholding the laws of our country. We believe in being obedient to the laws. One of the Articles of our Faith [no. 12] says that it is our duty to do so. (CR [Oct 1928] 9)
8. From my childhood days I have understood that we believe absolutely that the Constitution of our country was an inspired instrument, and that God directed those who created it and those who defended the independence of this nation. In other words, that He fought with Washington and others in the Revolutionary War. (CR [Oct 1936] 6)
9.
President Grant said he was grateful for the Constitution and declared
that no Latter-day Saint could live up to the teachings of his religion
without being a good American. Latter-day Saints should so live that the
world may know how they regard the Constitution and laws of this country.
("Constitution Topic of Tabernacle Sermons" 8)
10.
Next Sunday, September 17, being Constitution Day, designated and set
apart for commemoration of the great document which is the organic law and
foundation of our glorious Republic, we earnestly desire that bishops and
presidents of stakes arrange to have the speakers of their respective
services on that day address themselves to the Constitution, its history,
meaning and importance. (JH [16 Sep 1922] 1)
11.
The "Mormons" have taught, from the days of the Prophet Joseph
Smith, that the men who wrote the Constitution were raised up by God, and
that it was adopted by inspired men. We believe in the inspiration of the
living God, in the forming of our government. ("The Upholding of
Constituted Law and Order" 509; from an address given at Salt Lake
City, UT, 12 Feb 1928)
12.
We are also told to obey constitutional law, and any man or woman in the
Church of Christ that is breaking the prohibition law is also breaking the
laws of God. ("The Upholding of Constituted Law and Order" 515;
from an address given at Salt Lake City, UT, 12 Feb 1928)
13.
Every faithful Latter-day Saint believes that the Constitution of the
United States was inspired of God, and that this choice land and this
nation have been preserved until now in the principles of liberty under
the protection of God. . . .
These
principles are fundamental to our belief, fundamental to our protection.
And in the providences of the Lord, the safeguards which have been
incorporated into the basic structure of this nation are, if we preserve
them, the guarantee of all men who dwell here against abuses, tyrannies,
and usurpations. From my childhood days I have understood that we believe
absolutely that the Constitution of our country is an inspired instrument,
and that God directed those who created it and those who defended the
independence of this nation. . . .
And such the Constitution of the United States must be to every faithful Latter-day Saint who lives under its protection. That the Lord may help him to think straight, and to pursue a straight course regardless of personal advantage, factional interest, or political persuasion, should be the daily prayer of every Latter-day Saint. I counsel you, I urge you, I plead with you, never, so far as you have voice or influence, permit any departure from the principles of government on which this nation was founded, or any disregard of the freedoms which, by the inspiration of God our Father, were written into the Constitution of the United States. ("Admonition and Blessing" 694-95)
14.
The Church does not interfere, and has no intention of trying to
interfere, with the fullest and freest exercise of the political franchise
of its members, under and within our Constitution which the Lord declared:
"I established . . . by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto
this very purpose" [D&C 101:80], and which, as to the principles
thereof, the Prophet, dedicating the Kirtland Temple, prayed should be
"established forever" [D&C 109:54].
But
Communism is not a political party nor a political plan under the
Constitution; it is a system of government that is the opposite of our
Constitutional government, and it would be necessary to destroy our
government before Communism could be set up in the United States.
Since
Communism, established, would destroy our American Constitutional
government, to support Communism is treasonable to our free institutions,
and no patriotic American citizen may become either a Communist or
supporter of Communism. . . .
Furthermore,
it is charged by universal report, which is not successfully contradicted
or disproved, that Communism undertakes to control, if not indeed to
proscribe the religious life of the people living within its jurisdiction,
and that it even reaches its hand into the sanctity of the family circle
itself, disrupting the normal relationship of parent and child, all in a
manner unknown and unsanctioned under the Constitutional guarantees under
which we in America live. Such interference would be contrary to the
fundamental precepts of the Gospel and to the teachings and order of the
Church.
Communism
being thus hostile to loyal American citizenship and incompatible with
true Church membership, of necessity no loyal American citizen and no
faithful Church member can be a Communist.
We call upon all Church members completely to eschew Communism. The safety of our divinely inspired Constitutional government and the welfare of our Church imperatively demand that Communism shall have no place in America. ("Warning to Church Members" 488)
15.
The Latter-day Saints believe and have taught from the beginning that God
raised up the men who wrote the Constitution of this country: that it was
an inspired document, and that the Lord fought on the side of our
revolutionary fathers. (JH [13 Apr 1930] 3-4)
16.
Every Latter-day Saint believes that Abraham Lincoln was raised up and
inspired of God, and that he reached the Presidency of the United States
under the favor of our Heavenly Father. . . .
The
following quotation from Lincoln with respect to the observance of law is
. . . worth repeating often:
"Let
every American, every lover of liberty, every well wisher to his
posterity, swear by the blood of the revolution never to violate, in the
least particular, the laws of the country, and never to tolerate their
violation by others. As the patriots of seventy-six did to the support of
the Declaration of Independence, so to the support of the Constitution and
laws let every American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred
honor. Let every man remember that to violate the law is to trample on the
blood of his father, and to tear the charter of his own and his children's
liberty. Let reverence for the law be breathed by every American mother to
the lisping babe that prattles on her lap. Let it be taught in schools, in
seminaries, and in colleges. Let it be written in primers, in spelling
books, and almanacs. Let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in
legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice. In short, let it
become the Political Religion of the Nation." . . .
"The
Constitution of the United States is a glorious standard; it is founded in
the wisdom of God. It is a heavenly banner; it is, to all those who are
privileged with the sweets of liberty, like the cooling shades and
refreshing waters of a great rock in a weary and thirsty land. It is like
a great tree under whose branches men from every clime can be shielded
from the burning rays of the sun" [TPJS 147].
And
such the Constitution of the United States must be to every faithful
Latter-day Saint who lives under its protection.
We
honor the man that God honors. We honor Abraham Lincoln because we believe
absolutely that God honored him and raised him up to be the instrument in
His hands of saving the Constitution and the Union. ("Lincoln and
Law" 73, 127)
17.
The Constitutional Convention met and out from it came our God-inspired
Constitution—"the most wonderful work," said Gladstone,
"ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of
man."
The
Lord Himself has declared as to this great document of human liberty,
"I established the Constitution of this land by the hands of wise men
whom I raised up unto this very purpose," and He added, referring to
the war it cost to gain us our liberties: "and redeemed the land by
the shedding of blood." (D&C 101:80.) . . .
Thus
we had set up, under the guidance of God Himself, a government that made
of this land the kind of land Lehi and Jacob had foreseen and
prophesied—"a land of liberty." (MFP 6:105)
18.
We again warn our people in America of the constantly increasing threat
against our inspired Constitution and our free institutions set up under
it. The same political tenets and philosophies that have brought war and
terror in other parts of the world are at work amongst us in America. The
proponents thereof are seeking to undermine our own form of government and
to set up instead one of the forms of dictatorships now flourishing in
other lands. . . .
.
. . Communism and all other similar isms bear no relationship
whatever to the United Order. They are merely the clumsy counterfeits
which Satan always devises of the gospel plan. . . . Latter-day Saints
cannot be true to their faith and lend aid, encouragement, or sympathy to
any of these false philosophies. They will prove snares to their feet.
(Grant and McKay 273, 343)
19.
There are different views among Socialists as to the manner in
which this radical change is to be effected, but when pressed to a
declaration of their intents, the declaration is made that when a
sufficient number of adherents to Socialism is obtained, holding the
voting power, a government is to be set up by this majority which will
exercise compulsory force to dispossess property owners... and the
establishment of a tyranny greater than any form of oppression ever known
to the world. Pres. Heber J. Grant - Millennial Star P. 697
Jesus
Christ Joseph Smith
Jr.
Brigham Young
John Taylor
Wilford Woodruff
Lorenzo Snow
Founding
Fathers Joseph F. Smith George A. Smith
David O. McKay
Joseph F. Smith
Harold B. Lee
Spencer Kimball Ezra T. Benson Howard Hunter
Gordon Hinckley First Presidency Elders
Citizens
Rule Book
