Why liberty is so important? Why does it matter to us today? Why wouldn’t we want those in power to “fix” the world for everyone even if it means trading our freedom in for subservience to the social and political agenda of those in power? What is liberty to begin with? How do I even know if I am losing it or not? By the end of this article, I will have done three things. First, I will have expanded on what the nature of liberty is in greater detail, so we know exactly what we are talking about. Secondly, I will then provide an analysis of why liberty is so unpopular in our modern age. Finally, I will offer an argument for why liberty should be more popular and why it should be embraced by all people.
Category: Government
The Christian Origins of Individual Freedom
What does it mean to be free? How do you protect liberty? What role, if any, does the government and/or religion play in liberty, either in protecting it or degrading it? These are important questions that we need the answers to if we are to realize our potential as individuals and peoples. In order to understand what freedom is, how we gain it, how we preserve it, and how to increase it in the future, we must know the history of the ideas of liberty. All of those things is what this article is all about.
What Were The Political Views of J.R.R. Tolkien?
Dr. J.R.R. Tolkien is the most important fantasy writer in all of history and the most important writer of the 20th century. His two most famous works – “The Hobbit” and its sequel trilogy “The Lord of The Rings” – are the foundation of the entire fantasy genre. The themes and ideas of his writings have captivated people for almost a century now and nowhere is his keen insight into the nature of humanity, history, and society better demonstrated than in his writings about government and what we would today called the State. Tolkien in his own private letters identified himself as an anarchist. In this article I will be exploring exactly what he meant by calling himself an anarchist, why we should be paying attention to his insights about government, and the economic ideals he championed, which are fundamentally free market in nature. Using his public works and his private letters as sources, I will demonstrate that Tolkien was, in modern terms, an anarcho-capitalist.
“Salem’s Lot” – The State is a Vampire
In this LDS Book Review I review one of Stephen King’s earliest and best novels – the vampire horror story, “Salem’s Lot.” Printed in 1975, “Salem’s Lot” tells the story of a ragtag group of small town folk as they fight against a powerful source of true evil, the Master Vampire Kurt Barlow as he converts the town of Jerusalem’s Lot into vampires. The story contains numerous themes that stand out to a person of faith – including battling against true evil as Barlow isn’t just a vampire but he is specifically a worshipper of Satan and sacrifices at least one human child to the Lord of Flies in the book. This novel also has some powerful things to say about government and the State. So in this review I don’t just review the book I also explore what it means to compare the State to vampirism as the book does, the true meaning of religion as a cosmic force, and the conflict between God and the government. The story of “Salem’s Lot” couldn’t be a more apt metaphor for what the State does to individuals and society and what we must do to drive a stake through the heart of the State and reclaim our individuality and liberty.
What Mormon Women Had To Say About Polygamy – The Great Indignation Meeting
The discussion of plural marriage and the practice of polygamy among the early history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is dominated by a lot of ignorance, error, and anti-Mormon lies. While it is no surprise that non-members would believe these things the degree to which members of the church view polygamy as oppressive, anti-woman, and abusive is shocking and depressing. In an effort to correct these lies I have appealed directly to the words of the women who lived polygamy themselves and what they had to say about their lives. For that I turned to the printed account of The Great Indignation Meeting, a mass protest meeting held by the women of Utah in 1870 wherein they declared the ways that polygamy elevated them in society and protected their rights, denounced federal efforts to violate their human rights by making polygamy unconstitutional, and announced that they would rather die than submit to the oppressive laws of the government that would deny them their rights to plural marriage. The words of these powerful and intelligent women absolutely demolish the lies of anti-Mormons and promote the truths of the Restored Gospel.
What Christians Should Think of Memorial Day
Today I want to share a talk that a friend of mine delivered the Sunday before Memorial Day in 2017. He used Apostle Dieter F. Uchtdorf’s General Conference address, “Perfect Love Casteth Out Fear,” to counter the endless bombardment of propaganda that takes place at this time. My friend told the truth about the pro-state, pro-military lies that inundate us, preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and focused on the Gospel’s demand that we renounce violence and fear as means to achieving our social, political, or economic ends. In turn he also talks about the War on Drugs, the War on Terror, the US military, the idolatry of worship weapons as if they can keep you safe, missionary work, serving our enemies, loving those who hate us, and the way to build Zion.
Stephen King’s Roadwork: A Parable of Life in a Fallen World and the Light of Hope
Using the lesser known but well written Stephen King novel, “Roadwork,” as a jumping off point, this article explores the vicissitudes of life and how it seems like mortality just piles suffering and pain on top of suffering and pain until we either are crushed under the weight, seek escape in mind-numbing hedonism, or snap and engage in retaliatory violence at the world that has so hurt us. I explore how this happens and why it happens, augmenting the fictional story with a real life example of Marvin Heemeyer, a man driven to the breaking point who struck back at his persecutors, and why we don’t need to similarly give in to such despair. There is a source of hope in the despair, a blinding light in the darkness that can rescue us from the suffering and depression in life. That Light is Jesus Christ which I explain as the solution and salvation to the problems of the world. There is a better way than either suffering or vengeance and the is the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the power it gives us to tame the monster within us and create a world of light and joy.
What Mormon Women Had To Say About Polygamy- Part 3
This is the final part in this series where I have been comparing the actual words from women who lived in plural marriages with the claims that anti-Mormons make about what is was like for Latter-day Saint women. Unsurprisingly they do not match up. Latter-day Saint women found polygamy to be a liberating experience and say government efforts to eliminate polygamy as tyrannical and oppressive. They called the government out on the hypocrisy of claiming polygamy was oppressive whilst using state power to actually engage in oppressing women who wanted to engage in polygamy.
In the addresses reprinted herein they also discuss how polygamy helps to limit and eliminate serious social ills such as adultery, prostitution, elective abortion, and sexual immorality.
We also get an interpretation of the Twelfth Article of Faith that contradicts how most members today understand it but which the speaker learned directly from the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Finally these women saw that as the government increasingly legislated morality it wouldn’t only cause a massive loss of liberty but it would lead to social chaos, predicting the situation we find ourselves in now. They even endorse what today we would recognize as nullification.
These women were incredible and they deserve your time. You will be enlightened.
Why The Minimum Wage Has Never Worked, Will Never Work, And Only Devastates Poor People
The minimum wage is a hot topic right now with a lot of ill-informed people having very loud opinions about what it should or shouldn’t be and what the government should or shouldn’t do. As Latter-day Saints we are of course drawn into the discussion because we, as a matter of commandment, have been directed by the Lord to care for the poor and needy, to uplift the sick and afflicted, to lift up the heads that hang low, and to strengthen the feeble knees of those ready to collapse under life’s burdens. But, caught up in the tumult of political opinion, many of us have no idea what we should or shouldn’t do regarding a great many things, including the minimum wage.
This article is meant to address that by looking at the effects of the minimum wage on poverty, jobs, prices, monetary value, income inequality, and its roots as a racist practice designed to cripple the ability of minorities and women to care for themselves and their communities. After looking at all the evidence of history the conclusion becomes inescapable – the minimum wage is a racist policy designed to destroy the ability of poor people, especially minorities, to be able to care for themselves or improve their lives and that if we want to actually help everyone in society, including helping those in need, we must take drastic action to rein in government actions, including abolishing the minimum wage.
What Mormon Women Had To Say About Polygamy- Part 2
I pick up here right where I left off in Part 1 – in the middle of the Great Indignation Meeting. Threatened by new anti-Mormon legislation aimed at destroying polygamy and annihilating the church, the women of the church have come together in a mass meeting. In it they defend polygamy as one of the greatest revelations God had given, demand that the United States government honor and recognize their rights to believe and live how they choose, declare that polygamy and the doctrines of the church have helped them to have greater rights than any other place in the United States, proclaim their status as mutual helpmeets and workers with men, and denounce efforts to attack the church and end plural marriage as being inspired by Satan himself. When you listen to them it becomes clear that they were not oppressed or abused, rather these were powerful, intelligent, and empowered women who were acting to protect one of the most important factors in their independence, the Latter-day Saint practice of plural marriage. Their experiences, their voices, their truths counter anti-Mormon lies and show us why we shouldn’t be ashamed of our past practice of plural marriage. Instead of listening to the ignorant and liars, read the words of the women themselves who lived it. You might be surprised.