In American Latter-day Saint circles there is much idolatry over the issue of the U.S. Constitution. Most of it has to do with a particularly willful misunderstanding of most statements on the Constitution found in the scriptures, the purpose of government, the rights of the people in the face of oppressive government laws, and the supremacy of God’s law to man’s in all cases. American Latter-day Saints also tend to idolize the American Founding Fathers. Much is made of the Lord’s statement, “by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose,” that is for writing the Constitution. (see D&C 101:80) It is without a doubt that they were intelligent men. The writings of Thomas Jefferson are still worth studying even today. But that doesn’t justify us in not creating something better now than they could envision then; that doesn’t justify us calcifying out social, spiritual, political, and economic development because they could not imagine the next step in liberty and individual freedom. It does not justify us in idolizing the Constitution (or your respective national charter), ignoring the many ways it has been wrong, corrupt, and evil form the very start, and choosing it over that which is better now.
Category: Peace
God’s Will and Man’s Law
The following lost LDS Classic is an article I came across recently in my readings of older church writings. Though the author for the article is unknown, the editor of the Deseret News during this era was David O. Calder. What makes it interesting is the way in which it clearly lays out the limits on our obedience to the laws of man and the supremacy of God’s law. Further, it offers fuller, more correct interpretations of scriptures such as D&C 98: 4-6 which are often today used to justify our expected obedience to the State but which, properly understood, command that first and above all, we be loyal to God and His commandments no matter what the orders of the government may be. That man’s laws may make illegal that which God has commanded means nothing to the Saint who has dedicated his or her life to God. We are to obey God in all things, even if it means breaking the laws of men, even if it means suffering trial, hardship, suffering, and death for doing so. As the article points out, this is in fact the very test of life – to see if we follow God in all things no matter how all the powers of Earth and Hell may rage against us for doing so.
Why Latter-day Saints Shouldn’t Vote
This past week I have been laying out both the ethical and practical arguments against voting. In a political system dominated by State power and control voting to use violence in order to force others to live how you think they should is evil and those in power are going to justify doing whatever they want whether the people support it or not so voting is meaningless. Here though I dig into the deeper, theological reasons against voting in a statist political system. The scriptures teach us that the power of the governments of the world come from Satan, not God. Likewise, the State sets itself into opposition to God by teaching men and women under its influence to defy and break the commandments of God in order to serve and follow it. Giving such a perverse and corrupt system even the appearance of your consent to it through voting, thereby legitimizing it in all its violence, oppression, and theft, should be something all people of all persuasions would avoid to do, especially the Saints of God who have consecrated themselves and all they have to God alone. The State is infernalistic and idolatrous and we should have no part in empowering it or promoting it.
Voting is Ineffective, Meaningless, And A Waste Of Time
It really doesn’t matter who you voted for, why you voted, or how you voted. Liberty is about much more than the number of autocrats on the ballots or what empty promises they make. Voting doesn’t work. It doesn’t just fail to protect your freedom; it actively creates the system by which the people are convinced to surrender their liberty. As a means to actually accomplish anything it is utterly meaningless and a total waste of time – at best. At worst it is an unethical exercise in appointing an autocrat who will use the violent powers of the law to try of force his or her Utopian vision of society upon all the people, if not the world (see the way the War on Terrorism promised to “”spread democracy” around the world and ask those being sold into slavery on Libyan beaches how that worked out for them.) Voting is completely ineffective and perfectly meaningless as anything other than a tool of control and a servile ritual that convinces the masses to love and protect the chains on their wrists and the boots on their necks.
The Ethical Argument Against Voting
If voting is a right then there are some very good reasons for why you should exercise your right to vote by refusing to support any of the people vying for power in the statist (“state-ist”) system. Over the next week, here at The Latter-day Liberator we plan to try and expose you to some salient arguments for exactly why you should refuse to take part in the system, for why you should refuse to vote and thereby refuse to give the appearance of your submission and consent to a system which is founded on violence and theft and ran by thugs and criminals. Today’s article is about laying a basic foundation for the argument against voting by introducing the morals, principles, and intellectual reasons against participating in the system itself in an easy to read and understand manner.
Abortion: Science, Ethics, and Religion
The arguments that go to defending this wicked practice of abortion can be largely classified into three categories – arguments based on science, arguments based on ethics, and arguments based in religion. I address all three of these categories and demonstrate how the science, ethics, and religion all demolish pro-abortionist arguments and support those who want to preserve the human rights of children in the womb to their right to Life. In the section on science I draw upon a milestone study carried out by Dr. Steven Jacobs where he spoke to around 5,500 biologists from every religious and political perspective, those who call themselves pro-choice as well as pro-life, and asked them about what the scientific evidence says about when human life begins. The results of his study will shock some of you, especially those who have long been fed the lie that this is a question that scientific study is somehow incapable of solving. In the ethics section, I address a multitude of ethical and ideological argument used to justify abortion, including concepts of bodily autonomy, feminism, personhood, rape, incest, and medical necessity. In the religion section I draw upon the teachings of the modern Prophets and Apostles about what they have to say about the topic of abortion and the Church’s stance on not only those who get abortions, but even those who simply aid or encourage people to get abortions. Finally, I address the inherently racist and eugenic nature of abortion and political consideration about how to foster a Culture of Life.
The Great Fiction of the State
With all the evils perpetuated upon society by those in power, because of the constant robbery, harassment, and violence everyone is constantly subjected to and under threat of, it seems like it wouldn’t be hard to rally people against the evils of the State. Yet, for many there is no organization for which they would more kill and die for, no idea for which they would sacrifice more, even their children, than the government, for the State. As a result the natural question we must ask ourselves is why; why do so many give so much to and do so much for that which does them so much harm and which lives off of the masses as one great parasite draining away the vital wealth and liberty of the people until it becomes so bloated and fat and society so enfeebled that everything collapses into chaos under the weight of its failures. Here I seek to answer this question and, drawing upon as diverse thinkers as Frédéric Bastiat, Robert Houghwout Jackson, and King Benjamin, I believe I have come upon three essential insights that help explain why people engage in such pious veneration of and develop such powerful loyalty to the State. After exploring these ideas of why people believe so ardently in the Great Fiction of the State, I present the solutions to the lies of the Sate and the most effective way we can help to transform the world, liberating humanity from the yoke of the State and securing greater liberty and prosperity for ourselves and our posterity for all time.
C.S. Lewis: “Willing Slaves of the Welfare State”
Lewis’s warnings about the way that science and good intentions have a way of being perverted by the government to become justifications for tyranny and genocide -Hitler’s scientific basis for the Holocaust and Stalin’s scientific atheism being prime examples – such that horrendous evils can be done with a clear conscience and in the name of the greater good by those in power, the true nature of all governments as de facto oligarchies, the rising threat of technocracy to the liberty and humanity of mankind, the threat to privacy that exists from state authorities, the tendency of people to sell themselves into slavery for the promise of having our physical needs taken care of materially, and the willingness of those in power to promise us anything and everything in order to obtain such surrender and devotion from us, whether they can actually deliver or not are all observations and warnings that don’t seem simply prescient to the modern eye, but down right prophetic.
The Modern Moloch: The Complete Series
The links to the seven parts of the Modern Moloch series- about the idolatrous nature of the State and the way that the government manipulates the minds and hearts of the public using religious rituals, ideals, and symbols- can be found herein. Additionally, there is an Addendum that summarizes some of my final thoughts (for now anyway) on the subject. Also included is a section of poetry about modern day “Molochism” from American poet Allen Ginsberg that gets to the true heart of the wickedness of the State and which serves as a fitting epilogue to the series.
What Is The Government And How Does It Work?
Government is one of those subjects that most people know woefully little about. And no, I don’t mean the byzantine systems of law creation or frankly mind numbing committee meetings, though those are often much more important than is typically understood. What I mean is most people have no understanding about the ideas that government is based upon and how those ideas create much of the violence and corruption we see in the world today. Here I address the ideas of government, what beliefs most modern nations are founded upon, and the alternative that would help decrease the violence in the world and create a place of greater liberty, prosperity, and equality for all peoples.