Wednesday, March 13, 2002
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Wednesday, March 13, 2002 |
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Some corrections about doctrines ... Thank you for the article "Olympic spotlight illuminates Mormon faith" in the March 6 edition of The Citizen. I found it most interesting and have never until today read anything in your "paper" be it electronic or otherwise. I only found one item which was not entirely accurate. The statement, "The Church does not hold the belief that government or politics and religion should be kept separate" is not exactly accurate. This very Sabbath we were encouraged to attend grassroots political meetings and to select candidates of our own choosing who would uphold "righteous principles." As a matter of public record, our Articles of Faith declare the following: "We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship. how, where, or what they may. We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law..." In addition to the above, from another book we hold as a sacred text (The Doctrine and Covenants) comes the following declaration of belief (134:4-5): "We believe that religion is instituted of God; and that men are amenable to him, and to him only, for the exercise of it, unless their religious opinions prompt them to infringe upon the rights and liberties of others; but we do not believe that human law has a right to interfere in prescribing rules of worship, to bind the consciences of men, nor dictate forms for public or private devotion; that the civil magistrate should restrain crime, but never control conscience; should punish guilt, but never suppress the freedom of the soul. "We believe that all men are bound to sustain and uphold the respective governments in which they reside, while protected in their inherent and inalienable rights by the laws of such governments; and that sedition and rebellion are unbecoming every citizen thus protected, and should be punished accordingly; and that all governments have a right to enact such laws as in their own judgments are best calculated to secure the public interest; at the same time, however, holding sacred the freedom of conscience." And, in another place in the same 134th section, the following: "We do not believe it just to mingle religious influence with civil government, whereby one religious society is fostered and another proscribed in its spiritual privileges, and the individual rights of its members, as citizens, denied." We believe that all religious societies have a right to deal with their members for disorderly conduct, according to the rules and regulations of such societies; provided that such dealings be for fellowship and good standing; but we do not believe that any religious society has authority to try men on the right of property or life, to take from them this world's goods, or to put them in jeopardy of either life or limb, or to inflict any physical punishment upon them. They can only excommunicate them from their society, and withdraw from them their fellowship. More than anything else, we want to live peaceably with all others and practice such Christian virtues as to love our neighbors and help those who are in need of our help and assistance. We do hold strong feelings about upholding moral standards and when those standards are threatened by civil actions we endeavor to do all that is legally within our rights to oppose threats to these standards. Thanks for listening and for your positive article. I have a sincere interest in the South as I spent two years as a missionary in Georgia and South Carolina. I was also recently an Olympic volunteer and enjoyed very much the privilege that Georgians also had to host the world for the Olympic games. Don Findlay dfindlay_852@mstar2.net dfindlay@juno.com
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