Mormon Quotes

Capitalism

Joseph Smith
As the 'world is governed too much,' and there is not a nation or dynasty, now occupying the earth, which acknowledges Almighty God as their lawgiver, and as 'crowns won by blood, by blood must be maintained,' I go emphatically, virtuously, and humanely for a theo‑democracy, where God and the people hold the power to conduct the affairs of men in righteousness, and where liberty, free trade, and sailor's rights, and the protection of life and property shall be maintained inviolate for the benefit of ALL.
Joseph Smith, Jr. Daily Globe, April 14, 1844, also see Millennial Star, v. 23, June 22, 1861, p. 391. Deleted from the History of the Church, v. 6, pp. 340‑341
Heber J. Grant
[FDR is] knowingly promoting unconstitutional laws and... advocating communism.
Heber J. Grant, The Mormon Corporate Empire, p. 38
David O. McKay
Who is this man who presumes to tell the United Nations what to do? He is a man who rejects the divinity of Jesus Christ and denies the existence of God, who is imbued with the false philosophy of Karl Marx, whose aim in life was "to dethrone God and destroy capitalism."
David O. McKay, "What About Jesus Christ" (David O. McKay, 1960 Semi‑Annual General Conference, Improvement Era)
David O. McKay
I cannot help but think that there is a direct relationship between the present evil trends which I have above indicated, and the very marked tendency of the people of our country to pass on to the state the responsibility for their moral and economic welfare. This trend to a welfare state in which people look to and worship government more than their God, is certain to sap the individual ambitions and moral fiber of our youth unless they are warned and rewarned of the consequences. History, of course, is replete with the downfall of nations who, instead of assuming their own responsibility for their religious and economic welfare, mistakenly attempted to shift their individual responsibility to the government.
David O. McKay, Letter from President David O. McKay to Ernest L. Wilkinson and the BYU Faculty
David O. McKay
I am aware that a university has the responsibility of acquainting its students with the theories and doctrines which are prevalent in various disciplines, but I hope that no one on the faculty of Brigham Young University will advocate positions which cannot be harmonized with the views of every prophet of the Church, from the Prophet Joseph Smith on down, concerning our belief that we should be strong and self‑reliant individuals, not dependent upon the largess or benefactions of government. None of the doctrines of our Church gives any sanction to the concept of a socialistic state.
David O. McKay, Letter from President David O. McKay to Ernest L. Wilkinson and the BYU Faculty
Ezra Taft Benson
Judging by its demoralized works, atheism has now quit advancing in this country simply because it has arrived. Not just rhetorically but actually—our country is in an ungodly mess. City streets are terrorized by crime; our biggest and most expensive campuses are paralyzed by nihilism and anarchy; with special license from the Supreme Court, theaters are boldly featuring sex perversion and the newsstands are loaded with hard‑core pornography. Big‑name investigating commissions have told us all about riots, crime, progress, and poverty, but always in materialistic terms of money, housing, social service jobs, and birth control—without a word about the possibilities for personal moral self‑restraint.
Ezra Taft Benson, Godless Forces Threaten Us (Ezra Taft Benson, 1969 Semi‑Annual General Conference, Improvement Era)
Ezra Taft Benson
The industrial achievements of the U. S. are the result of an economic system which is the antithesis of socialism. Our economic system is called 'capitalism' or 'private enterprise' and is based on private property rights, the profit motive and competition.
Ezra Taft Benson, The American Heritage of Freedom—A Plan of God (Ezra Taft Benson, 1961 Semi‑Annual General Conference, Improvement Era)
Ezra Taft Benson
Communism introduced into the world a substitute for true religion. It is a counterfeit of the gospel plan. The false prophets of Communism predict a utopian society. This, they proclaim, will only be brought about as capitalism and free enterprise are overthrown, private property abolished, the family as a social unit eliminated, all classes abolished, all governments overthrown, and a communal ownership of property in a classless, stateless society established.
Ezra Taft Benson, A Witness and a Warning (Ezra Taft Benson, 1979 Semi‑Annual General Conference, Ensign)
Ezra Taft Benson
It is impossible to establish communism as the immediate successor to capitalism. It is accordingly proposed to establish socialism as something which we can put in the place of our present decaying capitalism. Hence, communists work for the establishment of socialism as a necessary transition stage on the road to communism.
Ezra Taft Benson, The American Heritage of Freedom—A Plan of God (Ezra Taft Benson, 1961 Semi‑Annual General Conference, Improvement Era)
Janice Graham
It's incredible to us at SoL that even those with resources, influence, and obligation avoid this topic like the plague. Many of our seemingly most moral and conservative leaders no longer take a stand on issues of sexual morality. They, quite irresponsibly, turn a blind eye to the tragic consequences for a society bent on sex, sex, and more sex. As a result, Lewis's prediction is coming true. To its detriment, as our society has settled on pushing and celebrating unlimited sexuality it has had no trouble pushing and celebrating every other preposterous entitlement men arbitrarily claim from society as a right: a "right" to marriage, a "right" to be a parent, a "right" to destroy the unborn, a "right" to own a house, a "right" to have a job, a "right" to free health care, a "right" for foreigners to break America's laws, and the list goes on. So much for the sense of personal responsibility needed to pursue real happiness.
Janice Graham, Standard of Liberty ‑ Stephen Graham and Janice Graham, The Pursuit of Happiness and the Fatal Principle
Daniel C. Peterson
In the brilliant third chapter of Degenerate Moderns, entitled "Homosexual as Subversive," E. Michael Jones demonstrates the crucial and explanatory role of personal lifestyle not only in the traitorous career of Sir Anthony Blunt, but in the theories of John Maynard Keynes, the biographical writings of Lytton Strachey, and the novels of E. M. Forster. "Modernity was the exoteric version of Bloomsbury biography; it was a radically homosexual vision of the world and therefore of its very nature subversive; treason was its logical outcome.... The Bloomsberries' public writings—Keynes' economic theories, Strachey's best‑selling Eminent Victorians, etc.—were the sodomitical vision for public consumption."
Daniel C. Peterson, "Text and Context"
Bryan Waterman
Operating within an understanding of national events that saw both "campus unrest" and Democratic party victories as signs of a looming socialist state, Wilkinson returned to BYU from his failed political venture. In May 1965, at the end of his first semester back in office, he delivered an apocalyptic commencement address: "The Decline and Possible Fall of the American Republic." Citing rising rates of crime, juvenile delinquency, immorality, divorce, and public welfare, the president blamed these "evidences of moral decay" on the steady increase of federal power beginning with Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal and extending to Lyndon Johnson's views on social security. Together with the "confiscatory" nature of income tax, an increase of Supreme Court influence, and the federal government's "deficit financing," these proofs (in Wilkinson's mind) of federally funded moral decline spelled the end of cherished American freedoms.
Bryan Waterman, The Lord's University: Freedom and Authority at BYU, December 15, 1998
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