Hugh B Brown at BYU, May 13, 1969

"I would like to read some words by the Honorable John Gardner, former Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare under Lyndon B. Johnson, having to do with current problems. He says:

"The possibility of coherent community action is diminished today by the deep mutal suspicions and antagonisms among various groups in our national life.

"As these antagonisms become more intense, the pathology is much the same whether the group involved is made up of Black Power advocates, rioting students, rural right-wingers, urban radicals or Southern segregationists. The ingredients are, first, a deep conviction on the part of the group as to its own limitless virtue or the overriding sanctity of its cause; second, grave doubts concerning the moral integrity of all others; third, a chronically aggrieved feeling that power has fallen into the hands of the unworthy (that is, the hands of others).

"Every American knows how widely scattered are those seeds of civic disintegration. We have all heard the conversations where hatred is jsut beneath the surface. We have all listened to the arguments in which difference of opinion becomes defined in terms of unalterable good and evil. We have heard the degrading characterizations of those with whom one disagrees. We have listened to the bigotry of the conservative and the bigotry of the liberal. We hae all observed the steady drop in the level of discourse and behavior.

"Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: An excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all. Such extremism comes easily to men who have doped themselves with delusions of their own unblemished virtue and the rascality of others. Blind belief in one's cause and a low view of the morality of other Americans - these seem mild failings. But they are the soil in which ranker weeds take root - political lunacy, terrorism and the deep, destructive cleavages that paralize society. (No Easy Victories, pp. 8, 9)

...

"You young people live in an age when freedom of the mind is supressed over much of the world. We must preserve it in the Church and in America and resist all efforts of earnest men to suppress it, for when it is suppressed, we might lose the liberties vouchsafed in the Constitution of the United Sates.

"Preserve, then, the freedom of your mind in education and in religion, and be unafraid to express your thoughts and to insist upon your right to examine every proposition. We are not so much concerned with whether your thoughts are orthodox or heterodox as we are that you shall have thoughts. One may memorize much without learning anything. In this age of speed there seems to be little time for meditation. ...

"Society is indulgent woard young people, but there are limits to permissibility. Youth is right to repudiate sham and hypocrisy, but to assume that disorder and chaos have merit in themselves is to assume that we are no longer capable of reasoning together in search of the right solution. ...

"While we speak of independence and the right to think, to agree or to disagree, to exmaine and to question, we must not foget that fixed and unchanging laws govern in all God's creation, whether it be in the vastness of the starry heavens, or in the minute revolving universe of the atom, or in human relationships. All is law. All is cause and effect, and God's laws are universal. God has no favorites; none is immune from either life's temptations or the consequences of his own deeds. God is not capricious.

...

"In other words, it is not merely a matter of conformity to rituals, climbing sacred stairs, bathing in sacred pools, or making pilgrimages to sacred shrines. The depth and height nd quality of life depends upon awareness, and awareness is a prcoess of being saved from ignorance. Man cannot live in ignroance.

Hugh B. Brown, A Final Testimony

Hugh B. Brown, A Final Testimony in An Abundant Life: The Memoirs of Hugh B. Brown

"There is not enough of the attitutde of the sincere investigator among us. When we come into a new field of research that will challenge our due and honest consideration, we should be warned against coming too quickly to a conclusion, of forming a decision too hastily. We should be scientific - that is, open-minded, apporaching new problems without prejudice, deferring a decision until all the facts are in.

"Some say that the open-minded leave room for doubt. But I believe we should doubt some of the things we hear. Doubt has a place if it can stir in one an interest to go out and find the truth for one's self. I should like to awaken in everyone a desire to investigate, to make an independent study of religion, and to know for themselves whether or not the teachings of the Mormon church are true.

"I should like to see everyone preprared to defend the religion of his or her parents, not becuase it was the religion of our fathers and mothers but because they have found it to be the true religion. If one approaches it with an open mind, with a desire to know the truth, and if one questions with a sincere heart what one hears from time to time, he or she will be on the road to growth and service.

"There are altogehter too many people in the world who are willing to accept as true whatever is printed in a book or delivered from a pulpit. Their faith never goes below the surface soil of authority. I plead with everyone I meet that they may drive their faith down through that soil and get hold of the solid truth, that they may be able to withstand the winds and storms of indecision and of doubt, of opposition and persecution. ...

"As Mormons, we should do with religion as we do with music, not defend it but simply render it. It needs no defense. The living of religion is, after all, the greatest sermon, and if all of us would live it, we would create a symphony which would be appreciated by all.

"The Mormon church has a religion aside from its theology, which, if followed, dominates the life of individuals and leads them up out of the gruelling surroundings which life may have placed them in, and teaches them that they are children of God and that being children of God they are of royal blood. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has this practical view of religion: that religion should help us here and now; that we should not have to wait until after we are dead to get any benefits; that religion as understood and applied makes men and women more successful, happier, more contented, gives them aspiration and hope; that religion is the vitalizing force, religion is that which gives men and women an ideal, an ideal so high that it may be seen from both sides of the valley of life. The religion of the Latter-day Saints teaches youth that as children of God, they are expected to acquire experience as they go through life and that experience will ripen into knowledge, that knowledge will ripen into wisdom and intelligence, and that their greatness will be in proportion to their intelligence.

"My religion sweetens my life. My religion, if properly lived, helps me to be a better friend to my associates, a better neighbor, a better citizen, a better father, a better man. If I am sincere in it, my religion forbids me to do to my neighbors what I would not want them to do to me, either in word or act. My religion, in other words, is that which is the greatest part of me.

"I have been very grateful that the freedom, dignity, and integrity of the individual are basic in church doctrine. We are free to think and express our opinions in the church. Fear will not stifle thought. God himself refuses to trammel free agency even though its exercise sometimes teaches painful lessons. Both creative science and revealed religion find their fullest and truest expression in the climate of freedom. ... 

"I admire men and women who have developed the questing spirit, who are unafraid of new ideas as stepping stones to progress. We should, of course, respect the opinions of others, but we should also be unafraid to dissent - if we are informed. Thoughts and expressions compete in the marketplace of thought, and in that contemplation truth emerges triumphant. Only error fears freedom of expression.

"... This free exchange of ideas is not to be deplored as long as men and women remain humble and teachable. Neither fear of consequence or any kind of coercion should ever be used to secure uniformity of thought in the church. People should express their problems and opinions and be unafraid to think without fear of ill consequences.

"We should all be interested in academic research. We must go out on the research front and continue to explore the vast unknown. We should be in the forefront of leraning in all fields, for revelation does not come only through the prophet of God nor only directly from heaven in visions or dreams. Revelation may come in the laboratory, out of the test tube, out of the thinking mind and the inquiring soul, out of search and research and prayer and inspiration. ...

"We shoudl be dauntless in our pursuit of truth and resist all demands for unthinking conformity. No one would have us become mere tape recorders of other people's thoughts. We should be modest and teachable and seek to know the truth by study and faith. There have been times when progress was halted by thought control. Tolerance and truth demand that all be heard and that competing ideas be tested against each other so that the best, which might not always be our own, can prevail. Knowledge is most complete and dependable when all points of view are heard. ...

"Peace and brotherhood can be achieved when the two most potent forces in civilization - religion and science - join to create one world in its truest and greatest sense. We shoudl continue to become acquainted with human experience through history and philosophy, science and poetry, art and religion. ...

"One of the most important things in the world is freedom of the mind; from this all other freedoms spring. Such freedom is necessarily dangerous, for one cannot think right iwthout running the risk of thinking wrong, but generally more thinking is the antidote for the evils that spring from wrong thinking.

"More thinking is required, and we should all exercise our God-given right to think and be unafraid to express our opinions, with proper respect for those to whom we talk and proper acknowledgment of our own shortcomings. We must preserve freedom of the mind in the church and resist all efforts to supprress it. The church is not so much concerned with whether the thoughts of its members are orthodox or heterodox as it is that they shall have thoughts. One may memorize much without learning anything. In this age of speed there seems to be little time for meditation.

"... But while I believe all that God has revealed, I am not quite sure I understand what he has revealed, and the fact that God has promised further revelation is to me a challenge to keep an open mind and be prepared to follow wherever my search for truth may lead.

"We Mormons have been blessed with much knowledge by revelation from God which, in some part, the world lacks. But there is an incomprehensibly greater part of truth yet to be discovered. Revealed insights should leave us stricken with the knowledge of how little we really know. It should never lead to an emotional arrogance based upon a false assumption that we somehow have all the answers - that we in fact have a corner on truth. For we do not.

"And while all members should respect, support, and heed the teachings of the authorities of the church, no one should accept a statement and base his or her testimony upon it, no matter who makes it, until he or she has, under mature examination, found it to be true and worthwhile; then one's logical deductions may be confirmed by the spirit of revelation to his or her spirit, because real conversion must come from within. ..."

And I will even venture to say that if the Book of Mormon were now to be re-written, in many instances it would materially differ from the present translation.

"When God speaks to the people, he does it in a manner to suit their circumstances and capacities. He spoke to the children of Jacob through Moses, as a blind, stiff-necked people, and when Jesus and his Apostles came they talked with the Jews as a benighted, wicked, selfish people. They would not receive the Gospel, though presented to them by the Son of God in all its righteousness, beauty and glory. Should the Lord Almighty send an angel to re-write the Bible, it would in many places be very different from what it now is. And I will even venture to say that if the Book of Mormon were now to be re-written, in many instances it would materially differ from the present translation. According as people are willing to receive the things of God, so the heavens send forth their blessings. If the people are stiff-necked, the Lord can tell them but little."

Brigham Young, Great Salt Lake City, July 13, 1862. Reported by G. D. Watt

I yearn for the day when we will have a Bill of Duties to go with our Bill of Rights

I have no doubt that the 20th century will go down in history as the century of rights: voting rights, workers' rights, civil rights, human rights, privacy rights, disability rights, and many more. With these rights in place, I can only hope that the 21st century will someday go down in history as the century of duties: civic duties, human duties, fiduciary duties, religious duties, environmental duties, and duties to future genrations. I yearn for the day when we will have a Bill of Duties to go with our Bill of Rights. As world resources become scarcer, and as all nations, tongues, and peoples become more vulnerably interdependent, the idea of individual rights will necessariliy change. How many rights can the world support without all people assuming commensurate duties? The point is not to take rights away but to recognize the duties that are inherent in those very privileges.

John W. Welch, 2011

https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/john-w-welch/thy-mind-o-man-must-stretch/

This article touches on the above theme and might be worthy of further exploration. https://www.newamerica.org/political-reform/reports/new-politics-beyond-2020/communitarianism-20/ 

Mormon thought ... privileges fullness, abundance, completeness, and all that the Father has

Mormon thought, in contrast, privileges fullness, abundance, completeness, and all that the Father has, even if that means that Mormon life becomes joyously overloaded or torn by competing pressures that pull, stretch, and expand us in many ways. This may produce epiosdes of cognitive dissonance, social quandaries, mystery and uncertainty, but if forced to choose, Mormon thought will always prefer openness over closedness, boldly inviting further growth, progression, and - fortunately for us in academia - further questions.

John W. Welch, 2011

https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/john-w-welch/thy-mind-o-man-must-stretch/

"It is better to be a human being dissatsified than a pig satsified"

 OK, I've decided that this will be my place for all sorts of quotes, not just "Mormon Quotes." I doubt anyone else will ever find this blog anyway. So here is a place to put all sorts of quotes.

"It is indisputable that the being whose capacities of enjoyment are low, has the greatest chance of having them fully satisfied; and a highly endowed being will always feel that any happiness which he can look for, as the world is constituted, is imperfect. But he can learn to bear its imperfections, if they are at all bearable; and they will not make him envy the being who is indeed unconcsious of the imperfections, but only because he feels not at all the good which those imperfections qualify.

"It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatsifeid than a food satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, is of a different opinon, it is only because they only know their own side of the questions."

John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/79033-it-is-indisputable-that-the-being-whose-capacities-of-enjoyment

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167268115002838

To be alive only to appetite, pleasure, pride, money-making, and not to goodness and kindness, purity and love, poetry, music, flowers, stars, God and eternal hopes, is to deprive one's self of the real joy of living.

"The true end of life is not mere existence, not pleasure, not fame, not wealth. The true purpose of life is the perfection of humanity through individual effort, under the guidance of God's inspiration.

"Real life is response to the best within us. To be alive only to appetite, pleasure, pride, money-making, and not to goodness and kindness, purity and love, poetry, music, flowers, stars, God and eternal hopes, is to deprive one's self of the real joy of living."

David O. McKay, In Conference Report, Oct. 1963, 7.