The highest court in the country recently ruled that the Stolen Valor Act (passed by Congress and then signed into law in 2005 by then President George W. Bush) is unconstitutional because it prohibits people from lying, which the Supreme Court misinterpreted as a fundamentally protected right under the 1st Amendment of the US Constitution's Bill of Rights. (http://lat.ms/NGaRWR)
Both the Biblical Ten Commandments and Book of Mormon teach that it is wrong to lie or bear false witness. Yet, we as a society, and especially many of our elected officials, seem to consider it a necessary means to achieving a desired objective, with liars seldom being held accountable for how they choose to exercise "freedom of speech".
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. Exodus 20:16
...for there were many who loved the vain things of the world, and they went forth preaching false doctrines; and this they did for the sake of riches and honor. Nevertheless, they durst not lie,
if it were known, for fear of the law, for liars were punished... Alma 1:16-17
The overturning of the Stolen Valor Act is just one of many examples of government and societal corruption. Increasingly, rationalizing people convince themselves that it is permissible, and even expected by their circle of friends, to behave with contempt, incivility, hatred, and and even violence towards those who may not share their political, religious, cultural, ethnic, or racial views and backgrounds.
Government employees used to be referred to as civil servants, but many have now become a protected class that taxpayers are locked in to supporting with salaries, bonuses, and pensions beyond that comparable in the private sector. King Benjamin taught by example that government leaders should serve and seek the welfare of the people, not themselves.
If the saying, "United We Stand. Divided We Fall" is true, we are headed for a big fall. The hate mongers and those who stir up contention are working over time to create riffs between different groups of Americans. In the not too distant future we will arrive at the tipping point where more people will choose evil (and will refuse to be ruled by the laws of the land, either due to selfishness or distrust of the government) than will choose good. We will then be ripe for destruction.
...and they saw that they had been a stiffnecked people, and that they had set at naught the commandments of God; And that they had altered and trampled under their feet the laws of Mosiah, or that which the Lord commanded him to give unto the people; and they saw that their laws had become corrupted, and that they had become a wicked people...
Helaman 4:21-22The overturning of the Stolen Valor Act is just one of many examples of government and societal corruption. Increasingly, rationalizing people convince themselves that it is permissible, and even expected by their circle of friends, to behave with contempt, incivility, hatred, and and even violence towards those who may not share their political, religious, cultural, ethnic, or racial views and backgrounds.
Government employees used to be referred to as civil servants, but many have now become a protected class that taxpayers are locked in to supporting with salaries, bonuses, and pensions beyond that comparable in the private sector. King Benjamin taught by example that government leaders should serve and seek the welfare of the people, not themselves.
If the saying, "United We Stand. Divided We Fall" is true, we are headed for a big fall. The hate mongers and those who stir up contention are working over time to create riffs between different groups of Americans. In the not too distant future we will arrive at the tipping point where more people will choose evil (and will refuse to be ruled by the laws of the land, either due to selfishness or distrust of the government) than will choose good. We will then be ripe for destruction.
...and they saw that they had been a stiffnecked people, and that they had set at naught the commandments of God; And that they had altered and trampled under their feet the laws of Mosiah, or that which the Lord commanded him to give unto the people; and they saw that their laws had become corrupted, and that they had become a wicked people...
For as their laws and their governments were established by the voice of the people, and they who chose evil were more numerous than they who chose good, therefore they were ripening for destruction, for the laws had become corrupted. Yea, and this was not all; they were a stiffnecked people, insomuch that they could not be governed by the law nor justice, save it were to their destruction. Helaman 5:2-3
