Brother Smith counsels:
We should pray to have our heart changed if this is necessary.
Marion G. Romney, later of the First Presidency, had an experience very like this. Harold B. Lee described it:
In the political field where so much pressure is exerted on men to compromise ideals and principles for expediency, party workers early learned to admire Marion G. Romney’s intense loyalty to his own conscience as well as to the advice of his Church leaders, whose pronouncements on vital issues affecting the welfare of the nation he accepted as divinely inspired even though it frequently brought him into sharp conflict with leaders of his own political party. On one such occasion when Church leaders in a tersely worded editorial had denounced the trends of the political administration then in power, he confided in me something which it might be well if all loyal Church members in public life could emulate: “When I read that editorial,” he told me, “I knew what I should do—but that wasn’t enough. I knew that I must feel right about following the counsel of the Church leaders and know that they were right. That took a whole night on my knees to accomplish.” I submit in that statement the difference between “intelligent” and “blind” obedience. Marion G. Romney, while never disloyal to authority over him, could never be rightfully accused of being “blindly obedient.” (62-16, p. 742)[2]
The editorial in question, titled "The Constitution" and published on the front page of the
Deseret News on October 31, 1936, stated in full:
More than one hundred years ago the Lord declared: "I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose." In the same revelation He asserted that this Constitution "should be maintained for the rights and protection of all flesh, according to just and holy principles."
For many weeks The News has carried at the head of its editorial column a statement by the Prophet Joseph Smith giving his view of the origin, purpose, and virtue of the Constitution. The Prophet also declared the peculiar relationship which the people of the Church have towards the Constitution and its preservation.
We are nearing the end of a Presidential campaign.
The issues of the campaign touching the Constitution seem clearly and squarely drawn.
One candidate has characterized the Constitution as of "horse and buggy days;" he has advised members of Congress to join in enacting laws irrespective of the belief of the Congressmen as to the constitutionality of such laws. The great bulk of the pivotal legislation passed by Congress at his request, to carry out his views, has been pronounced unconstitutional. Even though publicly asked to declare his intention in the matter, he has thus far failed to say that he will not continue to carry out the principles of his earlier legislation which the Supreme Court has declared unconstitutional. He keeps his silence in face of the fact that if he be elected, he must take an oath--the same which he took when he first became President--that "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.
The other candidate has declared he stands for the Constitution and for the American system of government which it sets up. He makes it clear that he will keep inviolate the oath which he must take as President of the United States. He has shown himself to be an honest, truthful man, a patriotic efficient public servant.
The Church and its membership have always stood for constitutional government; they have resisted with all their might every effort to impair it, or to curtail our liberties, or to destroy our free institutions set up and guaranteed by it, no matter where such effort originated or in what disguise it came. The First Presidency, obedient to the principles of the Church, have admonished Church members against Communism, and against all persons wherever placed, who in any way advocate or sustain it.
Church members, who believe the revelations and the words of the Prophet, must stand for the Constitution. Every patriot, loving his country and its institutions, should feel in duty bound to protect it.
Romney, a Democratic state legislator who had been serving on the reelection committee for Utah governor Henry Blood, resigned from the committee and tried, in the few remaining days until the election, to convince his friends not to vote for Franklin Roosevelt.
Roosevelt carried 69% of the popular vote in Utah.
“A scholar said he could not read the Book of Mormon, so we shouldn’t be shocked that scholars say the papyri don’t translate and/or relate to the Book of Abraham. Doesn’t change anything. It’s ancient and historical.” ~ Hanna Seariac
