Religion and Government- Elder Wilford W. Andersen

A great article on the balance between religion and government by Elder Wilford W. Andersen. In the US and many other countries, religion and government are on a collision course over rights, power, taxes and large cultural changes. A behemoth, over-imposing, central government by definition reduces personal freedom. The same goes for a state religion, which essentially becomes the government and subordinates those who are not part of the state religion to second class citizens.

An important scripture in regards to freedom of religion and quoted in this article is Alma 30:9,11 “Now if a man desired to serve God, it was his privilege; or rather, if he believed in God it was his privilege to serve him; but if he did not believe in him there was no law to punish him. . . For there was a law that men should be judged according to their crimes. Nevertheless, there was no law against a man’s belief; therefore, a man was punished only for the crimes which he had done; therefore all men were on equal grounds.”

As government in the US continues to grow and centralize, the church continues to defend itself and just as important, stay at the front of the fight for religious freedom for all individuals regardless of their faith.

Religion & Government- Elder Wilford W. Andersen