The UK riots have pulled back the wool to reveal the growth of the authoritarian state in the UK and the European Union. Free Speech is threatened.
The European Commission sends Elon Musk a threatening letter.
The Book of Mormon intensely discusses free speech and freedom of religion. It is there for us to learn the lessons of the past in our day. It also teaches there is no separation between the Doctrine of Christ and Liberty.
Irenaus' Law of Liberty shows the reason for agency and Liberty.
all right well you've all seen the riots
in the UK spurt on by perhaps
misinformation but also several
pressures of you know Mass immigration
and other issues that are going on there
in the United Kingdom but other things
have been brought up other things have
been well reared their ugly heads
because of this and that's what we
really want to talk about here now this
episode as I've told you before I am the
new spokesman for go and do travel I'm
very excited about this I have done
several trips with go and do travel
they're a great company they travel all
over the world if you haven't traveled
with numerous other latterday Saints on
a trip you need to go and do it it is a
great experience one of the trips that I
do is Egypt I do it four times a year uh
two of the next four are sold out so
there's two more in March you can go to
Quick media.com go up to trips and
events scroll down to gospel on the Nile
you won't find more information about
the temple than other than in the temple
itself then going to Egypt and seeing
the ruins there go to Quick media.com
would love to see you in Egypt here we
[Music]
go now back to the riots one of the
things that has come up is freedom of
speech and it's kind kind of like with
Co you know when you had Co and all the
kids had to stay home and they started
getting the schooling given to them by
their teachers over zoom and parents
were watching what was actually being
taught in school they're like what in
the world is this garbage even at BYU
they had everything on Zoom so you had
this library of what BYU some BYU
professors and departments were actually
teaching and we've uncovered a lot of
that here well these conflicts bring up
reactions and those reactions show you
the symptoms of a much sicker West than
we may have previously thought in the UK
this has been going on for several years
now where they have new speech laws hate
speech laws where if you are online and
you say something against what the
authorities there feel is proper speech
perhaps it's against a group Perhaps it
is a slander
but if so you are flagged there's a
knock on your door and you may very well
be going to jail and if not jail then
certainly community service and a flag
on your record that sometimes requires a
curfew for a long period of time and
maybe a fine but these riots have really
brought something out of not only the UK
but of the European commission right the
European Union I've got a letter here
from T Bretton the member of the
commission that I'm putting up here this
is from Brussels August 12th 2024 so
just a few days ago Dear Mr musk he says
and this is coming from uh Elon Musk on
his own platform on X talking about what
is going on with these riots and talking
about free speech and this is the
response Dear Mr musk I am writing you
writing to you in the com context of
recent events in the United Kingdom and
in relation to the planned broadcast on
your platform X of a live conversation
between a US presidential candidate and
yourself that's a threat to the European
commission apparently here bring Donald
Trump on his platform which will also be
accessible to users in the EU now what
is the problem there right users in the
EU aren't even voting for Donald Trump
but the EU is trying to wield its power
to a US citizen living in the United
States who runs a company based in the
United States he goes on I understand
that you are currently doing a stress
test of the platform in this context I
am compelled to remind you of the due
diligence obligation set out in the
DSA as the individual entity he says
ultimately controlling a platform with
over 300 million users worldwide of
which one third in the U of which
onethird in the EU that has been
designated as a a vop here apparently a
very large online platform you have the
legal
obligation to ensure X's compliance with
EU law and in particular the DSA in the
EU the European Union and then he goes
on and tries to fight against Elon
musk's cry for free free speech by
telling him he is hurting free speech he
says this notably means ensuring on one
hand that freedom of expression and of
information including media freedom and
pluralism are effectively protected and
on the other hand that all proportionate
and effective mitigation measures are
put in place regarding the amplica
amplification of harmful content in
connection with relevant events what's
so interesting here is that I I can
almost guarantee you that TI here has
not sent out a letter like this talking
about harmful content to Facebook or
Instagram to YouTube and other media
platforms that are basically on the left
but man if you are on the right and you
have a platform and you're the owner of
it and you lean to the right you're
going to get a warning on hate speech
and and freedom of speech and then they
he goes on and talks about these
specifics about being a user on X as
Elon Musk is a user with 190 million
followers on his private
account essentially outlining the fact
that if you are in another country or
you are outside of the European Union
you are still responsible for what you
say on these platforms at least on X and
there has been of course the threat of
extraditing Elon Musk and others who
have commented on X about the riots and
about Free Speech this is absolute
insanity and here's the last paragraph
on here that is really scary right it
says my services and I will be extremely
Vigilant to any evidences that point to
breaches of the DSA and will not
hesitate to make full use of our toolbox
including by adopting interim measures
who knows what that is should it be warn
warranted to protect EU citizens from
serious harm right he's talking about
words so what is this really going to
lead to I mean you've got uh
International platforms that reach
everybody with different rules for each
of these countries or
unions on Free Speech being the United
States having the best of all of those
with the First Amendment not yet putting
people into jail or finding them for
putting me mes on X or any other
platform and it's worse than you think
no it's not fear-mongering
commenters it's awareness there are
crazy numbers of what the UK has already
done as an example just in the UK for
jailing people online and what they've
said for ridiculous ridiculous things
there's no incitement of violence
there's no in some cases not even
something that would be even slanderous
in any CA in
in any way but here you have the EU
trying to flex its power across the pond
here over to the United States it's
going to be interesting to see how all
of that plays out freedom of speech
being the central issue on these
platforms here's Constantine kissen on
what's happened in the UK right he is
originally a Russian he is from the UK
now he's speaking with former prime
minister uh John Anderson from Australia
listen to what he has to say here last
year 400 people were arrested for things
that they said on social media 400
people in Russia obviously this country
is very different how many people do you
think were arrested in Britain for
things they said on social media last
year go on take a guess I have no idea
3,300 really arrested for what they said
on social media really what sort of
things get you arrested well one example
I give in my show is there was a young
woman from Liverpool called Chelsea
Russell her friend was killed in car
crash 19-year-old woman and she posted
the lyrics of his favorite song on her
Instagram the lyrics and there was a rap
song so the lyrics contain several
instances of the n-word okay so again
here it's think think about what this
does in controlling
speech the state is supreme it's going
to control what you can express to
others this is this is the West got a
Meme here of uh you know UK police
coming we saw your meme step outside
right here they are at the porch of a
young woman here using Force because of
a meme you know and this is a meme right
it's a meme of a meme but there's truth
to this it's happening all the time in
the United Kingdom now where should we
be on this you know what what is really
interesting to me and and I don't know
that everybody catches this I think you
know most people probably do or some do
but you know the Book of Mormon is has a
dual a dual there there's several
messages but there is a primary dual
message to the book of
Morman outside of obviously another
Testament of Jesus Christ but that is
that the doctrine of Christ and Liberty
go hand inand they are one and the same
thing you cannot pull them apart it is
not a coincidence that the West is full
of democracy and opportunity more than
anything the world has ever seen and its
core cultural belief system and world
viw is Christianity now we're losing
that certainly but maybe based on what
we're seeing here we're also losing
democracy we're also losing freedoms but
as you go through the Book of Mormon you
see all of the denters they're all anti
they're all
Antichrist they all want tyranny now
back over the Nephites as you read Elma
and you read about Captain Moroni
fighting against am malakiah and against
his brother amaron that we're going
through right now and come follow me you
can't help but see the message that
Mormon is putting here about Liberty
being tied directly to
Christianity Christianity demands and
requires Liberty because it wants to
maximize agency it wants to and agency
and the law of Liberty go hand in hand
and and you think about it agency is
tied directly to the doctrine of Christ
to the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ
it is the use of agency both good and
bad that allows us to lean on the
atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ to
repent and to change and to become
agency is so important that even when
Adam and Eve are faced with the choice
and are about to partake of the tree of
the knowledge of Good and Evil God is
not going to stop them he's going to let
them play that out and he he lets us all
play that out we all hang on to our own
agency so that we have in a sense our
own identity now ireneus or irus however
you want to pronounce his name was an
early Church Father and I believe he was
born in around 130 ad died somewhere in
the early 3rd Century 205 210 somewhere
in that area he's kind of a a priesthood
grandson to John the Beloved John the
Revelator uh John had a disciple named
polyart and po carp was a martyr he was
killed
uh put on a stake you know burned at the
steak I think he didn't die on the stake
when they had to kill him afterward but
uh he is the one who ordained ireneus
but irus has some writings called
against heresies and in that he's got
something he calls the law of Liberty
which may not be from him originally but
it's he uses this and he uses the New
Testament to show that God allows for
agency he's not going to make you choose
a certain thing he's quite on the
opposite end of things and ireneus gives
some great examples of this and and and
reasoning in this let me quote this here
he says God made man free from the
beginning for God never uses Force he
placed in man the power of election even
as in the Angels Glory and Honor he says
to all who do good and it is do them
because they could have done evil in
other words if there was not opposition
in all things as Lehi says then there's
no glory there's no honor there's no
goodness in choosing good you're just a
puppet but because there is opposition
in all things and you choose good then
there is Glory and Honor in that because
you did not choose the evil he goes on
now if God made some men good and some
bad simply by Nature there would be
nothing praiseworthy in their view
virtue or or blameworthy in their Vice
for that being their nature they could
not do otherwise so if if God Made You
good you're really not good there's no
nothing praiseworthy about it if you're
not using agency you're just good and if
he made you bad then there's nothing
that you can really be blamed for
because he made you bad he's showing the
importance of agency for each individual
and therefore Choice repentance the
atonement judgment and exaltation or
other kingdoms he ends the quote here he
ends by saying the following but since
to all is given equally the power of
doing good or bad exactly as they choose
they are rightly praised or blamed for
what they do judgment matters that is
why the prophet
appeal to men to do good and UE evil
ireneus okay so really good reasoning
behind that and he calls this the law of
Liberty he draws this from I think it's
Matthew
27 uh in this case I Think Jesus is at
the temple and uh and and Joseph Smith
talks about this as a temple verse or
verses where he says oh how many times
have I tried to gather you I'm PR
paraphrasing here obviously how have I
gathered you like a hen and ye would not
he's trying to gather us he's trying to
help us to do good but he doesn't make
us and so the law of Liberty is
Christianity the law of Liberty has to
do with the ability to have your agency
going back all the way to the war in
heaven what was the issue there of
course we often times talk about Lucifer
and his desire to remove agency as we
read in the book of
Moses but on the opposite end of that is
the Father's plan which was focused on
agency so one represents tyranny and one
represents agency and freedom of speech
is right at the heart of this we read of
the laws and government of the
Nephites and the responsibility of
carrying on their backs their shoulders
this law of Liberty because that's
Christianity and that's says that hey
you can go out and worship as you choose
it's they have their own First Amendment
so to speak you can go out and choose
for yourself how you're going to worship
and have your own beliefs and we're not
going to stop you from that the problem
always comes when they turn and they
start persecuting the
Christians but on the other end of that
those that begin to persecute and become
the
dissenters they want tyranny they don't
need to they don't care about your
beliefs in fact part of their movement
in taking power from the Nephites and
ruling over them is to remove their
worship of Christ to remove their
religion so that's easy it's those that
want the Liberty the pluralism and
believe that is a universal law that it
is a Christian law that have the onus of
supporting such a thing it it's a much
harder thing to do it's a much greater
responsibility so we get these conflicts
and the wool is pulled off from our eyes
as we see just how things really
are and how fragile democracy and
freedom
are as is often times
said freedom of speech means nothing if
you don't allow for speech that you
don't agree with and back to the
Constitution and the First Amendment we
often times talk about that first
amendment as free freedom of speech but
first before it talks about freedom of
speech it talks about freedom of
religion those two things go hand in
hand and as we remove freedom of speech
we will lose freedom of religion and of
course there's a growing percentage of
people in positions of power that don't
seem to really care thanks for listening
