11-08-08 - Death Before Dishonor

I was the concluding speaker [In church service on Sunday] and thanked [the first speaker] for the report on his son, and [the second speaker] for his remarks, and a heartfelt thank you for his service to our country. I then acknowledged his final plea, and pledged that "I would pray for the new president, as I had prayed for every President since 1976 when I voted in my first national election. That the new President would be guided and directed to do those things that God would want for America”.

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I thought [of several remarks i could make], but using tremendous personal restraint, I did not say [them]. Because I have too much reverence for the sanctity of the Sacrament Meeting to use it for my own personal political views, no matter how true they may be.

I then reflectively stated to the congregation, “I know that for many of you the last few months, and especially the last few weeks have been a tremendous strain”. Then added to that, “what has been happening most recently to our Temples, Chapels, Church Office Building in the way of desecration, vandalism, lack of honoring property rights; and individual members beaten and brutalized is shocking and tragic. But I fear that this is only the beginning. These kinds of things will only intensify until the Savior comes again. Our Prophets have told us that, there will be a polarizing effect on the earth in our day; the bad will become worse, and the good will become better and stronger. We have to decide where we stand. Will we be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, or will we stand as witnesses of our Lord, and support and sustain His Holy Prophets? No matter what they ask us to do?"

Our prophets have told us, “the Lord will never permit his Prophet to lead this Church astray”1. If we follow the Prophet, “we will be blessed”. They also tell us that those who fail to give head to the words of the prophets and apostles, shall be cut off from among the people. They will be physically separated from the body of the Church, as well as spiritually separated from God. They will not have the Holy Spirit to be with them. It will be the difference of making it to the Celestial Kingdom, or falling to the Terrestrial Kingdom.

Aside from political turmoil and lawless behavior, we will face devastating natural disasters, terrorist attacks, increasing additional wars, and economic collapse even more than we have recently experienced.

Ezra Taft Benson as the European Mission President was in Czechoslovakia and Poland in 1946 and watched the losses of freedom and methods of conquest of those lovely countries and beautiful people. He also served as Sec. of Agriculture to President Eisenhower from 1953 – 1961.2
 He saw first hand the evils of Communism and Socialism and warned about that cancer destroying our country, unless we fight against it: “Watchman, what of the night?" (Isaiah 21:11) is the cry of the faithful. I have tried to warn you of the darkness that is moving over us and what we can do about it if we will only follow the prophet.

Have you counted the cost if our countrymen, and especially the body of the Priesthood, continue to remain complacent, misled through some of our news media, deceived by some of our officials, and perverted by some of our educators?

Are you prepared to see some of your loved ones murdered, your remaining liberties abridged, the Church persecuted, and your Eternal Reward jeopardized?

“…I have talked face-to-face with the godless communist leaders. It may surprise you to learn that I was host to Mr. Khrushchev …when he visited the United States. Not that I’m proud of it – I opposed his coming then and I still feel it was a mistake to welcome this atheistic murderer as a state visitor. But according to Pres. Eisenhower, Khrushchev had expressed a desire to learn something of American agriculture, and after seeing Russian agriculture I can see why.”3

“As we talked face-to-face, he indicated that my grandchildren would live under communism. After assuring him that I expected to do all in my power to assure that his and all other grandchildren will live under freedom, he arrogantly declared in substance:

You Americans are so gullible. No, you won’t accept communism outright, but we’ll keep feeding you small doses of socialism until you’ll finally wake up and find you already have communism. We won’t have to fight you. We’ll so weaken your economy until you’ll fall like over-ripe fruit into our hands.”4

The Book of Mormon teaches us “Behold, this is a choice land, and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall be free from bondage, and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ”.5 Part of serving the God of the land is to honor and obey His Prophet. No matter what the cost. No matter what the price.

Pres. Benson also quoted Norman Vincent Peale who proclaimed, “Once we roared like lions for liberty; now we bleat like sheep for security.”6

Men often will trade freedom for security, and mistake lack of violence or war, for peace. True freedom is never earned, nor maintained without tremendous effort and sacrifice through the shedding of blood. Pres. J. Ruben Clark stated “Freedom was never brought to people on a silver platter, nor maintained with whisk brooms and lavender sprays”.7 Many Patriots throughout our country’s history have given all they had, and over a million of them have paid the ultimate sacrifice of their very lives for the glorious cause of FREEDOM. I would like to tell you about one of those Patriots, Bill Miller. He was a counselor to my father in the Branch Presidency in Chowchilla when I was a young man. (Among other things, he had a $1 or $5 dollar bill that had the signatures of Omar Bradley, George Patton and one other General that I can not remember on it.) He had a tattoo on his forearm, and at one activity I (as an immature punk teenager) chided him saying something to the effect, “Mormons aren’t supposed to have tattoos”. He then told me that he got it long before he and his wife joined the Church. He was in the military in WWII and his unit fought in Africa, Sicily, Italy, Normandy, across Europe into Germany. There was none of this “Tour of Duty” stuff, you were in it for the duration. ‘Til they won the war and came home. In one of the earlier battles, a portion of the battle line folded and ran. In the counter attack by the Americans, even though successful, they suffered heavy casualties. Many more lives were lost in retaking the ground, than they would have if the original lines would have held their ground in the first place. So Bill Miller and the rest of their unit made a collective oath, that they would never surrender or retreat (unless ordered to do so), but they would fight to the death. This they did because they did not want to be the cause of additional Americans to have to die because of their failure to do their duty. Also in this battle or another one, the scuttle-butt was that some one captured had through torture or truth serum (Sodium Pentothal), given away information that led to an advantage of the enemy that led to some of their buddies dying. So part of their oath included the promise to never leave one of their unit behind. If ordered out of an area, they either took the wounded with them, or killed them to make sure that no one was taken alive to give out sensitive information. They all made that oath, because they loved their country, their fellow Americans, and their buddies more than their own lives; and were willing to die (or have their own fellow soldiers shoot them to make sure that they were not the cause by torture or truth serum) of giving away information that would lead to the death fellow Americans or loosing a battle because of that information. To help them remember their oath, they all got tattoos that said, “Death before Dishonor” on a scroll or sash below an Eagle. This was the Tattoo that Bill Miller had on his arm, and the reason for it.

Most of us in this room will never have to give our lives in battle, refusing to retreat or surrender; but every one of us will (sometimes on a daily basis) have the opportunity to stand as a witness, and not be ashamed of Jesus Christ and His Gospel. To honor and sustain our Prophet and other Church leaders, no matter what the cost. I wish it were roses and lollipops that I had to offer you. But I fear it is Briars and thistles that we are wont to wade through. We will need to steel ourselves for the fight.

I then bore testimony of the Savior, this Church, and His Prophet, and defending the Constitution. That following his Prophet will bring freedom, life, and joy. Not doing so will bring enslavement, sorrow, and death. May we never retreat or surrender.

May God bless you all in your standing (fighting) for the right.

Jamie

Citations:

1. https://www.lds.org/manual/doctrine-and-covenants-and-church-history-gospel-doctrine-teachers-manual/lesson-37-we-thank-thee-o-god-for-a-prophet?lang=eng

2,3,4. Benson, E., & Newquist, J. (1994). An enemy hath done this. Salt Lake City, Utah: Parliament Publ., [pg.320]
5. https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/ether/2?lang=eng
6. Congressional Record, V. 146, Pt. 15, October 6, 2000 to October 12 2000
7. http://scriptures.byu.edu/gettalk.php?ID=1522