Posted by
TheChair on Friday, September 05, 2008 11:45:23 PM
Today, while listening to a telephonic conference on the issue of
same-sex marriage, I pondered the contrast between Proposition 8's standing present in the polls (40-54%) and the revolutionary consequences that society will suffer at the national and even worldwide levels should it fail to pass. While in this thought, the following remarks by Ezra Taft Benson returned to my mind. I had read them some 25 years earlier. Benson was Eisenhower's Secretary of Agriculture for both terms and later served as President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. In this timeless manifesto, Benson urged good people everywhere to stand up for right, no matter the odds or the cost. Print it. Pass out copies. Discuss it with your children. Then act on it--pitch in and help save marriage, before it's too late.
There are some people who hesitate to get into this fight for freedom because it is controversial, or they are not sure if we are going to win. Such people have two blind spots.
First, they fail to realize that life's decisions should be based on principles-not on Gallup polls. There were men at Valley Forge who weren't sure how the Revolution would end, but they were in a much better position to save their own souls and their country than those timid men whose concern was deciding which side was going to win, or how to avoid controversy.
After all, the basic purpose of life is to prove ourselves-not to be with the majority when it is wrong. We must discharge responsibilities not only to our church, home, and profession, but also to our country. Otherwise we do not merit the full blessings of a kind Providence.
There are people today all over the world who in their own courageous and sometimes quiet ways are working for freedom. In many cases we will never know until the next life all they sacrificed for liberty. These patriots are receiving heaven's applause for the role they are playing, and in the long run that applause will be louder and longer than any they could receive in this world.
Which leads me to the second blind spot of those who hesitate to get into the fight. And that is their failure to realize that we will win in the long run, and for keeps, and that they pass up great blessings by not getting into the battle now when the odds are against us and the rewards are greatest.
The only questions, before the final victory, are, first, "What stand will each of us take in this struggle?" and second, "How much tragedy can be avoided by doing something now?"
Time is on the side of truth-and truth is eternal. Those who are fighting against freedom may feel confident now, but they are shortsighted.
This is still God's world. The forces of evil, working through some mortals, have made a mess of a good part of it. But it is still God's world. In due time, when each of us has had a chance to prove ourselves-including whether or not we are going to stand up for freedom-God will interject himself, and the final and eternal victory shall be for free agency. And then shall those complacent people on the sidelines, and those who took the wrong but temporarily popular course, lament their decisions. To the patriots I say this: Take that long eternal look. Stand up for freedom, no matter what the cost. Stand up and be counted. It can help to save your soul-and maybe your country.
(Ezra Taft Benson, 9/23/63, reprinted in
Prophets, Principles and National Survival; Publisher's Press, 1964, pp. 206-207; Also printed in
An Enemy Hath Done This, Bookcraft, 1969, pp 61-62.)