The Glorious Standard

Yesterday I went to the Patriots and Pioneers concert at BYU-Idaho that celebrates those who have fought for our freedoms and died to protect us.  I was particularly moved when all of the veterans in the audience stood up and were honored for their service.  Having never been close to war, it is easy to never think upon the millions of people who have risked, and often given, their lives in the defense of our freedoms and in response to duty.  As I read these words of Alma to his son Helaman this morning I felt they were meant for me as well: “I have always retained in remembrance [our fathers’] captivity; yea, and ye also ought to retain in remembrance, as I have done, their captivity” (Alma 36:29).  One of the messages that the concert sought to portray was that we have in this country indeed been delivered by the hand of God on countless occasions, whether that was in the miracle of crossing the Delaware in the Revolutionary War, the vital win at Gettysburg for the Union, or the divine hand of Providence in changing the weather so the Allied forces could land at D-day in France and be victorious.  The Lord indeed wants us to remember today the “captivity” and sacrifice of our fathers and how He has delivered us in miraculous ways from our enemies.

That we have been blessed and preserved by God in America is in fact scriptural.  As Nephi saw his vision of the Revolutionary War and the creation of our country, He wrote, “I beheld that their mother Gentiles were gathered together upon the waters, and upon the land also, to battle against them.  And I beheld that the power of God was with them….  And I, Nephi, beheld that the Gentiles that had gone out of captivity were delivered by the power of God out of the hands of all other nations” (1 Nephi 13:17-19).  I believe that statement about being delivered refers to not just the Revolutionary War but in all subsequent wars as the power of God has indeed delivered us out of the hands of “all other nations.”  And why would the Lord “favor” this country above others?  I don’t think that’s what He has done; rather He has favored the principles of freedom that He inspired as part of the Constitution so that those principles could bless as many people as possible.  Its principles have inspired the principles of government in numerous other countries since its adoption in the United States.  The Lord said in a revelation to the Prophet Joseph, “According to the laws and constitution of the people, which I have suffered to be established, and should be maintained for the rights and protection of all flesh, according to just and holy principles” (D&C 101:77).  The principles of freedom espoused in the Constitution—that men and women should be free to worship, to assemble, to speak, and to be treated equally before the law to name a few—were meant for “the rights and protection of all flesh”.  Of course, the cynic will mock saying that these principles have been violated time and again, with the permitting of slavery being the most egregious violation.  It’s not hard to find many other examples of times when this country has not followed the principles it has been founded on, and Joseph Smith knew that well because of the terrible religious persecution of the Mormons.  And yet he could see past the hypocrisy and still strive for the ideal: “The Constitution of the United States is a glorious standard; it is founded in the wisdom of God.  It is a heavenly banner.”  We must always “retain in remembrance” those principles and those who have fought for the glorious standard and kept us from captivity.  And as the Prophet said in the midst of their persecution, “We brethren are deprived of the protection of this glorious principle by the cruelty of the cruel… but we will hold on until death, we say that God is true, that the Constitution of the United States is true, that the Bible is true, that the Book of Mormon is true.”