Topic: Leadership to Nations
“I believe, my brothers and
sisters, that our greatest danger as a people is from within, and I would
like to believe that the Latter-day Saints believe in the leaders of this
great Church to the point that they are willing to accept their counsel and
advice. I think sometimes we almost bind them so that when they have the
inspiration of Almighty God and would like to speak to us they hesitate for
fear some of us will feel that they are interfering with political affairs.
If I had my way I would welcome the day, come it as soon as God may grant,
when these men with whom I am associated so intimately and whose very
intimate thoughts I know and their desires for the welfare of this people
and the welfare of the Kingdom of God, might not only be issuing
instructions to this great Church but to this great nation, which we are
told is a land choice above all other lands and over which Christ our Lord,
as decreed, shall reign, as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, because in this
land it is decreed that the new Jerusalem of the Lord our God shall be
established.” - LeGrand Richards, “Conference Report,” October 1940,
Afternoon Meeting, p. 85