Join or Die...

Okay, I don't usually get all religious on you here.  And I don't think I'm going to do that today.  I just want to share some thoughts that are spurred by current events and my particular brand of religi-osity.

I see the radical environmental movement and the national-socialization of the US economy through banking, manufacturing, and health care as related.  In fact, they are part of the same scheme.  What is the desired end game of these activities?

The end of liberty in the United States of America.  The end of prosperity in the United States of America.  The increase of power for a few and the bondage of millions.

"Oh, come ON!" you say.  "Give me a break."

"But wait!" I say.  "It's all been done before."

If you'll take the time to read the books of Alma, Helaman, and Third Nephi in the Book of Mormon, you can see it plainly. 

The story tells of the ancient inhabitants of the American Continent.  These people lived much as we do today, but without cars or iPods.  They worked, they loved, they fought, they prayed.  Some were Christians, and some were not.  Some were honest and good.  Some were just plain evil.  Some wanted freedom and equality, while some wanted power and riches.

As things went along, certain people - mostly lawyers and judges - incited discontent in the people.  They invented problems and encouraged prejudices.  Eventually, a large portion of the people thought it would be a great idea to change their constitutional form of government in favor of a monarchy that would provide every needful thing.

This movement resulted in political arguments and even civil war.  The "kingmen", as they were called, accused the "freemen" of oppressing the people with their policies.  They claimed that the existing government was out of step with the needs of the country.  The insisted that legislating morality was not only wrong, but that it was impossible to legislate morality without infringing on the rights of the individual.

Outside enemies took advantage of the civil distractions and exploited the weakness that division brings.  War broke out across the land.  The people suffered terribly economically, socially, and militarily.  Ultimately their society disintigrated and they were split into tribes or factions looking out for their own welfare. 

In the end they found peace - or rather, they found the absence of war.  Thier society was a shadow of what it had been.  All confidence in commerce and security was gone.  Law was a thing of the past, and behavior was only regulated by the chief or leader of the tribe. 

Now, we face similar things in our country.  Lawyers and judges are inciting discontent in the people.  They are working to change the basis of law and constitutionality in the United States.  Others insist that the old way of doing things is not fit for our "new" times.  They seek to rewrite the basis of our government, teaching that individual rights flow from the state, rather than the state receiving any power it has by the consent of the people. 

Progressives accuse those who hold differing views of intolerance, closed-mindedness, and biggotry.  They say that we are out of step with the times.  As our enemies watch, we are weakened by soft-mindedness, immorality, decadence and strife.

An American revolutionary flag design sometimes credited to Benjamin Franklin declared "Join or Die!" 

Abraham Lincoln quoted Jesus when he said that "a house divided against itself cannot stand." 

They both were right.

The key, though, is that the people MUST unite around CORRECT principles and MUST be unified in GOODNESS.  The Book of Mormon hero Captain Moroni had an effective, if extreme, method of unifying people for a good cause.

Read about it.