An LDS Perspective on Political Prisoners
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| Depiction of Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail |
Remember that your kingdom, like Christ's, is not of this world. When Jesus taught that we should render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's, he meant money. Not souls. Not the dignity and self-possession that is ours by birth.
It is against our religion to accept violence from the State—not for ourselves, and not for others. Read D&C 121-123 again. That's what they say. That's what they mean.
How can we hold any other position when the Prophet Joseph Smith was executed through vigilante justice? How can we choose false imprisonment for anyone when it was exercised against our own people so many times?
The God who told our prophet and our people "fear not what man can do" in the face of state violence will not forgive us if we side with jailers of the innocent. Not in this moment. Not in any moment.
Seeking redress against corrupt governments a sacred duty bestowed upon us by God. D&C 123:7 says "It is an imperative duty that we owe to God" not to allow such things to stand as long as there is anything we can do to stop it.
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| Cell Window of Reconstructed Liberty Jail |
If you need the words to express to the Trump supporters in your life why supporting the current administration is immoral and unacceptable for us as a people, here they are. To love our neighbors as ourselves means we cannot tolerate their oppression because it (allegedly) benefits us in any way. Those who entertain that thought, regardless of the justification, cause "the heavens [to] withdraw from themselves; the Spirit of the Lord is grieved; and when it is withdrawn, Amen to the priesthood or the authority of that man." (D&C 121:37)
God has withdrawn protection and prosperity from our nation because our people have supported and allowed this evil to happen to our neighbors. It will continue until those who are responsible repent. And if they don't, the justice that was promised against our own oppressors in D&C 121 will come upon us:
13 Also because their hearts are corrupted, and the things which they are willing to bring upon others, and love to have others suffer, may come upon themselves to the very uttermost;
14 That they may be disappointed also, and their hopes may be cut off;
15 And not many years hence, that they and their posterity shall be swept from under heaven, saith God, that not one of them is left to stand by the wall.
There is moral rot among the Saints in the United States. If we do not purge it from among ourselves through repentance and restitution to those we have harmed through this corrupt administration, we will be destroyed from the earth by that administration. We will fall into the pits we have dug for our neighbors. And we will have no one but ourselves to blame.
