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Liberty

Summary

LIBERTY is the result of using our moral agency and freedom to act in accordance with our eternal identity and purpose.

All people are born with moral agency – the right to make choices of conscience (exercise our will) and the obligation to account for those choices (D&C 101:78, Christofferson, 2009).  Moral agency is a gift from God (D&C 101:78).

As we come to understand eternal laws and truths and choose to adhere to them, our agency expands because we have more choices to make and our ability to discern the potential outcomes of our choices increases (Christofferson, 2006).  No one can take away our agency, but we can choose to surrender it to others or to engage in practices that are addictive or that limit our ability to choose in other ways. (Oaks, 1987).

Freedom is “the power and privilege to carry out our choices” (Oaks, 1987).

Freedom can be limited by (1) physical laws, (2) our own action, and (3) the action of others, including governments (Oaks, 1987).  For example, I might exercise my agency by choosing to walk across a street, but my freedom to carry out that choice would be limited if my legs were paralyzed or if traffic laws prohibited me from crossing the street by foot.

With moral agency, people who know right from wrong are accountable to God, their families, and society.  If we are to live in a civilized society, governments must impose some restrictions on freedom so as to maintain order and to hold people accountable for their actions (Oaks, 1987).  However, government should seek to maximize freedom and limit it only as necessary to provide a framework of order and accountability and to allow opportunity and virtue to flourish, which are prerequisites to liberty.

Liberty is not to do whatever we would like; it is a state of being that results from using our agency and freedom to do what we ought to do.  What we ought to do is recognize and fulfill the measure of our creation, or our “eternal identity and purpose,” which is to learn the law of Christ and obey it.  As we do this, we are living “the perfect law of liberty” (James 1:22-25) and are set free through Christ (Mosiah 5:7-8) (Romney, 1981).

Quotes from the Brethren

Dallin H. Oaks–
Few concepts have more potential to mislead us than the idea that choice, or agency, is an ultimate goal. For Latter-day Saints, this potential confusion is partly a product of the fact that moral agency—the right to choose—is a fundamental condition of mortal life. Without this precious gift of God, the purpose of mortal life could not be realized. To secure our agency in mortality we fought a mighty contest the book of Revelation calls a “war in heaven.” This premortal contest ended with the devil and his angels being cast out of heaven and being denied the opportunity of having a body in mortal life (see Rev. 12:7–9).

But our war to secure agency was won. The test in this postwar mortal estate is not to secure choice but to use it—to choose good instead of evil so that we can achieve our eternal goals. In mortality, choice is a method, not a goal.

Of course, mortals must still resolve many questions concerning what restrictions or consequences should be placed upon choices. But those questions come under the heading of freedom, not agency. Many do not understand that important fact. We are responsible to use our agency in a world of choices. It will not do to pretend that our agency has been taken away when we are not free to exercise it without unwelcome consequences. (Dallin H. Oaks, “Weightier Matters,” Ensign, Jan. 2001)

Boyd K. Packer–
While we pass laws to reduce pollution of the earth, any proposal to protect the moral and spiritual environment is shouted down and marched against as infringing upon liberty, agency, freedom, the right to choose.

Interesting how one virtue, when given exaggerated or fanatical emphasis, can be used to batter down another, with freedom, a virtue, invoked to protect vice. Those determined to transgress see any regulation of their life-style as interfering with their agency and seek to have their actions condoned by making them legal.

People who are otherwise sensible say, “I do not intend to indulge, but I vote for freedom of choice for those who do.”

Regardless of how lofty and moral the “pro-choice” argument sounds, it is badly flawed. With that same logic one could argue that all traffic signs and barriers which keep the careless from danger should be pulled down on the theory that each individual must be free to choose how close to the edge he will go. (Boyd K. Packer, “Our Moral Environment,” Ensign, May 1992)

Dallin H. Oaks–
The science of government is a consideration of the procedures by which and the extent to which the official representatives of one group of citizens can impose restrictions on the freedom of another group. Decisions on the extent to which government power should restrict the freedom of individuals are among the most difficult decisions we face in an organized society. How much should zoning laws restrict a person’s right to use his own property? How many taxes should we extract, and what compulsory functions should government perform with them? How much harm can society allow a person to do himself, such as by self-mutilation or drug use? These are all questions of freedom.

We have to accept some government limitations on freedom if we who live in communities are to have life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. A condition of uninhibited individual freedom would allow the strong to oppress the weak. It would allow the eccentric desires of one person to restrict the freedom of many. (“Free Agency and Freedom,” Oaks, Dallin H., October 11, 1987)

Marion G. Romney–

The meaning of the word liberty is difficult to circumscribe. Abraham Lincoln was of the opinion that “the world has never had a good definition of [the term]. We all declare for liberty,” he said; “but in using the same word we do not mean the same thing. With some, the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself and the product of his labor; while with others [liberty] may mean for some men to do as they please with other men and the product of other men’s labor.” …

I would have us strive for that liberty which comprehends all three of these freedoms, and more. I would have us strive for a freedom of the soul to which they all contribute. I would have us attain that blessed state foreshadowed by the Prophet Joseph Smith when he said, “Let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God.” (D&C 121:45.) One who enjoys such liberty is, in the words of Jesus, “free indeed.” (John 8:36.) He is possessed of perfect liberty. …

While perhaps it is seldom, if ever, contended that either political independence or economic freedom alone brings perfect liberty, it is not, however, uncommon for free agency to be considered as synonymous with freedom of the soul. And it is true that the God-given right to choose one’s course of action is an indispensable prerequisite to such freedom. Without it we can scarcely enjoy any type of liberty—political, economic, or personal. It is one of our greatest heritages. For it we are deeply indebted to our Father in Heaven, to the Founding Fathers, and to the pioneers. God gave it to man in the Garden of Eden. (See Moses 7:32.) The Founding Fathers, under the Lord’s inspiration, wrote a guarantee of it into the fundamental law of the land. And the pioneers, led by the inspiration of heaven, gave their all to perpetuate it. Surely we ought always to be alert in its defense and willing, if necessary, to give our lives for its preservation.

Free agency, however, precious as it is, is not of itself the perfect liberty we seek, nor does it necessarily lead thereto. As a matter of fact, through the exercise of their agency more people have come to political, economic, and personal bondage than to liberty. …

Notwithstanding the fact that through its misuse, political, economic, and personal liberty are lost, free agency will always endure because it is an eternal principle. However, the free agency possessed by any one person is increased or diminished by the use to which he puts it. Every wrong decision one makes restricts the area in which he can thereafter exercise his agency. The further one goes in the making of wrong decisions in the exercise of free agency, the more difficult it is for him to recover the lost ground. One can, by persisting long enough, reach the point of no return. He then becomes an abject slave. By the exercise of his free agency, he has decreased the area in which he can act, almost to the vanishing point. …

Freedom thus obtained—that is, by obedience to the law of Christ—is freedom of the soul, the highest form of liberty. And the most glorious thing about it is that it is within the reach of every one of us, regardless of what people about us, or even nations, do. All we have to do is learn the law of Christ and obey it. To learn it and obey it is the primary purpose of every soul’s mortal life. (Marion G. Romney, “The Perfect Law of Liberty,” Ensign, Nov. 1981)

Hugh B. Brown–
We live in an age when freedom of the mind is suppressed over much of the world. We must preserve this freedom in the Church and in America and resist all efforts of earnest men to suppress it, for when it is suppressed, we might lose the liberties vouchsafed in the Constitution of the United States.

Preserve, then, the freedom of your mind in education and in religion, and be unafraid to express your thoughts and to insist upon your right to examine every proposition. We are not so much concerned with whether your thoughts are orthodox or heterodox as we are that you shall have thoughts. (Hugh B. Brown, “An Eternal Quest–Freedom of the Mind,” BYU Devotional, May 13, 1969)

Quotes from the Founders

George Washington–
The establishment of Civil and Religious Liberty was the Motive which induced me to the Field — the object is attained — and it now remains to be my earnest wish & prayer, that the Citizens of the United States could make a wise and virtuous use of the blessings placed before them. (Washington, George letter to the Reformed German Congregation of New York City, November 27, 1783)

Patrick Henry–
Is the relinquishment of the trial by jury and the liberty of the press necessary for your liberty? Will the abandonment of your most sacred rights tend to the security of your liberty? Liberty, the greatest of all earthly blessings – give us that precious jewel, and you may take every things else!… Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. (Henry, Patrick Speech to the Virginia Convention, June 5, 1788)

George Washington–
The foundations of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality, and the preeminence of free government be exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens, and command the respect of the world. (Washington, George First Inaugural Address, April 30, 1789)

George Washington–
We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. (Adams, John Address to the Military, October 11, 1798)

Speeches and Other Resources

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By Matthew Piccolo 10:47 pm