McKay School of Education > EDLF > Archives > Prophets > Provo City Community Centennial Service
Provo City Community Centennial Service
President Gordon B. Hinckley
[BYU Marriott Center, Sunday evening, August 4, 1996]
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your great kindness. I don't know why so many of you came tonight. We all have appreciated the music, it's been tremendous. I have concluded that Brother Bowden and chorus and orchestra are probably worth the budget which they use. We might give you an extra $5.00 next year.
I'm grateful for the presence of Senator Bennett and Congressman Orton, Mayor Stewart, and members of the Provo City Council, many distinguished ladies and gentlemen, and every one of you who is here. Thank you for your presence. Thank you, Reverend Jackson, for your inspirational prayer which has set the stage for something that I wish to say tonight.
I commend the Utah Centennial Commission for promoting these centennial firesides in communities up and down the state. This has been a wonderful year for remembering and celebrating a century of statehood. I congratulate Chairman Steven Studdert, of the Centennial Commission, who is here this evening. I salute him and his colleagues on what they have done. From the big opening reenactment held in the Tabernacle last January down through a series of events of great variety, the commission has done a wonderful piece of work. All of us are grateful to you.
I took occasion the other day to drive to the head of one of our canyons, there to feast upon a magnificent picture of fields of wild flowers. They were magnificent. As we were returning from this rare treat, I marveled at the beauty of the tree-covered canyon walls. Then we emerged from the canyon to look out across the valley. It was a beautiful sight, and I said to myself, "What a precious privilege it is to live here. Surely this is a choice and wonderful place."
And then we drove to Provo on Interstate 15. 1 guess we chose the wrong time of day. I do not know when the right time is. In any event, it was slow and tedious. I said to myself, "Tell Mayor Stewart on Sunday he needs to fix 1-15." I'd like to say it was a little better this evening.
I know, of course, that 1-15 is not his responsibility. He has enough to do to take care of matters that are strictly related to this delightful and wonderful city of Provo.
Truly we are blessed in being a part of this great nation and in living in these valleys of the western mountains. We have every reason to rejoice and be grateful.
I am enthusiastic about this part of the world. I have faith in the future of this state. I have faith in the future of my beloved America, of which this chorus has sung so magnificently tonight.
And yet, I am deeply concerned. I am more deeply concerned about the growing moral deficit than I am about the monetary deficit. Tonight we have given a Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States and to the Republic for which it stands, "One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
We sang together the first verse of our national anthem. This has become customary. I wish we would sing the third verse which reads,
Oh, thus be it ever, when free men shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation!
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust!"
(Hymns, #340).
There has been going on in this nation for a good while a process which I call, "secularizing America." It is of this that I wish to say a few words this evening because I feel so strongly about it and because I feel we are paying a terrible price because of it.
A few months ago Lady Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister of Great Britain, spoke on this campus and in other places while she was visiting Utah. She spoke of the goodness and strength of America, which was settled by people from the British Isles who, as she said, came with the English Bible and the English common law. Those early settlers from the British Isles were Christian people who came with the Judeo-Christian concepts of right and wrong, of truth and error, which they derived from reading that Bible. They were people who looked to God for strength and inspiration and expressed their gratitude to Him for every blessing.
Lady Thatcher said, "You use the name of Deity in the Declaration of Independence and in the Constitution of the United States, and yet you cannot use it in the schoolroom." Those words of hers were almost a rebuke to America. I heard her make the statement more than once, and I have not forgotten it. This is symptomatic of what I refer to as the secularizing of America. Reverence for the Almighty, gratitude for His beneficent blessings, pleadings for His guidance, are increasingly being dropped from our public discourse. I take you back to George Washington's first inaugural address, spoken April 30, 1789, in Federal Hall in New York. Said he on that occasion:
". . . It would be peculiarly improper to omit, in this first official act, my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being, who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, . . . . In tendering this homage to the great Author of every public and private good, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own; nor those of my fellow citizens at large ..... No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand, which conducts the affairs of men, more than the people of the United States. Every step, by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation, seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency" (Harvard Classics, Vol. 43, p. 242).
Wonderfully significant words are these spoken 207 years ago by him whom we idolize as the Father of our country.
Long before that, in 1620, before the Pilgrims left the Mayflower to set foot on Plymouth Rock, they signed a compact in which they "solemnly and mutually in the presence of God, and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid" (Ibid., p. 62).
The motto, "In God We Trust," has graced our currency and coinage for two centuries. Now some are questioning that the practice should be continued.
Oaths of office and oaths in other legal procedures have concluded with the phrase, "So help me God."
Now, the state of New Jersey has passed a law banishing the mention of God from state court room oaths. The Wall Street Journal advised the other day that following this action by the New Jersey Legislature, a county judge now has decided to ban Bibles for such oaths "because you-know- Who is mentioned inside." The Journal editorial continues, "It now appears that Jersey's judges can swear in jurors however they see fit. Maybe just a non-secular wave on the way into the box" (Wall Street Journal, July 3 1, 1996).
In recent years the Boy Scouts of America have been attacked because of the language in the Scout Oath: "On my honor I will do my best, to do my duty to God, and my country."
It is acknowledgment of the Almighty that gives civility and refinement to our actions. It is accountability to Him that brings discipline into our lives. It is gratitude for His gracious favors that takes from us the arrogance to which we are so prone.
I believe that one of the root causes of the terrible social illnesses that are running rampant among us is the almost total secularizing of our public attitudes. People who carry in their hearts a strong conviction concerning the living reality of the Almighty and of accountability to Him for what we do with our lives and our society, are far less likely to become enmeshed in those problems which inevitably weaken our society. Let me briefly mention some of those problems.
The Congress and the President have recently enacted and signed new legislation concerning welfare. Hopefully, substantial good will come of it. But only a new set of rules to deal with an old problem is unlikely to produce a cure. There must be a change of attitude, the taking on of a sense of accountability for one's actions. We are shutting the doors of our homes against the God of the universe. Divine law has become a meaningless phrase. What was once so commonly spoken of as sin is now referred to only as poor judgment. Transgression has been replaced by misbehavior.
Family prayer was once the norm in the homes of the people across the nation. It has largely been forgotten. Marriage was once regarded as the most sacred of institutions, to be upheld through sunshine and storm. Now, the epidemic of divorce rages on, and while parents quarrel children suffer. The very foundation of their lives -- a secure and happy home-is pulled from under them.
An editorial in the Wall Street Journal speaks of a report issued by the Council on Families in America after two years of intense study. The conclusion of that report is this: "American society would be better off if more people got married and stayed married." What a remarkable conclusion that is. Any of us in this hall could have said that without a long and costly study.
In support of its conclusion, the study states "that children who don't live with both parents are more likely to grow up poor, have problems in school, and get into trouble with the law, . . Ahe children in fatherless homes are five times more likely to be poor than those who live with both parents. For black families, where the decline in marriage has been most acute, 57% of children in fatherless households live in poverty, while only 15% of children in intact families are poor."
The editorial in the Journal concludes: "Marriage may be an imperfect institution, but so far in human history no one has come up with a better way to nurture children in a stable society" (Wall Street Journal, April 25, 1995).
Marriage was once generally regarded as a sacred sacrament. Fortunately it still is with many, and most of you in this hall can testify to that. But for the people of the nation as a whole it is becoming an increasingly secular ceremony. We are losing something. We are losing something that speaks of accountability, not only to one another, but to God who is our Father and who will stand in judgment upon us.
I am deeply concerned about the children of America, speaking of them as a whole. I am particularly concerned about the millions who come into the world with handicaps, seemingly impossible to overcome, children whose lives are blighted by neglect and abuse by parents and others, children, many of whom have limitless capacity but almost no opportunity. In the long term this may well be the most serious problem facing our nation because its consequences multiply and reach forward through generations.
The report of the Carnegie Task Force on Meeting the Needs of Young Children paints a dismal picture. It says:
"Our nation's infants and toddlers and their families are in trouble. Compared with most other industrialized countries, the United States has a higher infant mortality rate, a higher proportion of low birth-weight babies, a smaller proportion of babies immunized against childhood diseases, and a much higher rate of babies born to adolescent mothers. Of the twelve million children under the age of three in the United States today, a staggering number are affected by one or more risk factors that undermine healthy development. One in four lives in poverty. One in four lives in a single-parent family. One in three victims of physical abuse is a baby under the age of one" (Carnegie Report, page xii).
It is a startling and dismal fact that 28% of the children born to white mothers in this nation are born to single women. That is more than one in four. Sixty-eight percent of children born to black mothers across the nation, and 80% in our larger cities, are born to single women. That is four out of five.
Staggering are the burdens that are placed upon society through taxes levied to meet the needs of such children and their mothers. The Carnegie Report indicates that "of teens who give birth, 46% will go on welfare within four years. [That is almost one out of every two]. Of unmarried teens who give birth, 73% will be on welfare within four years. [That is almost three out of every four.]"
You may ask why I am speaking along these lines tonight. You say that this is not the case in Provo. And I reply, "I know that, and I am grateful." But we are not without the problem right here. Furthermore, the problem exists in your nation, and in your world, and in your generation-and you cannot close your eyes to it because you will have to bear the burden of it.
My sad observation is that what is happening in the nation is happening likewise, even if at a lower degree, in Utah and in these very communities in which we live and prize so highly.
Every young man must be made to realize that in fathering a child he takes upon himself a responsibility that will endure as long as he lives. Let every young woman know that in giving birth to a child, she places upon herself a responsibility from which she will never be entirely free. How tragic is the desolate and ever increasing picture of illegitimate birth. With each such birth comes responsibility, to the mother, to the father if he stands up to it, and, inevitably, to society at large.
The lack of self-discipline and of a sense of responsibility, in my judgment, is one of the fruits of the increasing secularization of our society. I was appalled to read the other day that in one community a proposal was made that young women be paid a dollar a day for not becoming pregnant. How stupid. Where is our sense of values?
I recently read that between 1972 and 1990 there were twenty-seven million abortion procedures performed. Think of it. What is happening to our concept of the sanctity of life? Can we doubt that there is a sickness in our society? We cannot build prisons, even here, fast enough to accommodate the need. We have in this nation more than a million people in prison. The number is constantly increasing. Why is this happening? I believe that a substantial factor in all of this is that we as a nation are forsaking the Almighty, and He is forsaking us. We are secularizing America. We are shutting the door against the God whose sons and daughters we are. We sing, "My country, 'tis of Thee, Sweet land of liberty." We need to sing again and again the fourth verse of that hymn-
Our fathers' God, to thee,
Author of liberty,
To thee we sing;
Long may our land be bright
With freedom's holy light.
Protect us by thy might,
Great God, our King!
(Hymns, #339).
A recent poll indicated that a majority of Americans believe that the private lives of public officials need not be considered as a factor in their eligibility for public office. How far we have come from the time of George Washington who stated in that first inaugural address the mandate "that the foundations of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality." He went on to say, " there is no truth more thoroughly established, than that there exists in the economy and course of nature an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness, between duty and advantage, between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy, and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity; since we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which heaven itself has ordained" (Op. cit., p. 243).
It was said of old, "Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (2 Cor. 3:17).
The Psalmist wrote, "The counsel of the Lord standeth forever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord" (Psalms 33:11-12).
There is a divine mandate which states, "Look to God and live" (Alma 37:47).
Is the situation hopeless? No. Is it too late to begin a turnaround? It is never to late to try to improve.
Lest you think that I am only a man of gloom and doom, let me assure you that there is still so much of strength in America. There is so much of goodness in so many of her people. We live under a Constitution that after more than two centuries stands as the greatest bulwark of human freedom to be found anywhere on earth. Of it, the great Gladstone said: "As the British Constitution is the most subtle organism which has proceeded from progressive history, so the American Constitution is the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man" (Gladstone, Kin Beyond the Sea; from the North American Review [September 1878]).
This Constitution is the keystone of our national life.
It is my faith and my conviction that it came not alone of the "brain and purpose of man," but of the inspiration of the Almighty. He Himself has declared, "I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose ... for the rights and protection of all flesh, according to just and holy principles" (D&C 10 1: 80, 77).
In this Constitution, with its Bill of Rights, are the great concepts which have made of this a mighty nation, the greatest the world has ever known.
As a nation, we have passed through terrible fires, the worst of which was the Civil War. As the tide of that terrible conflict turned in favor of the Union, President Lincoln said: "With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan-to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations" (Op. cit., pgs. 451-52).
That war was a great test for this nation. We survived without division. We have enjoyed the blessings of the Almighty in a world that since has been engrossed in much of conflict. We have reached out and paid a terrible price to help those of other nations. The world is so much the better, I firmly believe, for the presence of the United States of America.
The other day, I walked about the American Military Cemetery on the outskirts of Manila in the Philippines. Here, row upon row, in perfect symmetry, stand marble crosses and stars of David marking the graves of 17,000 American dead. Inscribed in the marble of beautiful colonnades surrounding that hallowed ground are 35,000 additional names, the names of those who were lost in the battles of the Pacific and whose remains were never found. Out of all of the terrible sacrifices of the First World War and the Second World War, and subsequent wars, this nation has not reached out for territory to hold, but has been magnanimous in assisting those who have been impoverished by the costs of conflict. What other nation on the face of the earth has done what the American people did under the Marshall plan for the rehabilitation of Europe?
Many years ago, we had an Arab guide when we visited Jerusalem before the 1967 war when the city was a divided city. During a moment of introspection this wise old man said, "You are part of the greatest nation on earth. You have given generously of your treasure and the lives of your people, and have never retained conquered territory as a prize of war." He went on to say, "There has never been anything else like it in human history."
These impulses still beat in the hearts of the American people.
While I speak of secularizing the nation, I am mindful of the fact that 45% of the people of America sometimes attend church. I know of nothing else quite like it. There is still much of faith and goodness in this wonderful land.
I think of our own inheritance in this State of Utah. These communities in which we live are singular in their origins. I stand in reverence before the sacrifices of our forebears who came to lay the foundations of these cities "which [you and 1] built not" but in which we enjoy so much of the good life (Joshua 24:13). I stand in awe at the boldness of Brigham Young and his associates in coming here, leading thousands and tens of thousands of people to these valleys where they had never before tested farming, where they had never planted a crop or harvested one, where they knew little, if anything, of the vagaries of the soil, of weather, of the seasons. They came to these valleys and were here isolated a thousand miles from the nearest settlement to the east and 700 or 800 miles to the west. I know it was not the "blind leading the blind." I know it was the inspiration of the Almighty leading a people to a place where they could worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience and where they could extend the same privilege to all others, "let them worship how, where, or what they may" (11th Article of Faith).
There followed those of other denominations-Catholics and Protestants of various persuasions, Jews and Greeks, and more recently, Muslims. I think that without exception those who came in early days were men and women who believed in and worshiped God, although their interpretation of Him may have varied.
They grew strong and have built for us a tremendous inheritance because they were men and women of faith, of conviction, They had no government largess to fall upon, but looked to God in every extremity and thanked Him for every blessing.
And so, my dear friends, I share with you a great love for this land, for this state, for these communities. I draw strength and inspiration from these magnificent mountains that are about us. I draw comfort from the integrity and goodness of so many wonderful people whom I know who with you, enjoy marvelous blessings as we walk across the stage of history in our time and season. I reverence and respect those of the past who have built so well for us.
My great concern, my great interest, is that we preserve for the generations to come those wondrous elements of our society and manner of living that will bequeath to them the strengths and the goodness of which we have been the beneficiaries. But I worry as I see some of the signs of sickness of which I have spoken. I believe that a significant factor in the decay we observe about us comes of a forsaking of the God whom our fathers knew, loved, worshiped, and looked to for strength. There is a plainly discernable secularization that is occurring. Its consequences are a deterioration of family life, a weakening of self-discipline, a scoffing at the thought of accountability unto the Almighty, and an unbecoming arrogance for any people who have been so richly blessed through the goodness of a generous Providence as we have been.
This evening as we celebrate the centennial of our statehood, in these most favorable precincts, on the campus of this great university, I would hope that there would come into the hearts of each of us a resolution to live nearer to God and the commandments He has given us as a guide in our lives; to walk with gratitude before Him for His generous mercies; to recognize that someday each of us must give an accounting of our lives to Him; and to seek His strength, His wisdom, His inspiration, and His love as we serve in the great society of which each of us is a part.
God bless America, and may America be worthy of His blessing.
God bless this state in which we live and the communities in which we dwell. May we walk in thankfulness before Him, putting our trust in Him, recognizing Him as the source of all true wisdom and every beneficent blessing.
Such is my prayer which I invoke in the sacred name of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.
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Important Quotes and Teachings from LDS Doctrine
David Kenison, dkenison@xmission.com
See archive at http://www.xmission.com/~dkenison/lds/lds_quo/