LDS Church reasserts it's Political Neutrality while incuraging activism.

The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recently issued a letter . . . encouraged Latter-day Saints to attend their local precinct caucus meetings.

In doing so the Church has also reasserted it's stance on being politically neutral:

"The Church does not:

• Endorse, promote or oppose political parties, candidates or platforms.
• Allow its church buildings, membership lists or other resources to be used for partisan political purposes.
• Attempt to direct its members as to which candidate or party they should give their votes to. This policy applies whether or not a candidate for office is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
• Attempt to direct or dictate to a government leader.

The Church does:

• Encourage its members to play a role as responsible citizens in their communities, including becoming informed about issues and voting in elections.
• Expect its members to engage in the political process in an informed and civil manner, respecting the fact that members of the Church come from a variety of backgrounds and experiences and may have differences of opinion in partisan political matters.
• Request candidates for office not to imply that their candidacy or platforms are endorsed by the Church.
• Reserve the right as an institution to address, in a nonpartisan way, issues that it believes have significant community or moral consequences or that directly affect the interests of the Church."

On a somewhat related topic the LDS Church is also encouraging it's U.S. Members to "participate in the 2010 United States Census", sighting that "The Church also uses census data for planning purposes."

BSA celebrates 100 years of Scouting

The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) is celebrate 100 years of Scouting. They have vowed to "continue [their] journey into the next century!" Check out the energy and excitement of their 100th Anniversary Audiocast Kick-Off Rally!

As the FRC put it, ". . . 100 years of molding boys into men worthy of respect. Despite being under relentless pressure to make their message more politically correct, the Boy Scouts have never wavered from instilling traditional values into generations of young leaders. Although the Scouts have been under fire from the Left, they continue to show the same character that the organization has developed in millions of American boys. We applaud the Boy Scouts for its commitment to faith and for serving as an example to other groups of what it means to continue stand up for the truth after years of dedicated service."

In 2001 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was the largest single sponsor of Scouting units with over 30,000 units nationwide, "more than 400,000 Mormon boys participate in church-sponsored troops, 13 percent of scouting's total". This is due to it being the Church's main program "for boys and young men ages 8-18". The church also has strong affiliations with Scouts Canada, the Scouting Associations of Australia, New Zealand, and Great Britain, and other associations in Europe, Asia, South America, and Africa. The vast majority of Latter-day Saint Scouting affiliations, however, are in the western and central United States and Canada.

Freedom Wins in case over Campaigning - Citizens United v. FEC

Thanks to the McCain–Feingold Act (Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002), the established corporate news media can do something you cannot. They can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money to communicate about politicians, campaigns, and issues. This gives the media an advantage when it comes to informing the public as to what your choices are when it comes to Public elections. They rarely include real people who are considered underdogs, in favor of the very career politicians that create these kinds of freedom limiting laws.

To gain an even better understanding of these kinds of campaign finance laws please watch the following 4-minute video:

Most cases against the campaign finance laws have focused on the freedom of speech, but these challenges have always been denied by the courts, under the perverse reasoning that "money isn't speech." However, a 2003 case, Ron Paul v. FEC, argued that the freedom of the press is a right that must be protected for all Americans, not only for those who run media businesses. The claim was denied, but that was only the beginning . . .

A co-plaintiff in the 2003 case, Citizens United, renewed the fight last year. They challenged campaign finance provisions that prohibited them from broadcasting a movie they had made about Hillary Clinton, who was then running for President.

On January 21, 2010, the Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment freedom of speech guarantee prohibits the Government from enforcing any financial restrictions limiting core political speech involving elections based on a speaker’s corporate identity. The Supreme Court restored some of your ability to join with others in order to better exercise your freedoms of association, of speech, and of the press.

However, there are still many more media lies that need to be corrected, more taxpayers need to be educated about the true causes of government corruption, and why campaign finance laws like McCain-Feingold are not a cure, but a cause. There are still many other incumbent protection laws that make it difficult to fire members of Congress, and limit your rights of association, of speech, and of the press.

Benafiting from Hard Work...

Who wants to work hard to earn a living and build up wealth in today's work of government taxing the rich more heavily, and giving bailouts to anyone who fails or can't make it on their own?

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Maybe instead we should force people into our way of thinking with ideas of extremists:



Or just rush head on into socialism and let the government do everything for us and to us:

LDS Chruch Sends Food and Medical Supplies to Haiti

On 13 January 2010 The LDS Church released the following statement regarding the earthquake in Haiti:

We express our sympathy and prayers on behalf of the citizens of Haiti following the recent devastating earthquake. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is immediately shipping humanitarian relief, including personal hygiene kits and supplies for newborns. Efforts are underway to determine further humanitarian response in coordination with government and disaster relief organizations. Donations for relief efforts can be made at http://give.lds.org/emergencyresponse.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been working diligently since the disaster to provide aid to the people of Haiti through its humanitarian aid program. Hundreds of thousands of pounds of relief supplies have arrived already, and more are being shipped.

In a statement published on the Church’s official Web site, Church President Thomas S. Monson and counselors Henry B. Eyring and Dieter F. Uchtdorf appealed to church members to help the people in Haiti, noting that more aid is needed. Thanks to those donations and the efforts of the Church, three air shipments of aid provided by the Church have arrived and are being used in Haiti included a total of nearly 225,000 pounds of relief supplies. The Church provided the transportation for one of those flights, and CARE and United Airlines provided transport for the other two.

Islamic Relief USA, has donated the cost of transporting additional supplies via the Dominican Republic to Haiti, and has also been distributing clean drinking water to Haitians in Port-au-Prince. These shipments will include another 160,000 pounds of supplies donated by the Church, including medical equipment, blankets, quilts, first aid kits, water filtration bottles, wheelchairs, and special kits designed to help with newborn and hygiene needs. Pallets of supplies specially designed for orphanages will also be in the shipment.

In addtion to the supplies, a team of Latter-day Saint doctors are already on the ground in Haiti assisting in the recovery effort, and 5,000 Haitians are being sheltered at Church buildings throughout Port-au-Prince.

It reminds me of Luke 21:11 were it says "great earthquakes shall be in divers places", as being one of the signs of the Latter Days.