The blood of patriots

This post is in response to a post on http://puremormonism.blogspot.com/ titled: Should a Mormon Join the Military?  As a retired military officer and a 5th generation member of the LDS Church, I cannot let this blog post pass unchallenged.


Lexington, Bunker Hill, Old North Church, Oriskany, Stony Point, Fort Ticonderoga, Saratoga, Monmouth, Trenton, Yorktown, and many other Revolutionary War battlefields were consecrated with the life-blood of patriots and the tears of women and children. To quote Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address:

“…we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.”

The battlefields of the War of 1812, of the Civil War, of the Spanish American War, of the First and Second World Wars, of Korea, Vietnam, Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and others unnamed and yet to come, are made sacred by the sacrifices of those who struggled and will struggle for freedom throughout the world.

We have a different picture of these conflicts than does much of the world. We understand that the struggle for freedom must go on, and has always been and will only be won with the blood of patriots and the tears of women and children.

Satan recognizes the free exercise of agency as the greatest threat to his black and terrible kingdom. He seeks to thwart the efforts of the Living God and his Son, but he knows that his only victory lies in capturing the souls of individual spirits. He seeks to take away our eternal agency by encouraging its use for worldly and unrighteous pursuits. He knows that he cannot win the ultimate struggle. Of course, he can read scripture as well as anyone, so he knows that as Moses 4:6 tells us, “he knew not the mind of God” and even today, does not understand the “Great Plan of the Eternal God” (Alma 34:9). So he creates havoc and destruction in the Earth; it is his only pleasure. He seeks to bend the minds of men to his will. Even when he cannot prevail, he revels in the pain and sorrow he can cause individual spirits.

Throughout the history of the world, in the Old Testament, the New Testament, the Book of Mormon, and even in the history of the restored church, the battle has been waged against the forces of darkness that would destroy the world (Moses 4:6). Thus, the wars and rumors of wars that we who would help others to be free are fighting and continue to fight are for the purpose of providing the basis for freedom that is required for the gospel to be preached to “every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.” In fact, the restoration would grind to a halt if the adversary succeeded in eliminating the freedom to choose that was won and continues to be won by the blood and toil of patriots from all nations.

Temples cannot be built and the gospel cannot be preached “to all the world” until freedom is secured for peoples in the lands where we fight continuing battles today and in the future. In my mind, this is why prophets have told us that there will be no peace in the earth until the coming of the Savior. Satan is marshalling his forces for his last great attempt. In their book, Building Faith with the Book of Mormon, Glenn L. Pearson and Reid E. Bankhead, tell us:

The Book of Mormon shows that the price of liberty, if it has to be won, is blood--the blood of Christ to purchase our spiritual liberty and the blood of patriots to purchase our physical or political liberty. If so great a price must be paid for it, how we ought to cherish it and try to preserve it!

There is great danger, however, as the United States exercises its mighty, irresistible armies, navies, and air forces. The unrighteous pursuit of wealth, power, natural resources, or the spread of ideology for selfish purposes has motivated leaders in the past, present, and will probably do so in the future. Section 121 of the Doctrine and Covenants, verses 36, and 37 tell us:

That the rights of the priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven, and that the powers of heaven cannot be controlled nor handled only upon the principles of righteousness.That they may be conferred upon us, it is true; but when we undertake to cover our sins, or to gratify our pride, our vain ambition, or to exercise control or dominion or compulsion upon the souls of the children of men, in any degree of unrighteousness, behold, the heavens withdraw themselves; the Spirit of the Lord is grieved; and when it is withdrawn, Amen to the priesthood or the authority of that man.

What is true of the priesthood is no less true of the rights and powers of our inspired constitution, and the governing bodies it defines. We confer certain constitutionally mandated rights and powers upon our leaders, but when they undertake to use their powers and authorities in ways that are displeasing to the Lord, the Lord withdraws His support from us. Verse 39 makes this clear:

We (this is the Lord speaking in the plural – referring to himself and His Father) have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion.

So it is the exercise of unrighteous dominion, then, that should be of great concern to us. We must be ever watchful and concerned that our leaders have the proper motives. The blood of patriots is the dearest and most precious of sacrifices, and must not be spent for unrighteous purposes.

Nevertheless, these wars that we are currently fighting are bringing freedom to parts of the world that are in desperate need of the gospel. If we are successful there, eventually the gospel will spread to those areas. Even now, in other parts of the world, refugees from those countries are hearing the message of the missionaries and the Holy Ghost is testifying to them of the truthfulness of the gospel. 
They will perhaps be the cadre who will lead the presentation of the gospel to those peoples.
We mourn the loss of our husbands, children, and friends in these conflicts. And a hard and painful loss it is. We see their lives cut short and remember what could have been. But the righteous are not lost. Alma 60:13 tells us:

…the Lord suffereth the righteous to be slain that his justice and judgment may come upon the wicked; therefore ye need not suppose that the righteous are lost because they are slain; but behold, they do enter into the rest of the Lord their God.

So those who die in righteous conflicts “enter into the rest of their Lord.” They are in Paradise, with all the blessings that state implies. Those in the military need our support, not only because they represent our military might, but because they are engaged in an age-old conflict with the adversary for the souls of men, and to bring “justice and judgment upon wicked.” Elder Sterling W. Sill, in October 1970 General Conference, said this:

We should also keep in mind that the greatest of all military men was the Son of God himself. In the war in heaven, he led the forces of righteousness against the rebellion of Lucifer. We can also draw great significance from the fact that before the Savior of the world was the Prince of Peace, he was Jehovah the warrior.

The Lord leads these forces still- He is the Prince of Peace and the great warrior general who will ultimately vanquish Satan. He is aware of every valiant warrior that falls in His cause, in or out of the military. Someone once said: “If the Lord is aware of every sparrow that falls, He is certainly aware of the fall of a B-25.” Certainly He is aware too of the fall of a young missionary in His service. Nothing passes His notice. He is at the helm. The gospel will roll forth. The Great Plan of the Eternal God will be fulfilled. All the spirit children of our Father in Heaven will come to earth and be tried and tested. Each will receive a mortal body and be resurrected to eternal life. Satan will ultimately be defeated and banished. Those who fill the measure of their creation on the earth will be exalted. Those who die in the Lord’s service will be welcomed into his rest. John Stuart Mill said:

War is an ugly thing but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth a war is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

We have a deep understanding of the Plan that has guided all from the formation of the earth to the present day. We understand the depth and breadth of the struggle. We must remember the life-blood of patriots and the tears of women and children. To forget is to give up our freedom and our religion. Captain Moroni, in Alma 46:12-13:

…rent his coat; and he took a piece thereof, and wrote upon it—In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children—and he fastened it upon the end of a pole.
And he fastened on his head-plate, and his breastplate, and his shields, and girded on his armor about his loins; and he took the pole, which had on the end thereof his rent coat, (and he called it the title of liberty) and he bowed himself to the earth, and he prayed mightily unto his God for the blessings of liberty to rest upon his brethren, so long as there should a band of Christians remain to possess the land…

President Hinckley said:

“I have thought of a scene in Maxwell Anderson's play, Valley Forge. Soldiers of the American Revolution, cold and hungry and despairing, bury a dead comrade in the frozen earth and General Washington says: ‘This liberty will look easy by and by, when nobody dies to get it.’” ("Lest We Forget," BYU Speeches of the Year, November 10, 1970, pp. 3-4.)

There are many in our country today who have trouble remembering those who died. They treat lightly the hard-won freedoms we enjoy. Freedom does indeed “look easy” to them.

May we be the band of Christians who never forget the sacrifices of our forefathers, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, and friends who have died in the support of our liberty and freedom. May we ever pursue, even at the greatest cost, liberty and freedom for all peoples so that they may choose for themselves the gospel of Jesus Christ.