What Is the Difference Between Culture and Race?

The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday is the value of knowing the difference between race and culture. America and Americans have welcomed legal immigrants from the beginning of the nation. Most, if not all, immigrants in the early years came from the same nations from which early American Colonists emigrated. Their cultures were similar. Their religions were similar.

Immigrants today come from every nation in the world, and many of them come with cultures that are far different from those that Americans value. Example: most Americans today believe that it is wrong for an adult to marry a child, yet there are immigrants who believe that it is okay. They come from a different culture. Rebecca Downs discussed culture and race in her article published at The Daily Signal. 

Although major sports wins bring celebration, the festivities are often marred in big cities by unruly behavior. That was particularly the case in New York, following the Knicks’ June 13 clinching of the NBA championship. The parade that followed brought more chaos.

Following the victory over the San Antonio Spurs – the Knicks’ first title in 53 years – hooligans took to the streets, vandalizing as they went, including targeting and torching a school bus. Those in the crowd cheered. Police, meanwhile, could not visibly be seen.

As he showed footage of the chaos during Friday’s episode of “The Tony Kinnett Cast” on the Daily Signal, host Tony Kinnett noted how those burning the school bus were both white and black. And the bus driver begging the crowd to stop was black. “The point of the story is that it is not about the race, it is all about the culture,” Kinnett observed.

The revelry of the parade was marred by random gunshots fired into the air to “just cause chaos and panic because that is the celebratory nature that has come out of some of these events,” as Kinnett mentioned.

Meanwhile, New York isn’t doing much to stop lawlessness. “There’s no condemnation of this from the city level. There’s nothing. [Mayor Zohran] Mamdani is busy running around patting himself on the back and p raising Islamic migrant stuff,” Kinnett said, also addressing how liberals excuse such behavior as how “it just happens.”

The New York Department of Sanitation unveiled commemorative garbage cans to celebrate the Knicks’ win. (They’re also available online for purchase.) Fans reacted by stealing them, dumping out trash onto the city sidewalk to do so. People could be heard cheering in the background.

During the parade, an individual appeared to be passed out from a drug overdose on the roof of a platform, as individuals sought to help. Kinnett observed that it took place with a “cop standing there, doing very little, ‘cause this is just normal behavior in New York.”

The passed-out man was revived using Narcan. He then proceeded to try to kiss the woman who gave him that Narcan.

This is a stunning juxtaposition with the amount of support the United States is getting from visitors from around the world who are here for the FIFA World Cup. These visitors, Kinnett said, “realize that everything they’ve been told by people like Keir Starmer about the United States, things that they’ve been told about by, for example, Zohran Mamdani, is a lie and that the United States is freaking incredible.”

Japanese guests receive particular attention for how respectful they’ve been, as they come to games ready with garbage bags to clean up trash afterward. For Kinnett, culture plays a significant role. “There are cultures that are objectively better than others because of how they carry themselves.”

A young Japanese woman picking up trash shared that it is part of their “culture,” but also a matter of respect, “respect for everything, respect for the players, supporters, and also for the stadium.” The young woman shared, “We are honored to be here, so we don’t want to make a mess and then leave it.”

What cultures do we want in America? Do we want more of the type of person who trashed a school bus in New York, or the Japanese who picked up their own mess? Americans must decide what type of cultures they want in America and then act to build those types of cultures. Whether they are imported, or whether they are born and reared in America, we are responsible for building the cultures that we desire. Races can live together if Americans develop the proper cultures in our nation.

Articles of Faith: What Do Latter-day Saints Believe About the Godhead 2?

Article of Faith 1

We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ,

                                and in the Holy Ghost.

This will be the second article on the Godhead in my series on the Articles of Faith of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Last week, I discussed a statement by the Prophet Joseph Smith in a lecture on faith titled “The Character of God.” Early in the lecture, he shared three things that are necessary to have faith in God strong enough to lead to salvation. The statement is important enough to repeat in this discussion. 

Let us here observe, that three things are necessary, in order that any rational and intelligent being may exercise faith in God unto life and salvation.

First, The idea that he actually exists.

Secondly, A correct idea of his character, perfections and attributes.

Thirdly, An actual knowledge that the course of life which he is pursuing, is according to his will.—For without an acquaintance with these three important facts, the faith of every rational being must be imperfect and unproductive; but with this understanding, it can become perfect and fruitful, abounding in righteousness unto the praise and glory of God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Last week I discussed how the Godhead, or Trinity, consists of three separate Beings with the same purpose. They have such powerful unity that they would, “Under any given conditions each would act in the same way, guided by the same principles of unerring justice and equity.” (Elder James E. Talmage, The Articles of Faith [1890], p. 41).

This week, I choose to use the words of Elder Talmage to discuss the “personality of each member of the Godhead.”

From the evidence already presented, it is clear that the Father is a personal being, possessing a definite form, with bodily parts and spiritual passions. Jesus Christ, who was with the Father in spirit before coming to dwell in the flesh, and through whom the worlds were made, lived among men as a man, with all the physical characteristics of a human being; after His resurrection He appeared in the same form; in that form He ascended into heaven; and in that form He has manifested Himself to the Nephites, and to modern prophets. We are assured that Christ was in the express image of His Father, after which image man also has been created. Therefore we know that both the Father and the Son are in form and stature perfect men; each of them possesses a tangible body, infinitely pure and perfect and attended by transcendent glory, nevertheless a body of flesh and bones.

The Holy Ghost, called also Spirit, and Spirit of the Lord, Spirit of God, Comforter, and Spirit of Truth, is not tabernacled in a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of spirit; yet we know that the Spirit has manifested Himself in the form of a man. Through the ministrations of the Spirit the Father and the Son may operate in their dealings with mankind; through Him knowledge is communicated, and by Him the purposes of the Godhead are achieved. The Holy Ghost is the witness of the Father and the Son, declaring to man their attributes, bearing record of the other personages of the Godhead (The Articles of Faith [1890], pp. 41-42).

How Many Dan Sullivans Live in Alaska and Are Politicians?

 Daniel Albert Sullivan (born June 16, 1951), American businessman and politician, served on the Anchorage Assembly (1999-2008), as mayor of Anchorage (2009-2015), and was the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor of Alaska (2014). He is the son of George M. Sullivan, the longest-serving Anchorage mayor. 

Sullivan announced his candidacy for the Senate on June 1, 2016, to run for the seat currently held by Lisa Murkowski, but he dropped out of the race two weeks later on June 16, 2016. If he had been elected, Alaska would have been represented in the U.S. Senate by two different men named Dan Sullivan.

Senator Daniel Scott Sullivan (born November 13, 1964) is an American politician, attorney, and Marine Corps veteran. He has been the junior United States senator from Alaska since 2015. He is a Republican who served as Alaska attorney general (2009 to 2010) and commissioner of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources (2009-2010). 

Alaskans may be surprised to learn that a third man named Dan Sullivan lives in the state. Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. registered to run for the seat currently held by Senator Dan S. Sullivan and has been referred to as Dan “Sham” Sullivan. Francesca Cella covered the senator and the would-be senatorial candidate for The Daily Signal. 

An Alaskan candidate for U.S. Senate who ran under the same name and party affiliation as incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan has been declared ineligible to appear on the primary ballot by the state’s elections director.

On Monday, Alaska Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher stated in a letter to candidate Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. that his election filing was not to “declare an actual good-faith candidacy for the office of United States Senator, but was instead filed with a purpose to confuse or mislead and to thereby compromise the ballot’s fairness or neutrality.”

Sullivan filed for candidacy only two days before the June 1 deadline – and as Beecher pointed out, he filed as “Dan Sullivan” and did not include his middle initial or suffix to differentiate himself from the incumbent senator.

Sharing the name with the senator is merely a “matter of fate,” this Sullivan claims. “I am a qualified candidate who followed the rules and filed to run for office under my legal name,” he said last week.

At one point, Sullivan listed “S,” rather than “J,” as his middle initial, exactly mimicking the senator’s name.

Even the two candidates’ logos are hard to distinguish. Both include the last name “Sullivan” and the Alaska north star in white and yellow lettering on a blue background, with slightly different fonts.

Beecher further cited that Sullivan did not usually go by “Dan,” and observed he had only recently registered as a Republican.

Beecher’s statement came in response to a letter from the National Republican Senate Committee noting that Sullivan’s campaign manager is a consultant and longtime supporter of the opposing Democrat candidate, Mary Peltola, and that Sullivan himself has donated several hundred dollars to Democrat candidates nationwide.

“The only plausible explanation for someone with this record running for office as a ‘registered Republican’ is to mislead unwitting Alaska voters who intend to cast a ballot for incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan,” the NRSC stated.

“Sham Candidate Sullivan” is merely a Democrat ploy to confuse Republicans and split their votes between two candidates in order to bolster Peltola’s chances of victory, according to the NRSC.

It’s no secret that Alaska is a crucial state for Democrats. The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee has listed Alaska as one of its top five target states this cycle since February 2025, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer listed Alaska as one of “the four states we have to pick up to win back the Senate.”

Sullivan has 30 days to appeal the decision before his candidacy is officially terminated. Alaska’s primary elections are set for Aug. 18, and the top four candidates will advance to the general election.

Alaska does not need more confusion in its elections because there is already plenty with the ranked-choice voting system. RINO Lisa Murkowski was instrumental in driving through the change in voting. Alaskans are trying again to get rid of it, while also attempting to get Murkowski out of office.

Someone suggested that Senator Dan Sullivan add to his campaign the notation that he is Dan S. (Senator) Sullivan while the sham candidate is Dan J. (Joker) Sullivan. Alaskans would have understood the notation.

Who Is Donald Trump?

My VIP for this week is President Donald Trump. It is good for us to ask, who is this man who leads the United States? He has survived three assassination attempts with one of the shots coming within one-quarter of an inch of killing him. In addition, he has the Midas touch in that he has so many successes – so much winning. His latest “win” is his announcement of a peace deal with Iran to end a conflict in the Middle East. Victor Davis Hanson shared his thoughts about the agreement in a video at the Daily Signal. 

There’s a lot of confusion, controversy, and disagreement about the latest phase of the Iran war. Remember, we bombed kinetically 38 to 40 days, then we had 60 days of negotiation, then here we are in mid-June, in which [President] Donald Trump has announced yet another time there is going to be a peace deal coming with a 60-day period for all the elements of the deal to be enacted.

A lot of people are upset. They feel that Iran was on the ropes, they’re going broke, and that had we continued, or if we were to continue now, we could put them out of commission and then dictate a non-conditional surrender to them.

That’s absolutely true, but what this deal then hinges on – because there’s no history of Iran ever keeping their word or following any agreement, explicit or implicit – is the willingness to keep maybe one carrier group in the region to ensure that the strait stays open, that the missiles are not launched against our allies, and of course, the enriched uranium is turned over.

And if we’re willing to do that and hit them hard every time they break it, then it might eventually work.

There’s a lot of misconceptions, though, about the deal and the war in general. I’d like to address just a few of them. A lot of critics of this administration are saying, I think [House Minority Leader] Hakeem Jeffries said that not long ago, “Well, the strait was open and now it’s closed, so the deal didn’t accomplish anything. In fact, it made it worse.”

Well, the strait was open because Iran had no reason, as it did now, to close it. And the reason they didn’t have any reason to close it was the seven prior presidents, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden didn’t want to disarm Iran. They didn’t want to go in there and try to stop their proliferation agenda. Donald Trump did. Anybody who did was going to be confronted with a desperate effort of Iran to close the strait. Now we’ll open the strait. But the idea that we made things worse is ridiculous.

And then second, people are saying, “Well, it’s just like the Obama deal. Why did Trump get out of the Obama deal?” Well, they enriched uranium all through the Obama deal. We know that. They wouldn’t let inspectors in. During Joe Biden’s presidency, he begged them to go back into the Iran deal. They didn’t wanna do it.

Why? Because we now know they had pretty much already enriched to the point, 60 or more percent, that they could make a bomb in a month should they want to.

But here’s the big difference. In the Obama, atmosphere of that deal of 2015-16, Iran was ascendant. Everybody was scared of it. Its military was heavily equipped with Chinese and Russian weaponry. People were afraid of it. Israel didn’t want to attack it. The Gulf States didn’t want to attack it.

Europe was advising caution. It was an appeasing deal because nobody wants to use force. Now, whatever your disagreement is with the current war, most people, and we don’t have boots on the ground, we don’t have journalists on the ground, but they agree that the Iranian military and its economy are devastated through forty days of intense bombing with probably a thousand planes in the air at any one time.

So we’re dealing with a much-diminished Iran that we can hit again and again because they have no air defenses. Obama was dealing with an ascendant Iran that he was scared to even mention the use of force to make them comply.

There’s a third misconception. People say, “Well, now we’re isolated. We’re all isolated. We have no allies. China and Russia are ascendant.” Nothing could be further from the truth. This is the first time in all of our lifetimes that the Gulf Council, for all their double-dealing over the years, basically are more attuned to an alliance, maybe unspoken, with Israel than they are with Iran.

We know now that some of the 600 combat aircraft based in the Gulf were stealthily flying missions, and that meant alongside the Israelis.

We know that there are Israeli technicians in the Gulf helping them with missile defense. We know the Gulf states and most of the moderate Arab countries believe that Iran, not Israel, is the existential threat.

In other words, we’ve never had a closer relationship with the Gulf states vis-à-vis America, nor has Israel.

As far as Russia and China, they’re both shut out of the Middle East. They have lost their client in Syria. They have lost, and they’re going to lose their client in Iran. They have lost their client in Venezuela. They have an enormous problem. Russia cannot sell weapons to Iran anymore. They may smuggle some in, and China can’t get discounted oil anymore.

There’s another misconception, that is the apostate right, that is the Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens right, has said that they were going to fracture the party, and maybe their influence will turn the MAGA movement against Donald Trump.

Well, first of all, on all the other issues, maybe except the Iran war, most of the conservative[s], if not all, agree with Donald Trump….

But on this question of the war, the MAGA and Republican parties still overwhelmingly, 75%, support Donald Trump.

And the reason they do is they don’t feel this is a forever endless war, as the apostate right do. They believe that we have not used ground troops, and we have lost fewer soldiers than the accident rate that the military suffers daily over that period of 38 to 40 days of kinetic operations.

Finally, everybody says we’ve lost the midterms.

The midterms are four and a half months away. If the strait is open, suddenly you’re going to have a traffic jam of two things. One, tankers leaving, trying to get out full of oil, and tankers waiting to get in.

But there may be 200 or 250 tankers full of a million to 2 million barrels at a time when the United States and Russia and the Middle East and Venezuela are upping production.

So, there could be a substantial drop in prices.

And if you do get a deal the Left is going to be sort of flummoxed because they said that we had lost the war and we didn’t achieve our objectives. But if you do get a deal and the deal is enforced by military action on the part of the United States, it wouldn’t hurt Trump, it could help him.

And then there’s a larger context of redistricting. In this redistricting war, it turns out that so far the Republican legislatures will outdo the Democratic legislatures, and the Republicans may pick up anywhere from three to four to five seats.

And the Supreme Court that said it is a racial obsession, a fixation to create congressional districts on the basis of race, and you can’t do it, may lend the Republicans anther four to five.

I’m not suggesting that Donald Trump can overturn historical precedent. Remember that of the last 40 presidents, 95% lost their first midterm election. So, his history is on the wrong side, but he will not lose the Senate. And it doesn’t really matter, to tell you the truth, if they lose the House.

It would be nice to get legislation through, but most of his legislation has already been through. He can still use executive orders, but most importantly, they can’t… They may impeach him as a performance art act, but the Senate will never convict him.

How Do Americans Defend and Protect the US Constitution?

The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday concerns how to defend and protect the US Constitution. Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe that God was the inspiration behind the writing of the US Constitution. Therefore, we believe that we have a responsibility to uphold and defend it. 

In the April 2021 General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, President Dallin H. Oaks, then-First Counselor in the First Presidency, spoke on the topic “Defending Our Divinely Inspired Constitution.” President Oaks is professionally qualified to speak on this topic because he studied the Constitution for 60 years. He was a law clerk to the chief justice of the US Supreme Court, he was a professor of law for 15 years, and he served as a justice on the Utah Supreme Court for 3.5 years. Most important, he had served at that time as an apostle of Jesus Christ for 37 years, charged with determining the meaning of the divinely inspired Constitution to the work of the God’s restored Church.

Our belief in divine inspiration gives Latter-day Saints a unique responsibility to uphold and defend the United States Constitution and principles of constitutionalism.

In this troubled time, I have felt to speak about the inspired Constitution of the United States. This Constitution is of special importance to our members in the United States, but it is also a common heritage of constitutions around the world.

I. A constitution is the foundation of government. It provides structure and limits for the exercise of government powers. The United States Constitution is the oldest written constitution still in force today. Though originally adopted by only a small number of colonies, it soon became a model worldwide. Today, every nation except three have adopted written constitutions….

What was God’s purpose in establishing the United States Constitution? We see it in the doctrine of moral agency….

God had given His children moral agency—the power to decide and to act. The most desirable condition for the exercise of that agency is maximum freedom for men and women to act according to their individual choices…it is wrong for citizens to have no voice in the selection of their rulers or the making of their laws.

II. Our belief that the United States Constitution was divinely inspired does not mean that divine revelation dictated every word and phrase, such as the provisions allocating the number of representatives from each state or the minimum age of each. The Constitution was not “a fully grown document,” said President J. Reuben Clark. “On the contrary,” he explained, “we believe it must grow and develop to meet the changing needs of an advancing world.” For example, inspired amendments abolished slavery and gave women the right to vote. However, we do not see inspiration in every Supreme Court decision interpreting the Constitution.

I believe the United States Constitution contains at least five divinely inspired principles.

First is the principle that the source of government power is the people. In a time when sovereign power was universally assumed to come from the divine right of kings or from military power, attributing sovereign power to the people was revolutionary. Philosophers had advocated this, but the United States Constitution was the first to apply it…. The Constitution established a constitutional democratic republic, where the people exercise their power through their elected representatives.

A second inspired principle is the division of delegated power between the nation and its subsidiary states. In our federal system, this unprecedented principle has sometimes been altered by inspired amendments, such as those abolishing slavery and extending voting rights to women, mentioned earlier. Significantly, the United States Constitution limits the national government to the exercise of powers granted expressly or by implication, and it reserves all other government powers “to the States respectively, or to the people.”

Another inspired principle is the separation of powers. Well over a century before our 1787 Constitutional Convention, the English Parliament pioneered the separation of legislative and executive authority when they wrested certain powers from the king. The inspiration in the American convention was to delegate independent executive, legislative, and judicial powers so these three branches could exercise checks upon one another.

A fourth inspired principle is in the cluster of vital guarantees of individual rights and specific limits on government authority in the Bill of Rights, adopted by amendment just three years after the Constitution went into force. A Bill of Rights was not new. Here the inspiration was in the practical implementation of principles pioneered in England, beginning with the Magna Carta….

Without a Bill of Rights, America could not have served as the host nation for the Restoration of the gospel, which began just three decades later. There was divine inspiration in the original provision that there should be no religious test for public office, but the addition of the religious freedom and antiestablishment guarantees in the First Amendment was vital. We also see divine inspiration in the First Amendment’s freedoms of speech and press and in the personal protections in other amendments, such as for criminal prosecutions.

Fifth and finally, I see divine inspiration in the vital purpose of the entire Constitution. We are to be governed by law and not by individuals, and our loyalty is to the Constitution and its principles and processes, not to any office holder. In this way, all persons are to be equal before the law….

III. Despite the divinely inspired principles of the United States Constitution, when exercised by imperfect mortals their intended effects have not always been achieved.

Important subjects of lawmaking, such as some laws governing family relationships, have been taken from the states by the federal government. The First Amendment guarantee of free speech has sometimes been diluted by suppression of unpopular speech. The principle of separation of powers has always been under pressure with the ebb and flow of one branch of government exercising or inhibiting the powers delegated to another.

There are other threats that undermine the inspired principles of the United States Constitution. The stature of the Constitution is diminished by efforts to substitute current societal trends as the reason for its founding, instead of liberty and self-government. The authority of the Constitution is trivialized when Candidates or officials ignore its principles. The dignity and force of the Constitution is reduced by those who refer to it like a loyalty test or a political slogan, instead of its lofty status as a source of authorization for and limits on government authority.

IV. Our belief in divine inspiration gives Latter-day Saints a unique responsibility to uphold and defend the United States Constitution and principles of constitutionalism wherever we live. We should trust the Lord and be positive about this nation’s future.

What else are faithful Latter-day Saints to do? We must pray for the Lord to guide and bless all nations and their leaders. This is part of our article of faith. Being subject to presidents or rulers of course poses no obstacle to our opposing individual laws or policies. It does require that we exercise our influence civilly and peacefully within the framework of our constitutions and applicable laws. On contested issues, we should seek to moderate and unify.

There are other duties that are part of upholding the inspired Constitution. We should learn and advocate the inspired principles of the Constitution. We should seek out and support wise and good persons who will support those principles in their public actions. We should be knowledgeable citizens who are active in making our influence felt in civic affairs…. [Emphasis added in most paragraphs.]

How Will Faith in Christ Make a Difference in My Life?

My Come Follow Me studies for this week took me to 1 Samuel 17-18; 24-26; 2 Samuel 5-7 in a lesson titled “The Battle Is the Lord’s.” The lesson following information introduced the lesson. 

Ever since the tribes of Israel had settled in the promised land, the Philistines had been an ongoing threat to their safety. The Lord had delivered them many times in the past, but now the elders of Israel demanded, “We will have a king … [to] go out before us, and fight our battles” (1 Samuel 8:19-20)). So, Saul was anointed king. And yet when the menacing giant Goliath hurled his challenge to the armies of Israel, Saul—like the rest of his army—was “greatly afraid” (1 Samuel 17:11). On that day, it wasn’t King Saul who saved Israel, but a humble shepherd boy named David, who was wearing no armor but was clothed with impenetrable faith in the Lord. This battle proved to Israel, and to anyone who has spiritual battles to fight, that “the Lord saveth not with sword and spear” and that “the battle is the Lord’s” (1 Samuel 17:47).

The scripture block contains numerous principles, including (1) With the help of the Lord, I can overcome any challenge (1 Samuel 17); (2) One person with faith in Christ can make a difference (1 Samuel 17:26-50); (3) “Jonathan loved [David] as his own soul” (1 Samuel 18);

(4) Forgiveness is the sure path to peace and healing (1 Samuel 24-26); (5) The Lord can give me direction (2 Samuel 5:17-25), and (6) What is the “house” the Lord promised to David?

(2 Samuel 7.

This post will discuss principle # 2 about one person with faith in Christ can make a difference. In addition to personal challenges, we also face large, complex problems that affect the whole world. When forces of evil are “gathered together … to battle” against the forces of good

(1 Samuel 17:1), we might wonder how our individual efforts could possibly make a difference.

This scripture reference (1 Samuel 17:26-50) tells the story of David and Goliath. David’s father sent him to take food for his brothers who were serving in the army. When he arrived, there was a giant named Goliath threatening the Israelites, and no man in the Israelite army wanted to fight the giant. David volunteered to fight him, and King Saul offered to loan him his personal armor. David declined and went to fight Goliath with a sling shot and five stones. The applicable verses are as follows:

45 Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.

46 This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcasses of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.

47 And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give you into our hands.

48 And it came to pass, when the Philistine arose, and came and drew nigh to meet David, that David hasted, and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine.

49 And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth.

David took five smooth stones in his pouch to fight Goliath. What do we carry with us to fight the giants in our lives? Sister Andrea Muñoz Spannaus, Second Counselor in the Young Women General Presidency, referred to the story of David and Goliath in her talk in the April 2024 General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

While David used only one stone to kill Goliath, he was prepared with five. With five! This makes me think about how I can prepare myself to face the world.

What if each of David’s stones represented a strength we need to be triumphant in our lives? What could those five stones be? I thought of these possibilities: …

First, the stone of my love for God. Loving God is the first great commandment. The For the Strength of Youth guide teaches us: “God loves you. He is your Father. His perfect love can inspire you to love Him. When your love for Heavenly Father is the most important influence in your life, many decisions become easier.”

Our love for God and our close relationship with Him give us the strength we need to transform our hearts and more easily overcome our challenges.

Second, the stone of my faith in our Savior, Jesus Christ. When Jesus Christ came to earth, He suffered for our sins, and He took upon Himself our sorrows, our pains, our weaknesses, and our physical and mental illnesses. That’s why He knows how to help us. Having faith in Jesus Christ means to fully trust His wisdom, His timing, His love, and His power to atone for our sins. The stone of faith in Jesus Christ will defeat any “giant” in our lives. We can overcome this fallen world because He overcame it first.

Number three, the stone of the knowledge of my true identity. Our beloved prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, taught us that our most important identities are as children of God, children of the covenant, and disciples of Jesus Christ.

Everything changes when I know who I really am. When I doubt my abilities, I often repeat to myself in my mind or out loud, “I am a daughter of God, I am a daughter of God,” as many times as I need until I again feel confident to keep going.

Fourth, the stone of my daily repentance. In the For the Strength of Youth guide, we read: “Repentance isn’t punishment for sin; it is the way the Savior frees us from sin. To repent means to change―to turn away from sin and toward God. It means to improve and receive forgiveness. This kind of change is not a one-time event; it’s an ongoing process.”

Nothing is more liberating than feeling God’s forgiveness and knowing that we are clean and reconciled with Him. Forgiveness is possible for everyone.

The fifth stone is the stone of my access to God’s power. The covenants we make with God, such as those we make in the ordinance of baptism, give us access to the power of godliness. God’s power is a real power that helps us face challenges, make good decisions, and increase our capacity to endure difficult situations. It is a power with which we can grow in the specific abilities that we need.

The For the Strength of Youth guide explains: “Covenants connect you to Heavenly Father and the Savior. They increase God’s power in your life” (“Faithful to the End,” emphasis added.). 

How Can We Teach Patriotism to the Rising Generation?

Families, communities, states, and nations are stronger when individuals know the value of historical documents and events. Jordin Bradshaw is a lifelong resident of Utah, a social studies teacher for twelve years, and currently a graduate student at UVU working toward a master’s degree in Constitutional Government, Civics, and Law. In his studies, he has gained greater knowledge and respect for the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. He shares his thoughts in an article published in the Deseret News. 

With the upcoming celebrations for 250 years since the publication of the Declaration of Independence I find myself contemplating what and how I should treat this occasion with my students.

For years, I had stood in front of my students and leaned into a common teaching strategy: comparing the Declaration of Independence to a breakup letter. I’d use the familiar slang of my students with words like “ghosting” and “toxic relationships” to explain why the colonies were moving on from King George III. The students laughed and told me I was cringe, but they engaged, and they got the idea of why the declaration was written.

However, as I’ve progressed through my graduate studies in constitutional government, I’ve come to realize that by oversimplifying the declaration to fit a trendy analogy of a breakup, I was actually not getting into the soul of the declaration at all. The Declaration of Independence is not just a notice of separation; it is a document that demands more from us than a clever and memorable metaphor. To treat it as an ending misses the important fact that it was actually a wonderful new beginning.

Teaching the declaration is much more than memorizing 1776; it is about providing the next generation with the tools to maintain our self-governing republic. Students should be taught that the declaration is a document about rights, specifically that rights existed before governments and continue to exist regardless of any governments.

They should be digging deep into the sources and philosophies related to rights and building connections that when rights become just a list of suggestions from a government it is time for those ruled to withdraw their consent and that government to be changed. By connecting the specific grievances of that breakup letter of 1776 to the broader arguments of rights and limited government they see that authority is earned through trust, not granted as a birthright nor through physical power.

Yet, these written liberties cannot survive on parchment alone. As the document’s closing paragraph reminds us, the founders did not just demand rights; they made a pledge of their lives, fortunes and honor to its defense and continuation. We likewise need to instill this same level of civic virtue among our youth today. We all – adults and children – must understand that a free society is only sustainable when its members are willing to sacrifice, compromise and work together to ensure the common good for all of the citizenry.

To truly understand the greatness of the rights contained in the Declaration of Independence, sometimes we must grapple with the times that are not shiny nor exemplary in our own political history. We must trace the events and how those declaration-based rights were later extended, often through hard work and civil disobedience – may even a terrible war. Students need to continue to recognize the hard processes that led to what we enjoy today.

When students understand that their rights are inherent and that their government exists only by their consent, they cease to be passive observers of history and become active participants in our self-governing republic.

In this modern era we can no longer afford to treat our founding documents as clever metaphors. My journey from teaching the “breakup letter” to exploring the profound depths of our “mutual pledge” has shown me that civic literacy is the only true safeguard of our liberty. When students understand that their rights are inherent and that their government exists only by their consent, they cease to be passive observers of history and become active participants in our self-governing republic.

The Declaration of Independence was never intended to be a final word, but instead a North Star to steer by as we navigate the complexities of a rapidly changing and modern world. By restoring the declaration to its rightful place as a focal point in our curriculum, we do more than teach history; we honor those who came before us and fought for – sometimes with their own lives – the divine rights enjoyed by this generation. When they understand the civic virtues of sacrifice and compromise they are also equipped to lead the next generation in fulfilling the promise of a more perfect union in perpetuity.

Bradshaw wrote from the position of a schoolteacher. However, his words can be applied to parents because parents are the ultimate teachers in the lives of their children. Parents cannot leave the teaching of honor and respect for our founding documents to schoolteachers. We should be teaching them also.

One of the best ways is to take your children to historical sites. Travel to Philadelphia so they can see for themselves the liberty bell and building where the Constitution was written. Take them to Washington, D.C., to see the buildings and monuments there. Use a family home evening to study the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.

Another way to teach them that is equally or more important than personal experience is to give them an example. Purchase a U.S. flag and fly it daily or at least on important days, such as Flag Day or Independence Day. Make sure that you participate in local, state, and federal elections because this is the way that we give our consent to the government. Become a true patriot and love your nation.