Are Caravans in Mexico Threatening to U.S. Sovereignty?

The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday concerns national sovereignty – the ability of a state to govern itself. This ability includes the authority to decide who enters the nation. This topic is back in the news because a migrant caravan left Honduras with plans to travel to the southern border of the United States.

In his article, Todd Bensman explained that the aspirations of the caravan ended soon after it crossed into Mexico. He continued with the following information. 

Mexico’s Policy of Controlled Dispersal

My assessment about Mexican caravans is based on experience traveling with the old rebel-style migrant caravans that aimed to crash the border back in 2018 and 2019 and the very new and different escorted transit caravans forming now.

I discovered these during a field research trip to Tapachula City just north of the Guatemala border in November 2024. The city of 400,000 is a major waystation and chokepoint on the Latin American migration trail exiting Guatemala.

Border hawk Trump had just been elected president, but open-borders dove President Joe Biden was still in office. Thousands of migrants in Tapachula were forming caravans and heading north, prompting American commentators to sound the alarm that the caravans intended to breach the U.S. border before Trump took office. I joined one of about a thousand north of Tapachula.

I was surprised to learn that the pundits were wrong.

The Mexican government was allowing these caravans to form so that its military and state police could inexpensively transfer them out of Tapachula and into other southern Mexican cities. The government scheme was (and still is) intended to relieve a growing humanitarian crisis in Tapachula, where shortages of work, food, and shelter had become critical. What I saw was a purposeful, government-controlled dispersal operation.

Influenced by Washington Policies

Why would Mexico volunteer to do any of this in the fourth year of Biden’s historic mass migration crisis when its central government under President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had let millions move on through largely unchecked?

The little-known answer is that, in December 2023 as I fully reported then, Biden’s emissaries initiated a quiet deal to have Mexico reduce the incoming U.S. border crowds because the social media video looked terrible for Democrats running in the 2024 presidential election campaign.

The simpatico progressive liberal Obrador, wanting a Democrat president, deployed 32,000 troops to block all roads leading out of Tapachula and southern states like Chiapas. Next, Mexico began aggressive, sustained roundups of undocumented foreign nationals in Mexican cities and towns along its northern border with the U.S. from Tijuana to Matamoros.

The soldiers and police forced tens of thousands from Mexico’s north onto jets and buses and shipped them to the Tapachula while thousands a day were still arriving from Guatemala.

Trump won the election in large part on Biden’s open border and, once inaugurated, demanded that Mexico’s new President Claudia Sheinbaum, also a progressive liberal, continue the blockades and border sweeps under threat of devastating trade tariffs. 

How It Works

To prevent a humanitarian disaster and relieve Tapachula’s misery, the Sheinbaum government initially handed out “transit slips” and brought in buses to transport migrants to other Chiapas State cities and as far north as Mexico City. But demand outstripped the bus supply, so officials defaulted to the cheaper escorted foot caravans.

Whereas the caravans of old would violently break through security roadblocks, the Mexican military and police would surround this new kind of caravan in the front, back and all along its length and protect the marchers from predatory criminals. The security forces would gently direct them to turn down this or that road fork. Then at destinations, the security forces would deliver the compliant marchers to aid organizations and shelters and block them from further movement north.

While the many walkers I interviewed in late 2024 said sure they’d love to enter the United States someday, all told me they fully understood that Mexico’s government was to simply move them to other southern Mexican towns offering more work and sustenance while they waited for work and residency permits. The police and soldiers all confirmed the intercity transfer caravan policy and that it was a relatively new policy.

What to Look For

The Fey Esperanza caravan was hardly the first, but it attracted significant U.S. media attention because a major U.S. midterm election campaign is underway. In 2025 and so far in 2026, Mexico escorted at least another dozen intercity transit caravans to southern Mexican cities that drew no similar American media attention.

The telltale clue that these and the Fey Esperanza were controlled dispersal caravans not heading to the U.S. border: the Mexican security escorts.

A lot of Americans would not have known which kind of caravan they were seeing from video and naturally presumed it was enroute to the U.S. border.

Indeed, the transit caravan was rapidly disintegrating during Oct. 3-4 weekend as per the routine. The Trump administration was correct to noisily telegraph to Sheinbaum that she cannot let caravans reach the U.S. border and that migrants in them would face a tough confrontation if she let them through.

The article concluded that the caravans would continue because immigrants are still moving from Guatemala to Mexico, and Mexican security forces are still moving immigrants from the north and sending them south. However, Trump’s tariff threats against Mexico force Mexico to work with the United States to keep caravans away from the border.

Bensman says, “All bets are off once Trump leaves office in January 2029, no matter if a Republican or Democrat takes his spot. Look for caravans that might try their luck in the months before or after January 2029. Those will not be benign.”

Articles of Faith: What Do Latter-day Saints Believe About the Atonement of Jesus Christ? 5

                                                                        Article of Faith 3

We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved,

by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.

This is the fifth essay about the Atonement of Jesus Christ as stated in the third Article of Faith of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The first week, I discussed the importance of understanding how the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, as the third pillar of eternity, is essential to Heavenly Father’s plan for the eternal happiness of His children. The second week, the discussion was about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the nature of the atonement. Last week, the discussion concerned the Atonement of Jesus Christ as a vicarious sacrifice. Last week, the discussion was about Christ’s sacrifice being voluntary and love inspired. The discussion for this week will be about the Atonement being foreordained and foretold, using the words of Elder James E. Talmage (Articles of Faith [1913], 81-85).

The Atonement Foreordained and Foretold – As already shown, the plan of the Father to open a way for the redemption of mankind, then to leave all men free to exercise their agency, was adopted by the council in heaven to the rejection of Lucifer’s plan of compulsion. Even at that remote period Christ was thus ordained as a mediator for all mankind; in fact, “a covenant was entered into between Him and His Father, in which He agreed to atone for the sins of the world, and He thus, as stated, became the ‘Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world.’” Prophets who lived centuries before the time of Christ’s birth testified of Him and of the great work He had been ordained to perform. These men of God had been permitted to behold in prophetic visions many of the scenes incident to the Savior’s earthly mission, and they solemnly bore record of the manifestations. The testimony of Christ is the spirit of prophecy, and without it no person can rightly claim the distinction of being a prophet of God [emphasis added.] Adam’s despair incident to the fall was changed to joy when, through revelation, he learned of the plan of redemption to be wrought by the Son of God in the flesh. Righteous Enoch taught the same truths, which had been declared to him from the heavens. This testimony was borne by Moses, Job, David, Zechariah, Isaiah, and Micah. The same declaration was made by John the Baptist who was characterized by the Lord as more than a prophet.

Should there be doubt as to the application of such prophecies, we have the conclusive testimony of Christ that they refer to Himself. On that memorable day, immediately following His resurrection, while walking incognito with two disciples on the road to Emmaus. He taught them the scriptures that had been written concerning the Son of God: “Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” A few hours after this event the Lord appeared to the eleven at Jerusalem. He operated upon their minds “that they might understand the scriptures; and said unto them: Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer,” in this way testifying that He was fulfilling a previously ordained plan. Peter, one of the Savior’s most intimate earthly associates, refers to Him as “a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world. In his epistle to the Romans, Paul characterizes Christ as the one “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past.” These are but a few of the Biblical evidences of Christ’s foreordination; both Old and New Testament writings abound in proofs of the Messiah’s appointed work.

Book of Mormon prophets are characterized by the directness of their testimonies concerning the Messiah. Because of his faith the brother of Jared was permitted to behold the Savior, twenty-two centuries prior to the meridian of time and to be shown that man was created after the image of the Lord, at the same time being taught of the Father’s purpose that the Son take upon Himself flesh and dwell upon the earth. Note the personal declaration of the foreordained Redeemer to this prophet: “Behold, I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people. Behold, I am Jesus Christ. I am the Father and the Son. In me shall all mankind have light, and that eternally, even they who shall believe on my name; and they shall become my sons and my daughters.”

Nephi records the prophecy of his father Lehi concerning the future appearing of the Son in the flesh, His baptism, death, and resurrection; and this prophetic utterance specifies the exact date of the Savior’s birth – six hundred years after the time of Lehi’s exodus from Jerusalem. The mission of John the Baptist is described and even the place of baptism is designated. Shortly after the time of Lehi’s vision, Nephi was shown by the Spirit the same things, as also many others, some of which he has written but the greater part of which he was forbidden to write, as another, the Apostle John, had been ordained to set them forth in a book which should form part of the Bible. But, from the partial account of his vision we learn that he saw, in Nazareth, Mary the Virgin, first alone and shortly afterward with a child in her arms; and that the demonstrator of the vision informed him that the infant was the Lamb of God, the Son of the Eternal Father. Then Nephi beheld the Son ministering among the children of men, proclaiming the word, healing the sick, and working many other wondrous miracles; he saw John, the prophet of the wilderness, going before Him; he beheld the Savior baptized of John, and the Holy Ghost descending upon Him with the visible sign of the dove. Then he saw and prophesied that twelve apostles would follow the Savior in His ministry; that the Son would be taken and judged of men and finally be slain. Piercing the future even beyond the time of the crucifixion. Nephi beheld the strife of the world against the apostles of the Lamb and the final triumph of God’s cause.

Jacob, brother of Nephi, prophesied to his brethren that Christ would appear in the flesh among the Jews, and that He would be scourged and crucified. King Benjamin lifted his voice in support of the same testimony, and preached unto his people the righteous condescension of God. So also declared Abinadi, Alma, Amulek, and /Samuel the Lamanite prophet. The literal fulfilment of these prophecies furnishes proof of their truth. The signs and wonders indicative of Christ’s birth and death were all realized; and after His death and ascension the Savior manifested Himself among the Nephites while the Father proclaimed Him to the multitude.

The ancient scriptures, then, are plain in declaring that Christ came upon the earth to do a work previously allotted. He lived, suffered and died, in accordance with a plan that had been framed in righteousness even before the world was, for the redemption of the children of Adam. Equally important and explicit is the word of latter-day revelation through which the Son has declared Himself as Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, man’s Advocate with the Father, the universal Redeemer. Consider a single citation from the many revelations concerning Christ given in the present dispensation: “Listen to the voice of the Lord your God, even Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, whose course is one eternal round, the same today as yesterday, and forever. I am Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was crucified for the sins of the world, even as many as will believe on my name, that they may become the sons of God, even one in me as I am one in the Father, as the Father is one in me, that we may be one.”

What Did LDS Apostles Teach During Sunday Morning Session?

The second day of the October 2026 General Conference consisted of two sessions – morning and afternoon. This essay will share excerpts from talks given by members of the First Presidency and other Apostles during the morning session. Holly Wallace reported on the conference in her article published in the Deseret News. 

President Henry B. Eyring of the First Presidency

The Lord fulfills His promise to sustain us through trials, often through faithful disciples who respond to others’ needs.

President … Eyring affirmed the promises of divine help in “How Firm a Foundation,” explaining that “It is important to realize that the promise is not for the removal of challenges.” His mother’s lifelong medical trials illustrated how faith in the Lord’s presence can sustain a person through enduring hardship.

Trials help prepare Heavenly Father’s children to live in His presence, with Jesus Christ making repentance and spiritual growth possible. President Eyring emphasized the Savior’s personal understanding: “The Savior not only understands and has felt grief, but He has borne your griefs and carried your sorrows.”

Remembering his father’s bedside care for his dying mother and gratitude toward her nurses, President Eyring explained that the Lord often provides help through other people. He thanked listeners who respond to promptings to reach out, explaining, “That you felt prompted to reach out to them was evidence to them that the Lord knew and loved them.”

President Eyring encouraged kindness toward missionaries and appreciation for those serving in Church callings, whose responsibilities require strength and reassurance. He also urged listeners to seek the Holy Ghost’s help in comforting others, teaching that the Lord entrusts His disciples with helping fulfill His promise to sustain Heavenly Father’s children.

Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

Faith in Jesus Christ gives disciples spiritual courage, and exercising that courage strengthens their faith.

… After testifying of the Savior’s Atonement and Resurrection, he taught, “It has always taken spiritual courage, born of faith in Jesus Christ to be His disciple.”

Moroni’s refusal to deny Christ despite profound isolation illustrated the courage discipleship requires. Addressing today’s flood of information and distractions, Elder Andersen recalled quiet days tending cows and explained, “We need stillness to nourish our faith in Christ.”

Faith and courage strengthen each other through prayer, covenant keeping, and accepting opportunities to serve. Elder Anderson taught, “In those quiet moments when we speak with our Heavenly Father privately, independently, we are given the increased courage to choose the right,” and shared President Dallin H. Oaks’s decision to accept a demanding calling while working as a young attorney.

Spiritual courage also sustains disciples through missionary service, family responsibilities, disappointment, and devastating loss. Describing families whose homes had burned and a woman enduring her husband’s betrayal, Elder Andersen showed how faith helps people trust Christ when circumstances remain painful.

He promises answers and increased spiritual power to those who strengthen their faith by believing in Christ, following Him, and keeping His commandments. Recalling Peter and John’s courageous witness of the resurrected Savior, Elder Andersen concluded with his own testimony: “He guides this holy work, the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles

Lifelong discipleship requires integrity and virtue expressed through daily choices, service, and repentance.

Elder … Cook taught that the covenant path is well marked, but following it requires a Christlike life of integrity and virtue. Recalling the inscription that inspired President David O. McKay to fulfill every responsibility well, he emphasized, “We need to live our lives with integrity and follow His example.”

Integrity means being honest with God and others and living according to one’s beliefs and commitments. Elder Cook connected virtue with lasting happiness, explaining, “True happiness, often translated as blessedness, is the actual outcome of integrity and being virtuous.”

He warned that coarse language and online attacks undermine civil discourse and violate the Savior’s teachings. Despite attacks directed at the Church, he counseled, “We cannot control the conduct of others, but we can strive to be a peaceable people who live in accordance with the Christlike conduct and virtues taught by the Savior Jesus Christ.”

Daily scripture study and spiritual renewal help disciples follow a Savior who came to save the world. Elder Cook explained that obedience, service, and virtue demonstrate integrity, teaching “The ultimate reward of integrity and virtue is the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost.”

Acknowledging faults and repenting daily are also essential expressions of integrity. Elder Cook recalled a World War II veteran who compared learning about repentance to the overwhelming relief of returning home, illustrating the joy available through forgiveness and the desire to share that joy with family.

President Dallin H. Oaks

Drawing closer to Jesus Christ is the way to face doubts and struggles while continuing on the covenant path.

“Strong faith requires more than strong desire. It means daily trying, one step at a time with prayer and scriptural learning.”

“There is no ultimate conflict between knowledge obtained by these different methods, because God, our omnipotent Father, knows all truth, and expects us to learn by both methods.”

President Dallin H. Oaks affirmed that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Christ’s Church, possessing the restored fullness of His doctrine and authority. Expressing love and gratitude for members’ prayers, he directed those facing struggles, questions, or doubts toward the Savior: “Whatever they are, the way to overcome them is to get closer to our Savior, Jesus Christ.”

Building faith requires daily prayer, scriptural learning, and patience with ourselves and others. Acknowledging that resolving uncertainty can take time, President Oaks counseled, “Hold on to the first article of faith, even if something else is uncertain,” and urged listeners to trust the Lord’s timing and promises.

Addressing those whose faith is diminishing, he emphasized God’s persistent love and urged faithfulness to commandments and covenants. He taught that scientific and spiritual learning have no ultimate conflict because God knows all truth, while encouraging humility and warning, “never let your secular learning limit your spiritual horizons.”

President Oaks urged members to renew their covenants through the weekly sacrament, live according to those covenants, and attend the temple regularly if endowed. He promised, “These simple practices will protect and strengthen you,” and explained that forgiveness through Christ’s Atonement requires meeting His prescribed conditions, including faith, repentance, and baptism.

Through its account of Christ’s ministry to His scattered sheep, the Book of Mormon witnesses that He loves and reaches out to all people, with grace available to everyone.

Anticipating additional inspired records coming forth, President Oaks concluded, “I call upon all to act on these truths and to share them with others, that we may all draw closer to Jesus Christ, our Savior.”

What Did LDS Leaders Teach at General Conference?

Eighteen leaders, including seven Apostles, of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints spoke to a global audience at the Saturday sessions of General Conference. Their messages were “about the gospel of Jesus Christ’s ability to provide peace and guidance during a conference that is taking place during a dynamic era of growth and visibility for the church.” Tad Walch reported on the conference. 

President D. Todd Christofferson said gambling is morally wrong because its structure requires any gain to come at others’ expense.

[He] drew a bright line on the stunning spread of gambling, leaving no question where the church stands.

“We are against it,” said President D. Todd Christofferson, second counselor in the First Presidency.

Elder Ronald A. Rasband counseled members aching for loved ones who left the faith to love them as God does and trust Christ can change hearts.

… Elder Ronald A. Rasband, empathized with church members whose hearts ache for loved ones who have turned away from God.

He counseled them to love their loved ones the way God does, and to turn their despair over to Jesus Christ.

“We cannot change their hearts, but [He] can,” Elder Rasband said. “He is a God of miracles … who knows and loves them even more than we do … By the power of Jesus Christ’s Atonement, there is always a way back.

[Elder Dale G. Renlund] explained why the gospel of Jesus Christ makes it possible to feel spiritual peace even in the worst circumstances. But it requires continued focus and effort….

Too often, he said, “We focus on the here and now and lose sight of the bigger picture, both where we have been and God’s promises to us.” When that happens, doubt about God’s care can creep in.

But Latter-day Saints have a covenant relationship with Jesus Christ. When their faith is centered on him, they are freed from uncertainty “because our hope rests on his faithfulness and righteousness, not on our own,” he said.

“We can trust him,” Elder Renlund said, adding, “You can rely on God’s promises.”

The most powerful reason peace is available in all human circumstances is because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, which made his redemptive reach infinite, he said.

“The power of the Messiah to save and exalt is profoundly intimate and infinite beyond human comprehension,” he said. “There is more than enough to cover any breach, need or deficit for all of us, for each of us.”

Elder Gerrit W. Gong said God is inviting his children to the church’s rapidly growing number of temples because they are sanctuaries of peace, blessings and learning in a world meant to challenge and shape us.

“In a world of commotion, contention and cares, the Lord invites us to a place of spiritual safety, harmony, and holiness — the House of the Lord,” he said….

He encouraged church members to celebrate and treasure “even more” the spiritual blessings temples bring.

“Let us always be grateful for the gifts of eternity sacred temples bring,” he said. “Look for the miracles.”

 

Elder Ulisses Soares of the Quorum of the Twelve told listeners that fasting provides sanctifying spiritual power that brings each person closer to God in ways that provide a better understanding of God’s plan.

“This divine pattern of devotion brings strength, guidance, peace and divine help to sustain us throughout our mortal journey,” he said.

Elder Soares noted that Jesus Christ himself set an example of fasting and prayer, one that shows that they may not remove every burden but “draw heaven near and endow us with divine power to overcome or endure whatever circumstances we may face.”

He said he has witnessed how the blessings of fasting often enter a person’s life quietly and tenderly, “softening hearts, strengthening testimonies, sanctifying souls and transforming lives.”

Elder Patrick Kearon of the Quorum of the Twelve said the crucial skill in gliding is finding rising air called lift. There is also sinking air. Called sink, it shortens the distance a glider can fly and may threaten a safe landing.

“At the heart of our faith is the glorious truth that we have an adoring Father in Heaven, whose Son, our Savior, loves to lift,” Elder Kearon said.

He said that in both gliding and life, one who is not actively climbing is descending.

“How easy it is to slowly slip from spiritual heights we have worked so hard to climb when we neglect the practices and behaviors that brought us there,” he said. “We rarely intend to sink. We want lift — its joy and blessings — but we may not recognize the quiet cost of neglecting vital communion with our Father, Savior and the Holy Spirit.”

He asked listeners to pay close attention to what he described as the sweet, peaceful feelings that come with spiritual lift and the dim and dampening feelings that lead away from the Christ’s infinite love.

“Your Savior is your lift,” Elder Kearon said. “He is your ever-rising air. There is no limit to how high you can climb with him. Jesus Christ lives to lift.”

[Elder Gérald Caussé] who joined the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles last year said that his calling came with an immediate invitation to share his testimony of Jesus Christ with the quorum and the First Presidency.

“I knew that nothing could be more meaningful, as my first act as a newly ordained Apostle, than to bear witness of the Redeemer of the world,” he said. “... Today, in the restored Church of Jesus Christ, the apostolic witness remains central to our doctrine and compelling evidence of its truth.”

He said that each person’s testimony is different from any other, and it is disciple’s foundational responsibility to share it.

“Please trust it, nurture it and bear it, because it is uniquely yours,” Elder Caussé said. “... Our testimony is not a talent to be hidden. It is a gift to be shared — with grateful hearts and in a spirit of humility and love.”

  

What Did James Madison Say About Putting All Power in the Same Hands?

The topic of discussion for the Constitution Monday comes from James Madison, as Michael Freund explained in his article published in The Daily Signal. 

James Madison never heard of the EPA, the SEC, or the FTC.

But as one of the Founding Fathers, he understood the danger of allowing the same institution to make rules, enforce them, and then sit in judgment over the people accused of breaking them.

In Federalist No. 47, Madison wrote that “the accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands” could “justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” Madison meant it as a principle of constitutional design.

Indeed, the Constitution he helped craft divided federal authority among three branches: Congress, the president, and the courts. The branches would overlap at certain points, but none was supposed to swallow the essential functions of the others.

As Federalist No. 51 famously put it: “Ambition must be made to countered ambition.” The Founding Fathers did not assume that public officials would always restrain themselves from seeking to expand their powers, so they built restraints into the structure of government.

But now, over 200 years later, the federal government has created institutions that blur those lines.

Modern regulatory agencies write binding regulations under laws passed by Congress. They investigate alleged violations and bring enforcement actions. Many also operate their own administrative courts to hear disputes arising from those actions. In other words, they can act as rulemaker, judge, and enforcer.

Chief Justice John Roberts described the problem in his 2013 dissent in City of Arlington v. FCC. “As a practical matter,” he wrote, modern agencies exercise “legislative power,” “executive power,” and “judicial power.” That accumulation, he added, “is not an occasional or isolated exception to the constitutional plan; it is a central feature of modern American government.”

What makes the concern more than theoretical is the sheer scale of the system that has grown up within the federal government.

A Government Accountability Office report found that federal agencies published more than 27,000 rules between Jan. 20, 2013, and Jan. 20, 2025.

In 2024 alone, federal agencies issued 3,248 final rules, according to the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s analysis of Federal Register data. The Federal Register – the daily repository for federal rules, proposed rules, notices and other government documents – reached a record 106,109 pages that year.

And regulation is only part of the burden. Federal paperwork requirements consumed an estimated 10.5 billion hours in fiscal year 2023.

Those figures do not tell us whether any particular regulation is wise. But they do show how much federal policy is now shaped and implemented through administrative agencies rather than through Congress acting on each individual rule.

Defenders of the system argue that modern government oversees securities markets, pharmaceuticals, communications, aviation, energy, and other highly technical fields. Congress cannot possibly write every detail into law, they say, and agencies possess expertise legislators often lack. Their actions are also constrained by statutes, administrative procedures, and judicial review.

But the issue is not whether agencies may exercise discretion. It is whether the concentration of so many functions in the same institutions has gone too far.

The Supreme Court has recently begun confronting that question more directly.

In Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo in 2024, the court overturned the Chevron doctrine, holding that judges must exercise their own independent judgment when interpreting statutes rather than defer to an agency merely because the law is ambiguous.

A day earlier, in SEC v. Jarkesy, the court held that when the Securities and Exchange Commission seeks civil penalties for securities fraud, the Seventh Amendment entitles the defendant to a jury trial.

Together, those decisions reinforced the role of the courts in independently interpreting the law and, in certain enforcement cases, preserving the right to have claims decided by a jury rather than an administrative tribunal.

In Federalist No. 48, Madison warned that mere “parchment barriers” would not be enough to keep the branches within their proper bounds. Written limits, by themselves, could not prevent power from accumulating.

That is what makes Madison’s warning so relevant today.

His concern was never bureaucratic organization for its own sake. It was what happens to liberty when too much government power accumulates in the same hands.

More than two centuries later, the question is whether the concentration of power Madison warned against has now become a defining feature of the government he helped create.

If God Has Such Great Power, Why Does He Allow Space for Exercising Agency?

My Come Follow Me studies for this week took me to Isaiah 40-49 in a lesson titled “Comfort Ye My People.” The following information introduced the lesson. 

“Comfort” is the first word of Isaiah chapter 40. It marks the beginning of a different tone, a different emphasis in the prophet’s message. Isaiah’s earlier writings warned Israel and Judah about destruction and captivity that would come because of their sins. But these later prophecies were meant to comfort the Jewish people over 150 years in the future – after Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed and the people were taken captive by Babylon. These prophecies, however, reach even further into the future than to the defeated, disheartened Israelites. They speak to us, who also sometimes feel defeated, disheartened, and even lost.

Isaiah’s message to his people and to us is simple: “Fear not” (Isaiah 43:1). All is not lost. The Lord has not forgotten you, and He has power over situations that seem out of your control. Isn’t the Lord, who “created the heavens” (Isaiah 42:5), more powerful than Babylon, than sin, than whatever is holding you captive? “Return unto me,” He pleads, “for I have redeemed thee” (Isaiah 44:22). He can heal, restore, strengthen, forgive, and comfort – whatever is needed for you, in your case, to be redeemed.

This week’s reading teaches numerous principles. There are four considered in the lesson: (1) Jesus Christ can comfort me and give me hope (Isaiah 40-49). (2) “Thou art my servant” (Isaiah 40-49). (3) God’s power is greater than worldly power (Isaiah 40:3-8, 15-23; 42:15-16; 47:7-11). (4) The Lord can refine me through my afflictions (Isaiah 48:10; 49:13-16). This essay will discuss principle #3 about God’s power being greater than worldly power.

Our world has witnessed worldly power over the last eight months during the bombing of Iran by American forces. The world of Isaiah was less explosive, but it too had political intrigue and power.

3 The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

4 Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain.

5 And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

6 The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:

7 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass.

8 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

15 Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.

16 And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering.

17 All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity….

21 Have ye not known? Have ye not heard? Hath it not been told you from the beginning? Have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?

22 It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tend to dwell in:

23 That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.

In the above verses, Isaiah describes God’s power and worldly power. He repeatedly reminded his people of God’s matchless power, even compared to the oppressive worldly power that surround them. God’s power is always stronger than worldly power.

In his article, Anthony Sweat describes how the power of Jesus Christ can strengthen us every single day. The article begins, “While our daily challenges may vary in type, intensity, and frequency, there seem to be three general areas in which we can seek and receive divine help in our lives. The strengthening power of Christ is designed and available for all three of these types of daily tests.” 

1. Strength to Meet Trials and Challenges

Although often unspoken or unknown to others, daily burdens are borne by all people. “In the quiet heart is hidden / Sorrow that the eye can’t see” isn’t just beautiful poetry, it’s painfully accurate too. Some face daily challenges related to work and finances, while others need help in their marriages and families. Some are tested daily through a physical disability or persistent pain. While we are sure to experience difficulty in life, one of the promises in scripture is that, regardless of the source of our trial, Christ can give us strength to meet and successfully bear our burdens….

Because of mortality and human agency, sometimes God won’t change circumstances to relieve a burden. When God can’t or won’t change an external circumstance, however, he can and will change our internal workings to successfully meet the challenge, if we let him. He often does this by making our burdens feel lighter through divine spiritual gifts that expand our perspective, empower our understanding, alter our attitude, and provide patience, comfort, and peace.

2. Strength to Resist Temptation and Overcome Sin

A second aspect of divine strength we can receive is power to resist temptations and overcome sin. This is different than cleansing and healing from sin and transgression; this is a protective power to “suffer us not to be led into temptation” (JST, Matthew 6:13).

Masterful paintings that have been damaged often go through a careful process of cleansing years of dirt and dust buildup, healing rips in the canvas and breaks in the frame, and restoring lost pigment. That is not all, however. There is also an extensive conservation aspect of the cleansed, healed, and restored art: The curators add layers of protective varnish, control temperature and natural light exposure, install security warning systems, and go to great lengths to shield the artwork from future damage. Similarly, Jesus not only cleanses, heals, and restores us from the damaging effects of sin, but his grace also grants daily power to guard and protect us against future damaging disobedience. This strengthening power enables us to resist partaking of “the sin which doth so easily beset us” (Hebrews 12:1) as Paul said….

3. Strength to Do Good Works

A third aspect of the strengthening power of Christ is a power that is given to us to do good works beyond our natural capacities. It is a power granted to do miracles, in every sense of the word (see Alma 26:12). The Bible Dictionary teaches: “It is likewise through the grace of the Lord that individuals, through faith in the Atonement of Jesus Christ .. receive strength and assistance to do good works that they otherwise would not be able to maintain if left to their own means.”

This gift to do and be good beyond our natural capacity is perhaps most evident in church callings and assignments. Ironically, or perhaps purposefully, most of us are called to serve in church positions for which we are utterly unqualified….

With regard to our church callings, however, the ever-quotable Elder Neal A. Maxwell taught: “God does not begin by asking us about our ability, but only about our availability, and if we then prove our dependability, he will increase our capability.” …

Each week in wards across the earth, the strengthening power of Christ is manifest in millions of persons performing and doing good works beyond their natural capacity as the Lord qualifies them through endowment of his enabling grace.

           Beyond callings, the strengthening power of Christ is available for any worthy work we might                 undertake: whether doctor or dentist, scientist or researcher, teacher or student, artist or                           entertainer, businessperson or construction worker, athlete or mathlete. Above all, divine strength            to do good works is given for the daily, eternally important work of families: to spouses, parents,           and children, each of whom is striving to perform a work beyond their natural capacities…. 

Why Are Bachelors Increasing in America?

Married adults tend to be happier and have happier families, and happy families are stronger families. Strong families strengthen communities, states, and nations. These statistics illustrate a problem that is growing.

In her article published in the Deseret News, Reagan Campbell reports that there are more bachelors in America in 2025 than there were in 2000. 

More American men remain bachelors than ever before. The Institute for Family Studies found that in 2025 there were 30.4 million single men ages 18 to 39. This is a stark contrast to the 20.7 million single men in 2000.

IFS said married adults generally report being happier than those who are unmarried and the “number of young men forgoing marriage could be adding to the happiness crash now unfolding among young adults across America.”

Brad Wilcox, an IFS fellow, noted “it’s never good for a society to have large numbers of unattached, dispirited and unhappy young men.” …

What’s driving the decline?

Wilcox believes the cause of the declining marriage rate is the “addiction economy” and that it “is a failure of social responsibility.” He calls out addictive electronics, unchallenging schools and no vision of masculinity as reasons for this.

He cites a Deseret News article “Who is to blame for the decline in ‘marriageable’ men?” written by Wilcox, Maria Baer and Jason Carroll. They called out easy access to online pornography as another explanation for the high rate of single men. “Young men (22-35) who are frequent porn users are about twice as likely to say that they avoid committing in dating relationships,” the article says.

The results? Young adults are less happy, specifically unmarried young adults. IFS said, “From 2010 to 2024, happiness among married young adults fell from 94% to 90%, compared to a decline from 82% to 68% among unmarried young adults.”

Campbell’s article quotes two statements made by Wilcox on X. The first is “We have a generation of young men [ages 18-29] trapped in the “addiction economy” – and the numbers are stagging: [1] 1-in-8 use porn, gamble & game daily. [2] Almost 1-in-4 gamble daily. [3] 1-in-4+ use porn daily.” The second is as follows:

So why are so many young men trapped in the “addiction economy”? A big part of the story: our core institutions and culture have failed them: [1] Too many homes w/o engaged fathers. [2] Schools that don’t engage or challenge them. [3} Big Tech hooking them on electronic opiates. [4] Shrinking opportunity in the marketplace – worsened by recent discrimination. [5] No clear, compelling, prosocial vision of masculinity. This is a failure of social responsibility re: how we raise, educate, and inspire young men. To paraphrase C.S. Lewis, we make young men without chests and wonder why they lack virtue and enterprise.

The article also reports statistics from the BYU student body: “Of BYU’s student body, 17% are married, more than double the national average for married students in the United States.” However, that percentage is down from 25% in 2021. BYU responded by creating “frequent Date Night events to encourage students to date. These events are held on campus, free of charge and include a variety of activities.” BYU also encourages students to “remove your earbuds on campus” and interact with other students.