What Is the Voter ID Act?

It is now in the latter part of July and moving closer to mid-terms and November. Congress has not yet passed a bill to require U.S. citizenship to register to vote and picture identification to vote. In their article published at The Daily Signal, Don Palmer and Elizabeth Schlueter discussed a proposal to improve election identity. 

Voter ID Act (HR 9368) was sponsored by Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wis. [and] passed the Committee on House Administration June 24. It was attached to the Stop Insider Trading Act (HR 7008) as an amendment and will be heard in the House Rules Committee. This is a crucial step toward authorizing consideration of the Voter ID Act for final passage on the House floor….

The bill requires voters to show photo ID when casting a ballot in a federal election, creates a grant program to provide valid IDs for voters who cannot afford them, and allows voters who forget their ID on election Day to cast provisional ballots – all measures that have proven effective in the states….

The Voter ID Act offers five options for valid photo ID: driver’s license, state-issued identification card with a photo and expiration date, U.S. passport, military ID, and tribal ID….

Americans are accustomed to providing photo ID for other important transactions, and the Voter ID Act makes provisions for voters who struggle to obtain a qualifying ID before Election Day. Requiring a valid ID at the polls ensures that our ballots are as well-protected as our booze – seems like common sense. Even the Olive Garden never-ending Pasta Pass requires photo ID!

The authors shared several examples of voter fraud from across the nation that are gathered in The Heritage Foundation’s Voter Fraud Database.

For instance, last September, Louisiana used the SAVE database and identified 390 noncitizens on its voter rolls; 70 of them had illegally voted in at least one election. The state recently brought charges against one of the illegal voters and anticipates more such cases.

Given that 22 states are not using SAVE or attempting to establish an agreement with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to do so, one can only guess at how many noncitizens are on other states’ voter rolls….

As we head into midterms, legislators should take the commonsense route and establish federal means of enforcing current election statutes by passing the Voter ID Act if it arrives on the House floor. Americans deserve to know that only legitimate voters are casting ballots come November.

 

Who Is John Solomon?

My VIP for this week is John Solomon, an investigative journalist. According to an article by Greg Hughes published at The Daily Signal, Solomon has “been involved in politics in some way for 38 years” but spent most of his journalist career in the mainstream media. 

Hughes wrote, “His resume boasts 20 years with The Associated Press, stints at The Washington Post, collaboration with ‘60 Minutes,’ and a senior position at The Hill.” Hughes continued, “He was highly regarded by his peers and received many awards for his investigative work, including the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award and the Society of Professional Journalist National Investigative Award. However, things changed after “the election of [Donald] Trump, [when] he became an outcast among these same peers.” Hughes claims that Sullivan’s “sins” was digging “into the legitimacy of the Russia collusion narrative and the Mueller investigation.”

Solomon’s commitment to truth had not changed. He had always had a consistent approach – which included questioning the government’s behavior, no matter who was in power. But any attempt to give Trump – the trespasser, the usurper – a fair shake in the press was deemed to be the ultimate betrayal.

In time, Solomon’s trailblazing investigative work has been vindicated. He founded Just The News in 2020 after it became clear that authentic investigative journalism was no longer welcomed within his profession.

Solomon is an investigative journalist. Today, he is widely considered a right-wing voice, but only because he stayed true to his profession while that profession turned into a leftist ideological camp.

It seems that CBS Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss, tasked with trying to restore some semblance of objective journalism to the network, understands Solomon’s work. He was recently interviewed on the network.

The interview would appall members of the regime media. In it, he shared facts that have been ignored and censored, meaning they had never been heard by most of the American public before.

I trust the reporting of John Solomon. His “Just the News” is honest. He reports news as it is and not what he would like it to be. His investigations and reporting were instrumental in breaking the Russian collusion narrative and getting to the bottom of the Mueller investigation.

 

Should Americans Worry About Democratic Socialists Winning Elections?

The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday concerns socialism and “the recent rise in democratic socialists winning primary elections.” In an article published at the Deseret News, opinion editor Jay Evensen wrote the following: 

I’ve been around long enough to see how most long-term political plans eventually crack and disintegrate under the harsh heat of reality. So, I try not to get too worked up over the recent rise in democratic socialist winning primary elections, or over the movement’s supposed aims, which sound closer to Marx than to Jefferson or Madison.

But those who hope a post-Trump future might revert to the calmer political days of our youth may be disappointed. The far left seems to be on the rise to compete with the far right.

And while that rise is still small, if politicians don’t stem the fearsome rise in the national debt, a possible economic collapse and the chaos it could cause might bolster all kinds of radical ideologies….

Democracy has a way of taking the sharp edges off radical ideologies, eventually. The MAGA movement benefited from a charismatic leader, which the far left currently lacks.

A Gallup poll last year found a majority of Americans still feel favorably toward capitalism, but support is waning.

As I said, that trend could accelerate if the economy collapses under the weight of the national debt and its annual interest payments, which already exceed the nation’s military budget.

Samuel J. Abrams (professor of politics at Sarah Lawrence College, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and a scholar with the Sutherland Institute) agreed with Evensen in his column for Deseret News. “… Evensen is right not to panic [about] the recent string of democratic socialist primary victories nationwide.” Why young Americans are turning to socialism | Opinion – Deseret News

This is all true, but there is a deeper story that must be told as to why these radical ideologies have begun to win and why these politicians have been able to organize so effectively. It begins with the question of why so many young Americans are drawn to them.

The answer can be found in a book published a quarter century ago by a late mentor of mine – Seymour Martin Lipset. Writing with Gary Marks, Lipset wrote “It Didn’t Happen Here: Why Socialism Failed in the United States” and asked why America, alone among industrial democracies, never developed a serious socialist movement.

The socialists trying to reshape the Democratic Party

The answers Lipset and Marks offered were partly structural – our two-party system and winner-take-all elections punished third parties – but they were also, crucially, experiential. So many Americans lived capitalism’s promise and positive realities.

America’s workforce saw real mobility for themselves and their children and an individualist, antistatist creed ran deep. Moreover, Americans were formidable joiners – as observed by Alexis de Tocqueville decades earlier – and they were deeply embedded in churches, lodges, unions, clubs and neighborhood associations that gave them belonging, status and voice without any need for a revolutionary party to supply it.

Lipset and Marks argued that socialism did not fail in the United States because Americans read the right rebuttals to Marx. Rather, it failed because the conditions present nationwide never let it take hold. This points to the uncomfortable truth of 2026: Almost every immunity Lipset and Marks identified in their book has now degraded – particularly for young adults.

A misunderstanding of market economics

Start with young Americans’ lived experience of markets and capitalism. In cities where socialism has gained political traction – Chicago, Seattle, New York and San Francisco – many younger Americans are living through soaring housing costs, shrinking opportunities and dysfunctional markets. Their frustrations are real.

This mistake is not in recognizing the problems but in misidentifying their causes. Too often, however, they are seeing the consequences of regulation, restrictive zoning and poor governance as if they were failures of capitalism itself.

That confusion is hardly surprising. Most young Americans have never been taught how markets create prosperity. Significant numbers graduate from college without taking a single economics course….

A lack of strong social structures

Moving beyond economic systems, Lipset and Marks would point to the recent real decline of associational life as a major cause of socialism’s ascent. Theorists from Alexis de Tocqueville and Edmund Burke to Robert Nisbet and Richard John Neuhaus have long marveled at Americans’ art of association. Lipset understood that these institutions kept radicalism marginal by meeting fundamental human needs for fellowship, purpose and recognition.

Those institutions have been hollowed out, and young adults are the loneliest Americans on record. They may be digitally connected and habitually online, but few join congregations, civic clubs, scouting or recreational leagues. They are not merely under-informed; so many younger Americans are isolated, under-formed, unattached and without a social core….

What can be done?

If we consider this framing, it radically changes how we think about this so-called socialist surge. If the problem were socialism as an ideology itself, the answer would be rebuttal with more op-eds, more education and public-focused work, and more warnings about Venezuela and countless failed states. But reason and evidence alone do not persuade or work on people whose initial attraction was rooted less in ideas than belonging.

If the problem is formation – and that certainly appears to be the case – the real answer is to rebuild what once formed young Americans into confident, connected participants in a free society.

That means teaching economics so that graduates understand scarcity, trade-offs, incentives and the astonishing record of market economies, along with their real failures. It also means rebuilding our social associations where young people find the belonging they now seek in ideological movements like the DSA….

Finally, I should note that Lipset’s title contained a quiet warning that his admirers sometimes miss. Socialism didn’t happen here in the past tense because a particular America existed: prosperous, mobile, religious, fraternal and thick with institutions that formed citizens and demonstrated capitalism’s promise in daily life. That America was not an accident, and its immunities are not permanent as we see now – our nation’s immunities to socialism were built and then regularly reaffirmed.

Evensen is right that we need not fear the socialists. What we should fear and then fix is the loneliness and disconnection as well as the ignorance that make socialism feel like an answer for so many young people. Restore formation, purpose, community, and belonging and this socialist impulse will fade the way of every American socialist movement before it did.

  

Why Should We Discover What Is in Scriptures?

My Come Follow Me studies for this week took me to 2 Kings 16-25 and a lesson titled “He Trusted in the Lord God of Israel.” The lesson was introduced by the following information. 

Despite the prophet Elisha’s powerful ministry, the people of the Northern Kingdom of Israel did not repent. Eventually, the Assyrian Empire conquered and scattered the ten tribes of Israel. Meanwhile, the Southern Kingdom of Judah wasn’t doing much better: idolatry was also widespread there.

Amid all this spiritual decay, the scriptures mention two kings of Judah who, for a time, turned their people back to the Lord. One was Hezekiah. During his reign, the Assyrians conquered much of Judah. But Hezekiah and his people showed faith in the Lord, who saved Jerusalem in a miraculous way. Later, after another period of apostasy, Josiah became king. Inspired in part by a rediscovery of the book of the law of Moses, Josiah brought reforms that revived the religious life of his people.

Like Israel and Judah, we all make both good and bad choices. When we sense that our lives need some reforms, we can take encouragement from these two bright spots in the dark years of Judah’s history. Perhaps the examples of Hezekiah and Josiah can inspire us to “trust in the Lord our God” (2 Kings 18:22).).

The scripture block teaches several principles, including (1) I can stay true to the Lord when my faith is challenged (2 Kings 18-19); (2) All things are in the Lord’s hands (2 Kings 19:20-37); (3) The scriptures can turn my heart to the Lord (2 Kings 21-23); (4) A covenant is a whole-souled commitment between me and the Lord. This essay will discuss principle #3 about scriptures helping us to turn our hearts to God.

Josiah was only eight years old when he became King of Judah. He followed a long line of wicked kings, but he was righteous. Eighteen years later, renovations were being completed on the temple, and the book of the law was found in the wall of the temple. King Josiah read the words in the book of the law and was concerned about what he read.

The book of the law told Josiah that the Lord would destroy Judah just as Israel had been destroyed. Josiah gathered the prophets, priests, and people and read the words of the book of the law to them. He called them to repentance.

President Spencer W. Kimball called the story of King Josiah “one of the finest stories in all of the scriptures” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Spencer W. Kimball [2006], 62). 

When the book of the law was read to Josiah, he “rent his clothes” and wept before the Lord.

“Great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us,” he said, “because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us.” (2 Kings 22:13.)

The king then read the book before all the people, and at that time they all made a covenant to obey all the Lord’s commandments “with all their heart and all their soul.” (2 Kings 23:3.) Then Josiah proceeded to clean up the kingdom of Judah, removing all the idols, the groves, the high places, and all the abominations that had accumulated during the reign of his fathers, defiling the land and its people. …

“And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him.” [2 Kings 23:25.]

I feel strongly that we must all of us return to the scriptures just as King Josiah did and let them work mightily within us, impelling us to an unwavering determination to serve the Lord.

Josiah had the law of Moses only. In our scriptures we have the gospel of Jesus Christ in its fulness; and if a taste is sweet, in fulness there is joy.

The Lord is not trifling with us when he gives us these things, for “unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required.” Luke 12:48.) Access to these things means responsibility for them. We must study the scriptures according to the Lord’s commandment (see 3 Ne. 23:1-5); and we must let them govern our lives and the lives of our children.

 

How Can We Begin Strengthening Our Family?

 Families are stronger when individual members encourage positive habits in every life. Strong families strengthen communities, states, and nations. According to Kristina Fuller, “Building strong family relationships is an ongoing journey” that includes “small, everyday actions” and “add up to lasting change.” She gave the following “habits to encourage in your home.” 

·       Express gratitude daily: Make it a habit to say thank you for little things.

·       Celebrate each other’s successes: Cheer on achievements, big or small.

·       Practice kindness: Simple acts like helping with chores or leaving a kind note can brighten the day.

·       Stay physically connected: Hugs, holding hands, or a gentle touch can communicate love and reassurance.

·       Laugh together: Humor is a powerful way to relieve stress and bond.

Fuller concluded with the following statement: “Remember, no family is perfect. What matters most is your willingness to grow and support one another.”

How Can America Have Fair and Honest Elections?

The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday comes from President Donald Trump’s prime time address to the nation given on July 16, 2026, from the East Room of the White House: “No country can be great without fair and honest elections. You have to trust your country because if there can be no trust, there can be no greatness.” 

President Trump spoke on several topics and shared information that has recently been declassified. Among the most disturbing information of the evening was Trump’s statement that broadcast networks ABC and NBC chose not to air his speech live. He suggested that such networks should lose their licenses if they refuse to carry information from the President to the American people. 

According to Fred Lucas at The Daily Signal, Trump blamed the “deep state” for withholding information that should have been given to him during his first presidential term.

President Donald Trump announced the release of declassified documents he said are evidence that China has been meddling in U.S. elections by hacking into voter registration databases and by other means.

Trump, who spoke Thursday evening in a prime-time address to the nation, said the “deep state” had this information and suppressed it from the president and Congress.

“They kept it secret and hidden. Did not disclose to me or Congress,” Trump said.

Trump said the declassified information shows “shocking vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure….

The president said that China conducted a massive hacking of voter registration information. “The People’s Republic of China carried out what is believed to be the largest compromise of election data in history, resulting in China’s illicit acquisition of 220 million U.S. voter files,” Trump said.

[This would amount to almost all American adults because there are approximately 350 million Americans – adults, teens, and children.]

He said the information includes names, addresses, phone numbers, political party preferences, and other data.

“This data loss presents an unprecedented election, security nightmare,” the president added. At least a portion of the declassified information was released Thursday night.

The point of the hacking, according to Trump, as to steal information about thousands of voters. He also said information from 2018 and 2019 shows that Chinese operatives wanted to harm Trump so he would be forced to resign or be defeated in his reelection bid.

“The Chinese government wanted U.S. president to lose the next election and the reason they wanted me to lose is because they knew I was wise to them, charged them billions in tariffs, and built the largest military in the world,” Trump said.

Trump, who has long disputed his 2020 loss to Joe Biden, also said the FBI found China attempted to manufacture ballots in favor of Biden.

“Raw intelligence obtained by the FBI in 2020, yet buried by rogue bureaucrats, stated that China’s activities even included an attempt to manufacture illegal ballots for Joe Biden,” Trump said.

The president further said China paid U.S. journalists to write negative stories about him during his first term.

“The Chinese government sought to identify U.S. journalists who had reported negatively on the U.S. president and pay them large sums of money to write more negative articles about him, as many as they could, and they did not care what they said,” Trump asserted.

Trump said elections were “vulnerable and easily compromised and people within our government knew that.”

The Department of Homeland Security has information showing about 278,000 registered voters are foreigners, Trump said.

“According to the DHS review, state voter rolls and public records, they identified approximately 278,000 non-citizens who are registered to vote in federal elections,” Trump said. “Since Democrat states refused to share their voter files, the real number is actually much higher than that.”

The address comes as Trump is pushing Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, which would require photo identification to vote and proof of citizenship to register to vote. The president, as he concluded his remarks, made a passionate plea for Congress to pass the legislation.

In March 2021, during the early months of the Biden administration, the Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security issued a joint report that asserted China considered trying to influence the presidential election but backed off. It further said, “No evidence found that a foreign government manipulated any election results.”

Still, there have been documented cases of China election meddling and hacking.

In the 2024 campaign, FBI officials said Chinese government operatives targeted the phones of candidates, including now-President Trump, now-Vice President JD Vance, and individuals associated with then-Vice President Kamala Harris.

A Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security report released in December 2023 found Chinese cyber actors collected publicly available voter information during the 2022 election.

In July 2024, the Justice Department Office of Inspector General issued a report that described China as one of several foreign governments that conducted malign influence campaigns directed at U.S. elections. This included using fake online personas and promoting propaganda.

For six years, Trump claimed that the election of 2020 was rigged. Now, the FBI and other intelligent agencies brought the receipts: Foreign nations influenced the election. What can Trump do to prevent future rigging of elections?

Articles of Faith: What Do Latter-day Saints Believe About the Godhead 5?

Article of Faith 1

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

                                and in the Holy Ghost.

This is the fifth article on the Godhead in my series on the Articles of Faith of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The past few weeks, I discussed the character of God the Father or Elohim. Since Jesus Christ taught that His disciples “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (John 14:9), we can know that He has the same character traits as His Father. This essay will use the words of Elder Bruce R. McConkie to explain clearing who Jesus Christ is.

There are numerous ways in which the labors and ministry and status of “God the second,” who is the Son, are distinct and separate from the other members of the Godhead. Chief among them are these:

1. He is the Firstborn.

Our Blessed Lord is the firstborn spirit child of the Father of Spirits; all others are junior to him. His is the eternal birthright and the everlasting right of presidency. “I was in the beginning with the Father,” he says, “and am the Firstborn.” (D&C 93:21.) Paul says he is “the image of the invisible God, the first born of every creature.” (Colossians 1:15.) The body he then possessed was a spirit body, a body made of spirit element, a body like those of all the spirit hosts of heaven. Appearing to the brother of Jared, he said: “This body, which ye now behold, is the body of my spirit.” (Ether 3:16.) In that spirit state he advanced and progressed until, in power, dominion, and intelligence, he became, “like unto God.” (Abraham 3:24.) It was then that he created all things and was foreordained to be the Savior and Redeemer.

2, He is the Creator.

Under the Father, Christ is the Creator of this earth, of worlds without number, of all things. Paul says: “By him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers all things were created by him, and for him: and he is before all things, and by him all things consist.” (Colossians 1:16-17.) Being “like unto God,” he became and was the GREAT I AM, the I AM THAT I AM, the Eternal One, the Lord Jehovah. He operated and ministered in his Father’s name and by his Father’s power.

3. He is the Promised Messiah.

The ancient prophets testified that God would send his Son into the world to save and deliver his people, to save them from the temporal and spiritual death brought upon all mankind through the fall, to be their Deliverer and Redeemer. The prophetic word acclaimed him as the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Son of David, who would reign on the throne of his Father….

4. He is the God of our Fathers.

Because God is known only by revelation, because the knowledge of God and of salvation was revealed to our father, and because there is only one God and one plan of salvation for all men in all ages, how appropriate it is to call Christ (by whom salvation comes) the God of our fathers. He was their God and he is our God….

5. He is the Son of God.

All men (Christ included) were born as the sons of God in the spirit; one man (Christ only) was born as the Son of God in this mortal world. He is the Only Begotten in the flesh. God was his Father; Mary was his mother. His Father was an immortal man; his mother was a mortal woman. He is the Son of God in the same literal, full, and complete sense in which he is the son of Mary. There is nothing symbolic or figurative about it. He is God’s Almighty Son and as such is distinguished from the Father in the same way any son is a separate person from his father.

6. He is our Redeemer, Savior, Mediator, Intercessor, and Advocate.

Salvation comes because of Christ and his atoning sacrifice. He is the Redeemer who ransoms men from the effects of Adam’s fall. He brings immortality to all men, thus redeeming them from temporal death through the resurrection. Those who believe and obey his laws are redeemed from spiritual death and have eternal life. In like manner he is the Savior….

7. He manifests and reveals the Father.

There are two concepts here. First, God was in Christ manifesting himself to the world. That is, because the Son was in the express image and likeness of the Father, and because he was one with the Father in all things, insomuch that he did and said what the Father would do and say in like circumstances, anyone who saw the Son also the Father. To know the Son is to know the Father. Second, Christ reveals the Father to the faithful, as it is written, “Neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.” (Matthew 11:27.) …

8. He is the Eternal Judge.

“The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father.” (John 5:22-23.) And this Son of Man, in a not far-distant day, shall come again, in all the glory of his Father’s kingdom, to take vengeance upon the ungodly and to give glory and honor to the righteous.

9. He is the Father.

There are three ways in which Christ the Son is properly called the Father. First, he is “the Father of the heavens and of the earth, and all things that in them are.” (Ether 4:7.) That is, he is the Maker, Organizer, and Creator of all things; he fathered them in this sense. Second, he is the Father of all who believe and obey his law. Those who receive the gospel have “power to become [his]sons.” (D&C 39:4.) they thus become “the children of Christ, his sons, and his daughters”; they are “spiritually begotten” by him; they take upon them “the name of Christ.” (Mosiah 5:7-8.) They are born again and have a new Father. Third, he is the Father by divine investiture of authority. “In all His dealings with the human family Jesus the Son has represented and yet represents Elohim His Father in power and authority.” The Father, accordingly, places his own name upon the Son so the Son can speak in the first person as though he were the Father. “And so far as power, authority and Godship are concerned His words and acts were and are those of the Father.” (“The Father and the Son,” exposition of the First Presidency, June 30, 1916.)

What Is TDS and How Can It Be Turned Off?

There are many Americans – millions of people – who hate President Donald Trump for whatever reason. Some of those people have Trump derangement syndrome (TDS). In an article dated September 5, 2024, Psychology Today describes it as follows: 

Trump derangement syndrome is a derogatory term used to describe a form of toxic criticism and negative reaction to former President Trump’s statements and political actions. The origin of the term can be traced to the late political columnist and commentator Charles Krauthammer, a psychiatrist, who first coined the phrase “Bush derangement syndrome” in 2003.

Krauthammer, himself a harsh critic of Trump, later defined Trump derangement syndrome as a Trump-induced “general hysteria” that produced an “inability to distinguish between legitimate policy differences and signs of psychic pathology” in the president’s behavior. Journalist Fareed Zakaria, moreover, defined TDS as “hatred of President Trump so intense that it impairs people’s judgement.”

Signs of TDS can be observed along a continuum of reactions, ranging from verbal expressions of intense hostility toward President Trump to overt acts of aggression and even violence against anyone supporting or anything symbolizing him. The recent assassination attempt on Trump’s life provides compelling evidence of the volatility and potential dangers of TDS if left unchecked.

I know numerous people who hate Trump and swear that they will never vote for him. Some of those same people hate him so much that they see no good in him. Although I see many faults in him, I also see good characteristics: He is a leader, one who leads from the front rather than the rear like Barack Obama. He is generous with his wealth and gives away all that he earns as President of the United States ($400,000 per year). He loves America and is not ashamed to show it. He has a strong spine and is willing to stand between the enemy – foreign or domestic – and the American people. Most people can see that he works hard – unlike Joe Biden.

In addition, Trump has good policies. The most obvious policy that is good for America is his policy of a closed border. He does not want people to simply walk across the border and claim the benefits that America offers. Along with his closed border policy, he also has a deportation policy – deport all criminals who are in the United States illegally. That includes all people who entered the USA illegally because they broke US law when they entered the country illegally.

According to an article by Carlos Garcia at Blaze Media, billionaire tech investor and influencer Chamath Palihapitiya believes that “Most of us were LIED TO by the media” and that Trump has been maligned unfairly. It is fair to say that most media personnel on the Left have Trump derangement syndrome. They simply cannot be truthful about him, but Palihapitiya exposes the truth. 

Palihapitiya says he took time to really consider some media allegations against the president. [He] says he has made a 180-degree turn on the negative image he had of President Donald Trump.

The podcaster told CNBC News on Tuesday that he was trying to avoid the ideological tunnel vision that many people find themselves in after being besieged by media bias.

“There’s enough people that I hear that are lazy and reductive, and they’re going to end up where they’re supposed to end up – in a little cul-de-sac of their own making,” said Palihapitiya.

“The reality is that most of us were lied to by the media about President Trump. And if you just go back to the source material, you should take away two things: One, he didn’t say half the things [they say] he said,” he said.

“Two, why did these other people just fabricate what they wanted to say so that they could essentially assassinate his character?” Palihapitiya continued. “I think that that second thing is completely unacceptable in America, and there have still been no repercussions, really.”

Palihapitiya said that Trump called him after the podcast, and they had a lengthy conversation. That conversation cemented Palihapitiya’s belief about Trump.

Time alone will tell us how much influence Palihapitiya’s discovery will have on Trump haters. If he has a lot of influence, maybe the Left’s rhetoric will be turned down a notch or two. On the other hand, Palihapitiya may find himself to be the target of some of hatred shown to Trump.

My advice to everyone is to look for the good in all people. There are relatively few individuals in the world who have no good in them, but sometimes we have to look long and hard to see it in some people.

Who Is Lindsey Graham?

My VIP for this week is the late Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. As explained by Suzanne Bates in her article at the Deseret News, Graham was known as a hawk. His last official act was a visit to Ukraine and a visit to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. 

Among the Republicans in the US Senate, Graham was a champion for Ukraine and had a strong belief that the United States must support Ukraine against the Russian invasion. One of his last legislative actions was to lobby for more tariffs on countries that buy oil and gas from Russia. He also supported the decision to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. He defends Israel, the lone democracy in the Middle East.

With Graham’s death comes the continued attrition – through deaths and retirements – of Republican hawks, those who believe in a muscular foreign policy, including, when necessary, through military intervention.

The trio of Graham and the late Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona and Democratic-turned-independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut – all now passed away – reshaped U.S. foreign policy in the 2000s under the belief that the United States must assert itself as the lone superpower in order to maintain an uneasy peace in the world.

When the U.S. steps back from this role, it is inevitably pulled back in, hawks argue. Like after the 1990s, when Clinton was wary of foreign entanglements in a post-Cold War world. But the U.S. was reawakened to global threats on Sept. 11, 2001, when terrorists attacked New York and Washington, D.C., killing thousands of Americans.

Or in 2015, when, after President Barack Obama tried to “reset” the U.S.’s relationship with Vladimir Putin, the Russian president invaded Ukraine and annexed Crimea.

And again in 2022, during the Biden administration, when Russia again invaded Ukraine, starting a protracted war between the two countries.

The long-term military campaigns in Afghanistan, which had almost universal support after 9/11, and in Iraq, which had less support, led to the recent weariness Americans feel when their leaders propose intervention.

Anti-interventionists in the Republican Party, those who support the “America First” movement, long criticized Graham for his hawkishness, turning “neocon” into a pejorative.

Now, without Graham, is there a Republican senator who will take up that mantle? Especially amid a new, increasingly unpopular war against Iran….

Is Trump a dove or a hawk?

Trump, with his “Peace through Strength,” foreign policy agenda, is far more interventionist than his America First supporters would like. Vice President JD Vance is the hero of those more populist Republicans, while hawkish Republicans typically back Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Rubio, and Graham before his death, appear to be in a dwindling minority. Instead, the ascendant position in conservative circles is that it isn’t America’s job to police the world. Instead, we should protect our own.

No matter how powerful the United States is, or how big its economy, it cannot block itself from an anarchic world….

Graham believed in American strength, and its ability to be a force for good around the world. In a piece about the need to spend more on the Navy, Graham wrote: “There is no doubt that the costs of these investments are great and will require tradeoffs and significant political capital, but the cost of inaction will be far greater. History demonstrates that adversaries are emboldened by America’s hesitation and deterred by its resolve.”

Perhaps a successor to Graham will emerge among Republican senators. It’s hard to imagine he or she will possess his same wit or unique biography, but others with his skills seemed irreplaceable before.

In most foreign entanglements, including in Iran, the answer of intervention versus protectionism isn’t black and white. We need both doves and hawks to debate and argue over American foreign policy decisions.

But we need hawks like Graham to remind us that we ignore the world at our own peril.

Bates’ article reminded me of George Washington and his warning against foreign entanglements. He did not approve of any permanent alliances or attachments to foreign nations but thought that the United States should stand for neutrality and prudent engagement.

In his Farewell Address of 1796, Washington urged the United States to avoid permanent alliances with any foreign nation, but at the same time, honoring existing treaties. He desired the young nation to stand independent in foreign affairs. He thought that America should be friends with all and enemies to none but should always stand ready to defend America. Hence, peace through strength. 

What Are the Threats against America?

The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday concerns threats in America that go “beyond the familiar divide between Democrats and Republicans.” According to Ben Shapiro in his article published at The Daily Signal, there are “two ideological movements – one on the far left, one emerging on the populist right.” The two movements “share a willingness to undermine the principles that have long defined the American experiment.” After opening his article with the quoted information, he explained as follows. 

On one side stands the Democratic Socialists of America, whose influence within the Democratic Party has grown dramatically. This is no longer simply a debate over tax rates or entitlement programs. The party’s activist wing has become increasingly hostile to the ideas that have undergirded th3e country for 250 years: freedom of speech, religious liberty, private property, free markets and the belief that America is an exceptional nation worth preserving.

The political consequences are no longer hypothetical. Democrats have a realistic chance to regain control of Congress in the 2026 midterm elections. Competitive Senate races across North Carolina, Ohio, Maine, Texas, Alaska, and Iowa underscore how narrow the margins have become. If Democrats were to reclaim both the House and Senate, the ramifications would extend far beyond the next two years.

The federal judiciary is the clearest example.

Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito are both in their late 70s. Should vacancies arise while Democrats control the Senate, the ideological balance of the court could shift for a generation. A new liberal majority would influence constitutional interpretation on everything from executive authority and religious liberty to economic regulation and the administrative state. At the same time, Democrats would accelerate confirmations throughout the federal judiciary, leaving an imprint that would outlast any single administration.

Those stakes make recent developments on the right especially consequential.

Tucker Carlson has spent recent weeks floating the idea of launching a third political party, arguing that Republicans and Democrats are effectively indistinguishable on issues of war, spending and finance. He portrays America’s two-party system as little more than a single political establishment masquerading as democracy.

That argument ignores the most significant policy differences in American politics. Republicans and Democrats remain sharply divided over taxation, judicial appointments, regulation, free markets, energy policy, and the proper role of government. Pretending those distinctions no longer exist requires overlooking the very issues that define modern elections….

[Carlson’s] current rhetoric politically [is] significant even if no third party ever appears on the ballot. Republicans already face the historical disadvantages of defending Congress during a president’s midterm. Voices on the right openly rooting for Republican defeats only increase the likelihood that Democrats, increasingly influenced by their progressive wing, will gain power.

Following the nation’s semiquincentennial, the debate should return to first principles rather than political personalities.

For 250 years, America’s strength has rested on enduring ideas: constitutional government, individual liberty, private property, free enterprise, religious freedom and peace through strength. Those principles have survived wars, economic crises and political upheaval because each generation chose to defend them rather than discard them.

The greatest challenge facing the country may not come from a single ideological movement but from competing factions that, despite their differences, are increasingly willing to abandon those foundational principles. If the United States is to thrive to its 300^th anniversary, its 500^th and beyond, it will depend not on charismatic personalities or political factions but on whether Americans remain committed to the ideals that made the republic possible.

 

Who Is with You?

My Come Follow Me studies for this week took me to 2 Kings 2-7 and a lesson titled “There Is a Prophet in Israel.” The following information introduced the lesson material. 

A prophet’s main mission is to teach and testify of the Savior Jesus Christ. Our record of the prophet Elisha, however, doesn’t include much of his teaching or testifying. What the record does include is the miracles Elisha performed, including raising a child from the dead (see 2 Kings 4:18-37), feeding a multitude with just a little food (see 2 Kings 4:42-44), and healing a leper (see 2 Kings 5:1-14). So while we don’t have Elisha’s words about Christ, we do have Elisha’s ministry and miracles, which do testify of Christ. They are powerful manifestations of the Lord’s life-giving, nourishing, and healing power. Miracles happen more often in our lives than we sometimes realize. To see them, we need to seek the faith Elisha had when he prayed on behalf of his fearful young servant: “Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see” (2 Kings 6:17).

The scripture block for this week teaches four main principles, including the following: (1) God can work miracles in my life (2 Kings 2-6); (2) The Lord will fulfill His words given through His prophets (2 Kings 4:8-17; 7:1-16); (3) As I am humble and obedient, Jesus Christ can heal me

(2 Kings 5); (4) “They that be with us are more than they that be with them” (2 Kings 6:8-23). This essay will discuss the last principle about those who are with us being more. First, we will study the scripture verses (2 Kings 6:8-18).

8 ¶ Then the king of Syria warred against Israel, and took counsel with his servants, saying, In such and such a place shall be my camp.

9 And the man of God sent unto the king of Israel, saying, Beware that thou pass not such a place; for thither the Syrians are come down.

10 And the king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God told him and warned him of, and saved himself there, not once nor twice.

11 Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled for this thing; and he called his servants, and said unto them, Will ye not shew me which of us is for the king of Israel?

12 And one of his servants said, None, my lord, O king: but Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy bedchamber.

13 ¶ And he said, Go and spy where he is, that I may send and fetch him. And it was told him, saying, Behold, he is in Dothan.

14 Therefore sent he thither horses, and chariots, and a great host: and they came by night, and compassed the city about.

15 And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do?

16 And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.

17 And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.

18 And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed unto the Lord, and said, Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness. And he smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.

Even though I try to follow Christ, there are times in my life when I feel outnumbered and fearful, much like the young servant of Elisha. I remember this experience of Elisha and his young servant, and I try to stay faithful in difficult circumstances. Sometimes it helps to make a list of those people who are in my life and support me. It helps to remember that God has probably placed me in the lives of other people to help them.

President Henry B. Eyring taught the following about this scripture story: “Like that servant of Elisha, there are more with you than those you can see opposed to you. Some who are with you will be invisible to your mortal eyes. The Lord will bear you up and will at times do it by calling others to stand with you” (“O Ye That Embark,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2008, 58). 

In Doctrine and Covenants 84:88, the Lord describes the support that He offers to us: “And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.” Consider times when you felt the Lord supporting you. You might also consider this question: What does God want me to see?

Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles referred to the story in 2 Kings 6:8-23 when he said the following:

We may or may not have chariots of fire sent to dispel our fears and conquer our demons, but the lesson is clear. The Lord is with us, mindful of us and blessing us in ways only He can do. Prayer can call down the strength and the revelation that we need to center our thoughts on Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice. The Lord knew that at times we would feel fear. I have been there and so have you. … In this Church we may be few in number by the way the world counts influence, but when we open our spiritual eyes, ‘they that be with us are more than they that be with them’ [2 Kings 6:16]” (“Be Not Troubled,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2018, 18, 19). 

Since God has probably placed people within your sphere of influence, how would you use these words to help those who feel anxious or afraid?

How Can Families Be Strengthened?

Families are stronger when “responsible citizens and officers of government everywhere … promote those measures designed to maintain and strengthen the family as the fundamental unit of society” (“The Family: A Proclamation to the World”). Strong families strengthen communities, states, and nations. 

The above referenced proclamation was read by President Gordon B Hinckley, as part of his message at the General Relief Society Meeting of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints held September 23, 1995, in Salt Lake City, Utah. It was later published by the Church of Jesus Christ.

While researching information on strengthening families, I found a web site sponsored by the State of Alaska, Department of Family and Community Services. The web site is titled “Strengthening Families Alaska.” 

According to the web site, Strengthening Families Alaska “is a research-informed, strength-based approach to helping families reduce stress, address risk factors, and promote healthy development.” The site continues: “The overarching goal is the promotion of child and family well-being .. based on engaging families, programs and communities in building five protective factors that help families succeed and strive, even in the face of risk and challenges.”

The Strengthening Families approach

·       Benefits ALL families and communities

·       Builds on family strengths, buffers risk, and promotes better outcomes

·       Can be implemented through small but significant changes in everyday actions

·       Builds on and can become a part of existing programs, strategies, systems and community opportunities

·       Is grounded in research, practice and implementation knowledge

What is special about this approach?

Communities, providers, and families can embed five protective factors seamlessly into their ongoing work to the benefit of families and children. Five Protective Factors are the foundation of the Strengthening Families Approach…. Research studies support the common-sense notion that when these Protective Factors are well established in a family, the likelihood of child abuse and neglect diminishes. Research shows that these Protective Factors are also “promotive” factors that build family strengths and a family environment that promotes optimal child and youth development.

Protective Factors

The Center for the Study of Social Policy initially spent two years researching and identifying five protective factors that prevent child abuse and neglect. Since the introduction of the Strengthening Families approach, the research base that originally informed the development of the protective factors framework, as well as scientific advances in various disciplines, has burgeoned. These advances in knowledge have deepened the understanding about child development and behavior, the developmental impacts of trauma, and the pathways to child and family well-being…. The five protective factors associated in research that are related to the prevention of child maltreatment are:

·       For adults:

§  Parental resilience

§  Social connections

§  Knowledge of parenting and child development

§  Concrete support in times of need

·       For children:

§  Healthy social and emotional development

What Is the First Freedom and Why Is It Essential?

The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday is that “religious freedom undergirds the very existence of America.” President Dallin H. Oaks of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints authored an essay about the First Amendment, moral absolutes, and why the Constitution was created for a religious people. The essay was published at the Deseret News and was adapted from an earlier address given at Chapman University School of Law. 

Here is a note from the Editor: The centrality of religious freedom to the revelatory nature of America’s founding is why we’ve curated seminal selections on this first freedom in honor of America’s 250^th anniversary. These essays highlight the critical role faith played and continue to play in living out the inherent truths of the Declaration of Independence.

The first provision in the Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution is what many believe to be its most important guarantee. It reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

For almost a century, the First Amendment’s guarantee that the United States shall have “no law (prohibiting) the free exercise (of religious)” has been understood as a limitation on state as well as federal power. The guarantee of religious freedom is one of the supremely important founding principles in the United States Constitution, and it is reflected in the constitutions of all 50 of our states.

As noted by many, the guarantee’s “pre-eminent place” as the first expression in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution identifies freedom of religion as “a cornerstone of American democracy.” The American Colonies were originally settled by people who, for the most part, came to this continent for the freedom to practice their religious faith without persecution, and their successors deliberately placed religious freedom first in the nation’s Bill of Rights.

So it is that our federal law formally declares: “The right to freedom of religion undergirds the very origin and existence of the United States,” So it is, I maintain, that in our nation’s founding and in our constitutional order, religious freedom and its associated First Amendment freedoms of speech and press are the motivating and dominating civil liberties and civil rights. Religious teachings and religious organizations are valuable and important to our free society and therefore deserve special legal protection.

Our nation’s inimitable private sector of charitable works originated and is still furthered most significantly by religious impulses and religious organizations…. Religious beliefs instill patterns of altruistic behavior.

Many of the great moral advances in Western society have been motivated by religious principles and moved through the public square by pulpit-preaching. The abolition of the slave trade in England and the Emancipation Proclamation in the United States … were driven primarily by individuals who had a clear vision of what was morally right and what was morally wrong. In our time, the Civil Rights Movement was, of course, inspired and furthered by religious leaders.

Religion also strengthens our nation in terms of honesty and integrity. Modern science and technology have given us remarkable devices, but we are frequently reminded that their operation in our economic system and the resulting prosperity of our nation rest on the honesty of the men and women who use them…. These standards and practices of honesty and integrity rest, ultimately, on our ideas of right and wrong, which, for most of us, are ground in principles of religion and the teachings of religious leaders.

Our society is not held together just by law and its enforcement, but most importantly by voluntary obedience to the unenforceable and by widespread adherence to unwritten norms of right or righteous behavior. Religious belief in right and wrong is a vital influence to advocate and persuade such voluntary compliance by a large proportion of our citizens.

Others, of course, have a moral compass not expressly grounded in religion….

My final example of the importance of religion in our country concerns the origin of the Constitution. Its formation over 200 years ago was made possible by religious principles of human worth and dignity, and only those principles in the hearts of a majority of our diverse population can sustain that Constitution today. I submit that religious values and political realities are so interlinked in the origin and perpetuation of this nation that we cannot lose the influence of religion in our public life without seriously jeopardizing our freedoms.

The founders who established this nation believed in God and in the existence of moral absolutes – right and wrong – established by this Ultimate Lawgiver. The Constitution they established assumed and relied on morality in the actions of its citizens. Where did that morality come from and how was it to be retained? Belief in God and the consequent reality of right and wrong was taught by religious leaders in churches and synagogues, and the founders gave us the First Amendment to preserve that foundation for the Constitution.

The preservation of religious freedom in our nation depends on the value we attach to the teachings of right and wrong in our churches, synagogues and mosques. It is faith in God that translates these religious teachings into the moral behavior that benefits the nation.

Articles of Faith: What Do Latter-day Saints Believe About the Godhead 4?

 

Article of Faith 1

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

                                and in the Holy Ghost.

 

This is the fourth article on the Godhead in my series on the Articles of Faith of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The past few weeks, 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.

Two weeks ago, I discussed the personality of each member of the Godhead, or Trinity. Last week, I used the words of Elder James E. Talmage to share some of the divine attributes of the Godhead (The Articles of Faith [1890], pp. 42-44). This week, I will share the words of Elder Bruce R. McConkie (A New Witness for the Articles of Faith [1985], 45-50) to discuss how God is or can be known to everyone.

1. God is known by instinct.

All men are spirit children of God the Eternal Father. In the premortal life we all dwelt in his presence, saw his face, and heard his voice. We were as well acquainted with him in that day as we are with our earthly fathers in this. The spirit within us is the offspring of God. Now housed in a tabernacle of clay, it is the intelligent, sentient, believing, knowing part of the human personality. The mind of man is in the spirit.

The probationary nature of our mortal estate calls for us to forget the life we lived and the experiences we had when we dwelt in the courts of the Eternal King. But it does not divest us of the spiritual and mental talents we acquired while in that eternal world. We are born into mortality with every innate capacity, every instinct to believe truth and cleave unto light, every faculty and ability with which we were then endowed.

Further, as part of life itself, all mortals are endowed with a heavenly gift called the light of Christ. This divine endowment manifests to us the difference between good and evil. We do not need to be taught what is right and wrong. This knowledge is bred in our bones; it is hereditary; it is innate, inborn, and intuitional in nature. Call it conscience, if you will, say that it is a divine inheritance from a Divine Parent; identify it as a spark of divinity sent by Deity to fire the soul with the flames of righteousness; call it the Spirit of Christ – it has many names. But what counts is that it is real. It is “the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” (D&C 93:2.) Of it Mormon said: “The Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil.” (Moroni 7:16.) In a revelation to Joseph Smith the Lord called it “the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and the Spirit giveth light to every man that cometh into the world.” All receive a divine inheritance at birth. It is a free gift as far as any act performed in mortality is concerned….

2. God is known by reason.

Man’s instinctive belief in God and his inborn desire to worship a Supreme Being is strengthened by reason. The seeds of belief are watered from the wells of reason, and the tree of faith soon sprouts in the believing soul. And the more man learns about himself and all the mysteries and marvels of the human body; the more he knows about life in all its forms and varieties; the greater his knowledge becomes about the planets and suns that sweep through the starry heavens – the more he knows about all things, the clearer it becomes to him that there is a divine hand, an omnipotent power, a supreme person, a ruling law that first created and now governs all that is. Truly, all things attest that there is an Almighty God. “All things denote there is a God,” Alma said, “yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea and all the planets which move in their regular form do witness there is a Supreme Creator.” (Alma 30:44.)

But seeking God by reason alone and through intellectual processes without more is fraught with peril. It is easy for a rational mind to see order in the system of creation and to learn of the laws by which worlds and galaxies are controlled. There are evidences of design on every hand; cause and effect operate in the animal and vegetable kingdoms as well as with the rocks and the rains. The peril lies in assuming that the laws and powers are God, in worshipping and serving “the creature more than the Creator.” (Romans 1:25.)

Neither instinct nor reason, nor the two combined, sets forth the nature and kind of being whom men must worship to gain salvation. Both simply lay a foundation and chart a course leading to a knowledge of the true and living God. Every rational person knows there is some supreme power, some first great cause, some omnipotent force in the universe. The reasoning step that follows this recognition is that the design is not the designer, the contrivance is not the contriver, the law and power are not the being by whom these came. The existence of created things simply bears witness that there is a Creator….

3. God is known through history and tradition.

Because God created man in his own image and likeness and placed him on earth as an essential requirement for gaining salvation, because salvation is gained through a knowledge of God and an obedience to the laws of his gospel, and because eternal life itself consists of knowing the Father and the Son, it follows that God must in necessity reveal himself and his laws to man. This he did. Adam our father, the first man of all men, the primal parent of the human race, received a knowledge of God by revelation. God the Eternal Father walked and talked with him in the Garden of Eden; the Lord Jehovah appeared to him after the fall; and from angelic ministrants and by the gift of the Holy Ghost he learned the saving truths of the gospel. This was the beginning of the knowledge of the true God among man. “And Adam and Eve blessed the name of God, and they made all things known unto their sons and their daughters.” (Moses 5:12.)

Adam is the pattern. He stands as earth’s first prophet, and among his righteous descendants a host of prophets are numbered. At least eight generations of descendants lived to hear his teachings. Presiding high priests representing seven of these generations (Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch, and Methuselah) were all with him at Adam-ondi-Ahman when the Lord Jehovah appeared and ministered among them. (D&C 107:53-55.) To see and commune with either the Father or the Son is to know them both, for hey are in the express image of each other and are one in all they do….

4. God is known by revelation.

Though every man in his inner being, by instinct and in the very marrow of his soul, knows there is a God; though logic and sense and reason, and the persuasive voice of nature, and the thunderous trumpet of creation, all bear witness that there is a God; though the voice of our fathers, carried to us by history and tradition, speaks the common consensus of all men that there is a God --- yet, in the final and supreme sense, there is only one way to know God. That way is by revelation. Where religion and divine beings are concerned, we are in the realm not of the mind and of the human senses, but of the Spirit. God stands revealed or he remains forever unknown. The Holy Ghost is a revelator. His mission is to reveal truth and to bear witness of the Father and the Son. There is no other way to gain knowledge of the true and living God; revelation alone is the source of that perfect wisdom….

“How do men obtain a knowledge of the glory of God, his perfections and attributes?” the Prophet [Joseph Smith] asked. His answer: “By devoting themselves to his service, through prayer and supplication incessantly strengthening their faith in him, until, like Enoch, the brother of Jared, and Moses, they obtain a manifestation of God to themselves.” (Lectures on Faith 2, Questions and Answers.) “Verily, thus saith the Lord: It shall come to pass that every soul who forsaketh his sins and cometh unto me, and calleth on my name, and obeyeth my voice, and keepeth my commandments, shall see my face and know that I am.” (D&C 93:1.)