A father and his son had enlisted to serve their country together. This day they fought together among a tiny army of 13 men against a much more sizable enemy of about 3000. Who were these men fighting and why? They lived in Connecticut and the army they faced, the British, had threatened their right to choose and exercise, privately and publicly, their beliefs. They recognized the pivotal importance of the moral agency, one of our most precious gifts from God.
Today, America is not the same land as it was when it was born. It had been a the greatest nation in the world and had enjoyed religious freedom and free speech for so long, even when people disagreed with each other. But things got ugly as soon as the minority, masquerading as the majority, those who had adopted an attitude of "choice for me but not for thee", convinced politicians that their agenda was more important personal choice, that their hurt feelings were more important than the reason America ever existed in the first place, religious freedom. A cry for the ideology of a false utopia slowly crept into our society, an ideology where everything is controlled and no one has any choice but to do what those who whine the most consider to be "right".
There was a war in heaven before anyone was ever born on this earth. The two sides were divided about whether or not we should have the freedom to choose, also called moral agency, or not. Agency, given to us from God, would mean that very few of us would make it back to heaven after this life with God knowing, though, that some of us would because of our proper use of agency. The opposing plan, authored by Satan, attempted to guarantee everyone salvation and perfection by forcing us all to make the right choices, which as ironic as it is, isn't making a choice at all.
According to wikipedia "Choice involves mentally making a decision: judging the merits of multiple options and selecting one or more of them." One thing Satan refused to acknowledge was the truth in these verses, "No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned; [b]y kindness, and pure knowledge, which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy, and without guile". He refused to acknowledge that unless the right choices we made were of our own free will when presented with all options, we would never go through the transformation needed to become clean and perfected through Jesus Christ. Being forced to make a choice by having no other option teaches us nothing. It would leave us in a state of eternal limbo, being miserable forever.
The two men at the beginning of this were my great great great great great grandfather and his father, John and David Pulsipher. Within my veins runs the courageous blood of those two men, who continue to fight for our Eternal Father's gift to us, agency. I am American. I will not forsake truth. I will not stand by and watch idly as the government of the country I came to love seeks to destroy free choice, the very fabric of human progression. Today I post this in an effort to wake up whoever I can and help them understand the value of religious freedom.
Today, I do not celebrate Independence for America as a nation, for America is no longer independent. It has been weakened so much by those who attempt to enforce Satan's plan that it can no longer stand on it's own. It's survival now depends on the pity of other nations and mercy from our enemies. It has become a haven for the selfish, the arrogant, the proud and the dishonest. It has become a den of robbery, oppression, fear, contention, murder, lust, fraud and all of the secret combinations through which Cain killed Abel, The Syrians attempted to overrun Israel, The Gadianton Robbers tried forcibly take control of a civilization (see 3 Nephi 2-4) and more. No, I do not celebrate Independence for America as a nation today.
Instead, I celebrate something much more universal, eternally significant and beautiful, the very thing by which America was made the free, glorious, choice, independent land it used to be.
America as a nation is no longer independent, so instead, I celebrate independence for Americans who still fight for freedom of speech and religion and the right to defend it. I celebrate independence for those who cherish those rights, be they religious or not. I celebrate religious freedom and the divine gift of moral agency itself and, as Captain Moroni did, stand fast in the "liberty wherewith [I] have been made free". I celebrate the remaining beauty of America that has not been polluted by political correctness or a false sense of entitlement. Today I invite the world to continue the good fight of which we were all a part before any of us were even born, the fight to remain free as children of God, to not be bound with the chains of addiction, selfishness, hate, fear, doubt, ignorance and laziness. I extend modern prophets and apostles invitations to repent and come unto Christ and fight for the gift that He so lovingly and courageously suffered for us to keep. I invite the world to choose the love of God and His precious Son, Jesus Christ and enable ourselves, through our own free will and the Atonement of Jesus Christ, to follow Him until the war is won and agency is permanently preserved as the glorious gift from God it is.
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