11. A Christmas Greeting

A Christmas message from the cover of the December 1976 issue of the Cleverly Newsletter.

Dear Family,

Another Christmas has come and another year draws to an end. If yours has been anything like ours this year, it has gone by fast, almost too fast—especially as we survey all the things we have and haven't done.

Our family newsletter is now in its fourth year of publication. We are very grateful for the support each of you has given to make it as successful and worthwhile as it has been. Thank you all very much.

Now, we wish you all a very merry Christmas and a prosperous and happy New Year.

— Dean & Claudia

10. Goodness and Wisdom

An editorial comment in a special election issue of the Cleverly Newsletter dated October 26, 1976.

The November elections are soon upon us. Editorially the Newsletter had not intended to take a stand favoring any particular party, issue, or candidate. We firmly believe that each member of the family can and should arrive at his own conclusions after weighing the facts and considering the issues. We think it entirely appropriate that the important decisions made next Tuesday be made a matter of serious personal study and prayer.

As indicated, we had not intended to take a stand. However, we now feel compelled to do so for various reasons.

First, we firmly believe the maxim that "all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." We feel that we have an obligation to let you know where we stand and why.

Second, it has been a long-standing tradition in America for newspapers and other publications to publicly endorse candidates. We feel that this is a healthy practice if it helps the citizenry sort out the issues and the candidates.

Third, and most important in our minds, we feel that there are some specific candidates who do not merit our support—specifically, Jimmie Carter and, for those of us in Utah, Allen Howe. Now, in saying this, we speak for ourselves and do not imply in any way that we represent the overall family, the Church, or any other agency.

Jimmie Carter, by his own admission, does not qualify as one who is either good or wise. And these are precisely the qualifications the Lord tells us should be required of every office seeker: "Honest men and wise men should be sought for diligently, and good men and wise men ye should observe to uphold" (D&C 98:10; italics added).

No man, in our opinion, who says, "I've looked on a lot of women with lust," deserves or is capable of fulfilling the trust associated with the presidency of these United States. John Adams, the second president of our nation, said: "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other" (John R. Howe Jr., The Changing Political Thought of John Adams, 189).

That is simply a true fact: Our government will only work if we are a moral and a religious people. Public morality cannot be disassociated from private morality, as Watergate should have taught us.

George Washington, the father of our country, said the same thing in other words: "Of all the dispositions and habits, which leade to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the destinies of men and citizens. . . . And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. . . .

"Can it be, that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a nation with its virtue?" (George Washington's Farewell Address, The World's Great Speeches, 254, 256).

Alexis de Tocqueville expressed a similar thought: "I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers, and it was not there; in her fertile fields and boundless prairies, and it was not there; in her rich mines and her vast world commerce, and it was not there. Not until I went to the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great" (Jerrald L. Newquist, Prophets, Principles and National Survival, 60; italics added).

We do not feel that Jimmie Carter qualifies as one who is good in the sense that the Lord meant it. Nor do we feel that he is very wise, especially when a leader of his own party says that he should have kept his mouth shut. According to Senate Republican leader Hugh Scott, "The trouble with Jimmie Carter is that when he says what he really thinks, it comes out pretty scary."

It is for similar reasons we oppose Congressman Allen Howe, the incumbent Utah Democrat seeking reelection to the House and who has twice been convicted of soliciting sex for hire. We also have our doubts about Howe's goodness and wisdom. He seems unable to accept or follow good counsel—either from the leaders of his own party or from a prophet of God, who publicly said that Howe should not seek reelection. Howe is a member of the Church. He should know better. If his judgment is no better than that, we do not want him representing us in Congress.

A prophet of God has wisely said, "Many Americans have lost sight of the truth that righteousness is one of the indispensable ingredient to liberty. . . .

"Unless we as citizens of this nation forsake our sins, political and otherwise, and return to the fundamental principles of Christianity and of constitutional government, we will lose our political liberties, our free institutions, and will stand in jeorpardy before God of losing our exaltation. I am in full agreement with the statement made by President J. Reuben Clark Jr.:

"'I say to you that the price of liberty is and always has been blood, human blood, and if our liberties are lost, we shall never regain them except at the price of blood. They must not be lost!' (Stand by Our Constitution, 137).

"Yes, I repeat, righteousness is an indispensable ingredient to liberty. Virtuous people elect wise and good representatives. Good representatives make good laws and then wisely administer them. This tends to preserve righteousness. An unvirtuous citizenry tend to elect representatives who will pander to their covetous lustings. The burden of self-government is a great responsibility. It calls for restraint, righteousness, responsibility, and reliance upon God. It is a truism from the Lord that 'when the wicked rule the people mourn' (D&C 98:9)" (Ezra Taft Benson, Ensign, May 1976, 92-93).

9. Bringing Order Out of Chaos

A report on the clean-up effort following the June 5, 1976, Teton Dam disaster in eastern Idaho, as reported in the September 1976 issue of the Cleverly Newsletter.

A hand-scribbled sign on the wall of the Rexburg Idaho North Stake center reads: “Let’s bring order out of chaos the priesthood way.” And that’s what thousands of faithful, dedicated Rexburg Saints are trying to do, assisted by millions of man-hours of labor donated by thousands of other Saints from southern Idaho, western Wyoming, and northern Utah.

On Thursday, July 8, I took a day off work to go with some 260 others from our stake to help in the great clean-up effort. We left at 3:45 in the morning on six chartered buses and arrived back in Salt Lake at midnight, very tired, but very grateful to have been able to serve our Idaho brethren.

It was sobering to see the destruction, the utter dirty mess that was still around in the north and west parts of Rexburg, and to realize that a full month had passed since the flood.

I helped a man whose jewelry store still needed more cleaning. Mud was everywhere. He was one of the fortunate storekeepers. He had lost only his entire inventory and his home; he still had his family and his faith in the gospel and his shop. He was optimistic and grateful.

What we were helping do on that day was also being done on other days by volunteers from scores of other stakes—an excellent example of how the Saints can bring order out of chaos the priesthood way.

Elder Boyd K. Packer said that “it is not without probability that all of us will face challenges such as this in the generation ahead and that this is a suiting up and a preparing for all of us” (Ensign, Aug. 1976, 70).

8. Our Message for America

A thought in commemoration of the American bicentennial published on the cover of the March 1976 Cleverly Newsletter as adapted from a talk I gave on Sunday, February 29, 1976, in the sacrament meeting of the Rose Park Fourth Ward, Salt Lake Rose Park Stake.

Elder L. Tom Perry, of the Council of the Twelve, indicated in a recent address he gave that we as members of the Church have a positive three-fold message for America as we celebrate the bicentennial:

1. America’s earliest history is contained in the Book of Mormon and other scriptures.

2. The discovery of America and the founding of this nation were parts of God’s plan.

3. The future of America’s destiny depends on the righteousness of America’s families.

Let’s talk a little now of the founding of this nation. If you stop to think about it, the American revolution must be ranked as one of the significant miracles of all recorded history. Here were thirteen little, weak, struggling colonies who couldn’t even agree among themselves who were standing up against and defeating what was then the world’s mightiest, most powerful empire. In my mind, there is no way to account for it except to say that God had a hand in it. And, of course, He did.

Nephi, nearly 2,400 years before it happened, prophesied America’s struggle for independence: “And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld that the Gentiles who had gone forth out of captivity did humble themselves before the Lord; and the power of the Lord was with them.

“And I beheld that their mother Gentiles were gathered together upon the waters, and upon the land also, to battle against them.

“And I beheld that the power of God was with them, and also that the wrath of God was upon all those that were gathered together against them to battle.

“And I, Nephi, beheld that the Gentiles that had gone out of captivity were delivered by the power of God out of the hands of all other nations.

“And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld that they did prosper in the land” (1 Nephi 13:16–20).

The next great miracle was the framing of the Constitution. With independence finally won, thirteen impoverished little countries (who still couldn’t agree on anything) sat down and united themselves into a union unparalleled in human history. And the God of heaven endorsed the Constitution they drafted:

“According to the laws and constitution of the people, which I have suffered to be established, and should be maintained for the rights and protection of all flesh, according to just and holy principles;

“That every man may act in doctrine and principle pertaining to futurity, according to the moral agency which I have given unto him, that every man may be accountable for his own sins in the day of judgment.

“Therefore, it is not right that any man should be in bondage one to another.

“And for this purpose have I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose, and redeemed the land by the shedding of blood” (D&C 101:77–80).

Of course, we today understand in context why all this had to take place. God Almighty needed an America in order to restore the everlasting gospel through the Prophet Joseph Smith. America has been, is, and will continue to be the Lord’s home base of operations in the latter days. From this place is the sound to go forth unto all the world, for out of Zion shall go forth the law.

And that’s a part of why I love America with all my heart.