- JULY 2015
- RELIGION AND GOVERNMENT
Religion and Government
By Elder Wilford W. Andersen
Of the Seventy
Societies depend in large part upon religion and churches to establish moral order. Government can never build enough jails to house the criminals produced by a society lacking in morality, character, and faith. These attributes are better encouraged by religious observance than by legislative decree or police force. It is impossible for government to control the attitudes, desires, and hopes that spring from the human heart. And yet these are the seeds that grow into the conduct government must regulate.
Civility in society is achieved when the majority of people do what is moral because they believe they should, not because they are compelled by law or by police force.
Government oversees the conduct of its citizens. It tries to get them to behave in a decent and moral way. Religion, on the other hand, tries to get them to desire to behave in a decent and moral way.
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