In 1966, the Prophet, David O. McKay was so concerned with the rise of Communism and its attending evils of Socialism and the Welfare State both around the world and in the United States that he asked Marion G. Romney to give a specific talk addressing the issue at the April 1966 General Conference (click HERE for that full talk). President McKay then went on to personally and forcibly denounce the ideologies himself as well. Most members are unaware of these forcible (and doctrinally based) denouncements of these ideologies, instead believing that only Ezra Taft Benson spoke out on these issues. Overall, the April 1966 General Conference has a wide range of talks on topics from how Angel Moroni is a symbol of the restoration, to the importance of obedience! To the importance of being “true Christians,”
I hope you enjoy this tenth installment of quotes from my studies of the General Conference Archives (If you want to read prior installments click HERE). For the first installment and an explanation of the Conference Archives see “55+ Powerful Quotes From My Study of the Oct. 1970 General Conference” To read this conference report PDF from the Church History Catalog click HERE, for the Archive.org PDF (with speech-to-text, click here) I hope you enjoy these quotes from my studies. But more than enjoy them, I hope they serve as a starting point for your own study of the Apr. 1966 General Conference! Use the page number and the above links to access the full talks. Enjoy!
55+ Profund Quotes From My Study of the Apr. 1966 General Conference
“The times of the Gentiles are near their close.”
Joseph Fielding Smith
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 12
“The spires of the temple capped with the Angel Moroni are one of the landmarks of the restoration of the Church and gospel of Jesus Christ through heavenly messengers here on this earth.”
Bernard P. Brockbank
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 16
“War doesn’t solve a single human problem, and yet the one place where our generation excels most is in its ability to make war. Modern war is undoubtedly the most highly developed of all of our sciences.”
Sterling W. Sill
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 21
“The essence and purpose of the Savior’s life was salvation — not condemnation. He died that we might live, opening the way to eternal life and blessing us with the principles of the gospel, the second of which is repentance. He recognized that none of us is perfect nor free from sin.”
Victor L. Brown
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 22
“He taught us to overcome our prejudices and enmities, for all human difficulties can be overcome through the application of Christlike love.”
Mark E. Petersen
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 29
“Christians of today must reassess the depth of their allegiance to Christ. It does no good to honor him with our lips if our hearts are far from him.”
Mark E. Petersen
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 30
“If there is one thing more than another that the Lord despises, it is hypocrisy. None in his day received the condemnation that he heaped upon the hypocritical professors of piety.”
Mark E. Petersen
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 30
“We ‘Christians’ need to take a new look at true Christianity and ask ourselves if we are willing to become genuine disciples of the Savior. True disciples will follow him and will do his will.”
Mark E. Petersen
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 32
“Satan selects his disciples when they are idle; Jesus selected his when they were busy at their work either mending their nets or casting them into the sea.”
Herndon as quoted by Elder John Longden
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 39
“Can you endure others and their differences of opinion? Can you accept the gospel of Jesus Christ in the face of adversity?”
Eldred G. Smith
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 40 (Click HERE his whole talk “Socialism and the United Order Compared”)
“To endure means more than just a good start alone; we must finish with zeal.”
Eldred G. Smith
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 40 (Click HERE his whole talk “Socialism and the United Order Compared”)
“There are many people who live the so-called good life because of fear, but as Christians we must not serve for this reason. Fear must be banished from our hearts.”
Howard W. Hunter
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 40
“It doesn’t take money to pay tithing — it takes faith.”
Robert L. Simpson
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 52
“Observance of tithing brings spiritual power and after all, that to me, is the main thing. Religion is more than mere repose or relaxation. It is positive spiritual exercise. It makes for the growth of the soul, it cultivates all of the virtues. So one who is serious about religion will be willing to give to it the things which are vital to himself.”
Stephen L. Richards
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 54
“Those of you who have discarded faith will live to regret it. There are times such as this when you lose a loved one by death that science is entirely inadequate. I commend you to think seriously about these matters. They give comfort and solace which can be obtained in no other way. Many have discarded religion because it appears unscientific. I believe you will find in the last analysis that Faith is scientific.”
An anonymous eminent Doctor of Medicine as quoted by David O. McKay
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 58
“This loving God who introduced his crucified and resurrected Son was not a God lacking in body, parts, or passions — the God of a man-made philosophy. Rather, God our Father has ears with which to hear our prayers. He has eyes with which to see our actions. He has a mouth with which to speak to us. He has a heart with which to feel compassion and love. He is real. He is living. We are his children made in his image. We look like him and he looks like us.”
Thomas S. Monson
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 63
“Many questions are asked today as the disturbed conditions in the world become more confusing and appalling to our people and to others who are shocked by the continuance of undeclared wars and by the spectacle of government affairs and some private and public businesses being dominated, in many instances, by official mandate rather than by due legislative processes.”
Harold B. Lee
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 64
“The Church is a continuing revolution against any and all norms of society that fall below the gospel standards. Within the gospel of Jesus Christ may be found the solution to every problem confronting us that will enable us to find happiness here and eternal life in the world to come.”
Harold B. Lee
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 65
“Ours is the great responsibility to become fully involved in the great drive going forward in the Church today: to impress parents with their responsibility to teach their own families in their homes … to the end that we might develop a gospel scholarship in the individual that will withstand in this evil day the forces that, without this abiding testimony of the gospel, would make us and our children prey to all the vices and false ideologies in the world.”
Harold B. Lee
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 68
“The height of a man’s success is gauged by his self-mastery; the depth of his failure by his self-abandonment. There is no other limitation in either direction. And this law is the expression of eternal justice. He who cannot establish a dominion over himself will have no dominion over others, he who masters himself shall be king.”
Horace Greeley as quoted by Spencer W. Kimball
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 68
“Economically, the world at present is disturbed about inflation. And it has been stated that only a spiritual revival can prevent it from becoming a catastrophe.”
Alma Sonne
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 76
“When all is said and done, the best hedge against inflation is the character of the people. New ideas, new methods, new departures from the beaten path will come and go, but fundamental things like thrift, self- reliance, and hard work will be restored in the final solution.”
Alma Sonne
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 76
“The task before us is to safeguard the moral and spiritual agencies required to preserve a healthy and God-inspired civilization”
Alma Sonne
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 77
“To know God in that full sense which will enable us to gain eternal salvation means that we must know what he knows, enjoy what he enjoys, experience what he experiences. In New Testament language, we must ‘be like him.’ (1 John 3:2.)”
Bruce R. McConkie
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 78
“Compliance to counsel without knowledge of the reason therefore is often referred to as blind obedience. But obedience is not blind when it is based on faith — implicit, trusting faith.”
Henry D. Taylor
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 83
“Do we hearken unto the chosen servants of the Lord, who prepare these valuable aids for us? Do we render obedience to the counsel that comes to them through inspiration and revelation from our Father in heaven?”
Henry D. Taylor
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 83
“Obedience is heaven’s first law, and it is the law of home. There can be no true happiness in the home without obedience — obedience obtained, not through physical force, but through the divine element of love.”
David O. McKay as quoted by Henry D. Taylor
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 84
“There are voices of democracy competing with voices of Communism, and each is winning converts according to the discernment and the judgment of listeners. The stakes are high, the weapons are sophisticated, the methods are clever.”
Gordon B. Hinckley
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 84
“Spiritual strength is like physical strength; it is like the muscle of my arm. It grows only as it is nourished and exercised.”
Gordon B. Hinckley
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 87
“The cause of Christ does not need your doubts; it needs your strength and time and talents; and as you exercise these in service, your faith will grow and your doubts will wane.”
Gordon B. Hinckley
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 87
“Either we live pure lives or we don’t. Either we think pure thoughts or we don’t. Purity isn’t simply a noun. It is a verb. It is the living of a certain kind of life. It is the thinking of certain kinds of thoughts. Its proof is in keeping the commandments. Goodness is not theory, it is fact.”
Richard L. Evans
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 89
“If we love our children we will urge them to prepare as fully as they can for life, persuade them to acquire all the training and education possible. If we love our children we will keep as close to them as possible and do our utmost to keep them free from sin and from anything that would clutter or scar their lives.”
Richard L. Evans
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 89
“No one’s life is his own. Too much of others has gone into the making of all of us. We cannot hurt ourselves without hurting others. A sorrow, an illness, a disgrace, an accident, trouble, or difficulty of any kind — any loss to loved ones is a loss to family and friends. We are too much a part of one another for this not to be so.”
Richard L. Evans
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 90
“God help us to be members not of record only, but members who place doing and serving and living the requirements of the gospel above our comfort or convenience.”
Richard L. Evans
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 90
“It is important to believe; it is important to be; but it is also important to do.”
Richard L. Evans
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 90
“A desired goal generates courage and definite purpose in the day-to-day affairs of life.”
John H. Vandenberg
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 92
“Goal-setting is absolutely necessary for happy living. But the goal is only part of the desired procedures. We need to know which roads to take to reach the goal. In many cases we set far-reaching goals but neglect the short-range ones.”
John H. Vandenberg
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 94
“We should seek diligently for and support men to represent us in government who are ‘wise’ enough to understand freedom — as provided for in the Constitution and as implemented in the United Order — and who are honest enough and good enough to fight to preserve it.”
Marion G. Romney
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 99 (Click HERE his whole talk “Socialism and the United Order Compared”)
“Socialism, wholly materialistic, is founded in the wisdom of men and not of God. Although all socialists may not be atheists, none of them in theory or practice seek the Lord to establish his righteousness. (D&C 1:16)”
Marion G. Romney
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 97 (Click HERE his whole talk “Socialism and the United Order Compared”)
“In both implementation and ownership and management of property, the United Order preserves to men their God-given agency, while socialism deprives them of it.”
Marion G. Romney
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 97 (Click HERE his whole talk “Socialism and the United Order Compared”)
“The spirit of socialism: We’re going to take. The spirit of the United Order is: We’re going to give.”
Marion G. Romney
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 98 (Click HERE his whole talk “Socialism and the United Order Compared”)
“The United Order can never function under socialism or ‘the welfare state,’ for the good and sufficient reason that the principles upon which socialism and the United Order are conceived and operated are inimical.”
Marion G. Romney
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 100 (Click HERE his whole talk “Socialism and the United Order Compared”)
“For three things I pray:
(1) That the Lord will somehow quicken our understanding of the differences between socialism and the United Order and give us a vivid awareness of the awful portent of those differences.
(2) That we will develop the understanding, the desire, and the courage, born of the Spirit, to eschew socialism and to support and sustain, in the manner revealed and as interpreted by the Lord, those just and holy principles embodied in the Constitution of the United States for the protection of all flesh, in the exercise of their God-given agency.
(3) That through faithful observance of the principles of tithing, the fast, and the welfare program, we will prepare ourselves to redeem Zion and ultimately live the United Order”
Marion G. Romney
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 101 (Click HERE his whole talk “Socialism and the United Order Compared”)
“Never refuse to serve. When a presiding officer asks your help, be glad to accept and give the best you have to that labor. The Lord expects this of us, and we are under covenant to do so.”
Joseph Fielding Smith
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 102
“Let us be men. Let us not be sissies. Anybody can drink, and anybody can smoke. It doesn’t take brains to do that. But it does take brains and a little willpower and a little sense to refuse the first smoke and the first drink of alcohol … keep the Word of Wisdom, knowing that it is a commandment of the Lord. It is for your own good. You are not a sissy. Don’t be a fool.”
N. Eldon Tanner
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 105
“Any human society is free to choose either to display great energy, or to enjoy sexual freedom; the evidence is that they cannot do both for more than one generation.”
Dr. J. D. Unwin as quoted by David O. McKay
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 106
“Doctrine and Covenants, section 68, verse 28, leaves no question as to the responsibility of parents to teach their children — a responsibility too frequently shifted to the shoulders of the Church, public schools, and officers of the law.”
David O. McKay
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 107
“I pray with an earnest heart, God keep you away from the base, scheming plans of him who enthrones passion, who decries self-control, who renounces the sacredness of the family, and who, in the words of the communist, Marx himself, would ‘dethrone God.’”
David O. McKay
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 108
“Communism greatest threat to peace and the spread of God’s word to men.”
David O. McKay
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 109
“The position of this Church on the subject of Communism has never changed. We consider it the greatest satanical threat to peace, prosperity, and the spread of God’s work among men that exists on the face of the earth.”
David O. McKay
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 109
“Our immediate concern, however, is not with parties, groups, or persons, but with principles. We therefore commend and encourage every person and every group who is sincerely seeking to study Constitutional principles and awaken a sleeping and apathetic people to the alarming conditions that are rapidly advancing about us. We wish all of our citizens throughout the land were participating in some type of organized self-education in order that they could better appreciate what is happening and know what they can do about it.”
David O. McKay
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 109
“The entire concept and philosophy of Communism is diametrically opposed to everything for which the Church stands.”
David O. McKay
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 109
“Communism destroys man’s God-given free agency. No member of this Church can be true to his faith, nor can any American be loyal to his trust, while lending aid, encouragement, or sympathy to any of these false philosophies; for if he does, they will prove snares to his feet.”
David O. McKay
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 110
“There must be a reaffirmation of the truths concerning the fatherhood of God, the godhood of Christ, and the brotherhood of man — truths for which the Savior lived and died. Brotherhood — love of God and fellowmen — will make men free and establish peace in a world that is threatened with a devastating and final war.”
Hugh B. Brown
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 118
“A comprehensive knowledge of prophecy (which is but history foretold) and of history (which is often prophecy fulfilled) confirms the fact that God lives.”
Hugh B. Brown
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 118
“Be cheerful in all that you do. Live joyfully. Live happily. Live enthusiastically, knowing that God does not dwell in gloom and melancholy, but in light and love.”
Ezra Taft Benson
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 129
“Go forward intelligently and yield simple and loyal obedience to all the laws of the universe and the truths of eternity.”
Ezra Taft Benson
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 132
“Prophets, whether in ancient or modern times, prayed to a God who was alive. For them he is alive and present. He acts, he moves, he informs, he intervenes. He transmits knowledge and power. He is not just ultimate, he is intimate. He is a person. He is a jealous God.”
N. Eldon Tanner
CR, Apr. 1966, pp. 138
“There is no other way; there are no shortcuts in the kingdom of God. We repent, we forgive, we progress, and may we remind ourselves once more, it all starts with our own willingness to forgive one another.”
Robert L. Simpson
CR, Oct. 1966, pp. 129
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