A friend was offered a job, but rather than inquiring about salary, benefits, or the proverbial corner office, he simply asked, “What do I get to decide?”
The power to decide is sovereignty. The power to be responsible for those decisions is agency. They are cousins; they must be in sync.
The brilliance of our inspired Constitution is that no longer were people to be subjects to a sovereign monarch under the false concept of divine right of kings, but they were to be sovereigns themselves – sovereigns over their government.
But there are those in high places today who claim that the Founding Fathers created government and government created rights. That stands the truth on its head. And therein lies the threat.
Because a major test of mortality is how we handle power, being able to exercise sovereignty – individually and together with fellow citizens – is germane to our progress. God gives us power to use power one step at a time, which ties to the Savior’s parable of the talents in which he who has been faithful over a few things will be made ruler over many things.
Satan on the other hand wants governments – be they headed by a king (once known as the Sovereign) or even an elected president – to be sovereign because concentrated power is easier for him to manipulate and makes it easier to undermine God’s great gift of agency.
Although the Constitution is clear on the point, the actionable sovereignty of the people is never safe. Unfair elections, withheld information, organizational complexity, ambiguity of responsibility, bureaucratic red tape, difficulty petitioning government, inaccessible officials, deification of the elected, and unaccountability of rule-making agencies are well-known methods by which a power elite attempts to rule those who hired them. The bumper sticker should not be the trite “Power to the people” but rather “Accountability to the people.”
If we can protect our sovereignty against those who would return us to the Dark Ages where the king’s word was law, the blessings of agency are ours.
Otherwise, it’s serf city here we come.
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Gary Lawrence is a public opinion pollster and author of “How Americans View Mormonism” and “Mormons Believe … What?!” This article is an excerpt from his forthcoming book “The Relocated War in Heaven: Strategies and Tactics in Today’s Battle Against Evil.“
Wayne FordJune 3, 2013
In addition to the corruption in government we see, and the loss of "sovereignty" that Gary speaks of, I would like to add: All roads lead to money. Money is the preemptor of every fallacy we have in government. It starts with money determining who gets elected, and continues with who controls those who do get elected. Until we find a way to provide equal opportunity for anyone to run for office---regardless of his ability to raise enormous sums of money---money will rule our nation.
Randy PhillipsJune 3, 2013
Gary, Once again, you are spot on! Randy