66th Anniversary of Martyrdom of Helmuth Huebner

Hey everyone!

I just got out of a lecture that i heard about from my German class that was about a young member in Nazi Germany who tried to make a difference. The lecture was held today commemorating the beheading of the young man, Helmuth Huebner, who stood up to the Nazi government and tried to make the lies known. The first half of the lecture was interesting about the history and stories of members in the Third Reich. There were members who ranged completely across the political spectrum. It was interesting for me that there were even members who would have personally gone against this young man, had they known what he was doing before he was killed.

The speaker, a BYU professor of germanic and slavic languages, then took his opinion out and taught it a little too openly, I think. He said at the end that he wasn't in any way trying to compare Nazi Germany with our government today, but one of his main points in his thesis did just that. He said that one problem of the members in Germany at that time was that they were very under-educated about their situation. That was one way that Helmuth Huebner knew that the Allies were right and the Nazis were wrong, because he secretly listened to the English radio stations. He heard how the Nazis were covering things and making news to sound like they were winning, where the Allies were reporting the news fairly, admitting to their losses as well as their victories.

I thought it was interesting how at the end of the lecture Dr Keele invited us all to reread the sermons on the Mount and from the Tower, from Christ and King Benjamin, and re-evaluate what we should believe in. He brought up an interesting point that too many Mormons vote Republican just because all the Mormons do it.

The other side to that, however, was that he was criticizing the Bush administration the whole time, and even called him a weak man. I just want all of you to know that, without worrying too much about the past, except to see where mistakes were made, I think we need to think about what we're doing in this nation, and that the election next week is very important. I'm not sure if you all heard of Senator Obama's views of changing the nation to socialism (to some extent, at least) don't work nearly as well as he makes them seem. I saw this first hand in Germany. They have socialistic health care there, and it doesn't work nearly as it is described on paper. Maybe it was just because I worked a lot with the lower class; but there were also many in higher classes who taught me a lot about their situation. Changing to socialism would be rewriting the constitution and would be taking away our inalienable rights. My ability to earn so much a year would probably match that of what some would receive from this redistribution of wealth. Except they wouldn't have to work for it. Coming from our family, I consider myself somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, so I imagine those above me would have to give and those below me would receive, and not too much would happen for me.

The problem with this is the natural man. Just like Communism, the system would work perfectly if all gave their best and all was fair. But, as I saw in Germany, too many people just stopped giving and started relying on receiving. There was even a couple that I taught who would not get married because as long as he was a student and she had children, they would receive more from the government. My ideas are not based on the fact that the rich should give to the poor, although that would also be good, but on the fact that when things are made too easy to get, we lose sight on endurance. We lose sight on the eternal principle of work, endurance, patience.

"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father."

Yes it works on paper, but socialism only feeds the natural man. The Church tried the Las of Consecration, which worked amazingly well with the spiritually minded. There were, however, a few who fell back into being natural men, and ruined it for the rest of the Church. This nation is not yet ready to have a human-made Law of Consecration, much less a godly Law of Consecration. Those who know nothing of not being natural men will ruin it for all of us who do know.

Sorry this is so long, but I think it is important. I love you all!

-Andrew