The growing world-wide responsibilities of the Church make it inadvisable for the Church to seek to respond to all of the various and complex issues involved in the mounting problems of the many cities and communities in which members live. But this complexity does not absolve members as individuals from filling their responsibilities as citizens in their own communities.

We urge our members to do their civic duty and to assume their responsibilities as individual citizens in seeking solutions to the problems which beset our cities and communities.

With our wide ranging mission, so far as mankind is concerned, Church members cannot ignore the many practical problems that require solution if our families are to live in an environment conducive to spirituality.

Where solutions to these practical problems require cooperative action with those not of our faith, members should not be reticent in doing their part in joining and leading in those efforts where they can make an individual contribution to those causes which are consistent with the standards of the Church.

Individual Church members cannot, of course, represent or commit the Church, but should, nevertheless, be 'anxiously engaged' in good causes, using the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as their constant guide.

It seems to me that the rights of the state can be nothing but the regularizing of pre-existent personal rights. For my part, I cannot conceive a collective right that does not have its foundation in an individual right or presuppose it. Hence, to know whether the state is legitimately invested with a right, we must ask whether the individual has that right in virtue of his nature and in the absence of all government.

The different roles of men and women

This statement suggests that before we were born we made certain commitments, female and male, and that we agreed to come to this earth with great, rich, but separate gifts. We were called, male and female, to do great works, with separate approaches and separate assignments, and accordingly were given different songs to sing. You say, Where do I begin? Rather than beginning with a wish list of all the things you want in life, the real question may be what you are not willing to do without. You should select two or three of life’s experiences that you are absolutely sure you want to have; these important things you should not leave to chance. Then you should think about what you can contribute to society by way of service to the Church, home, and community. You also need to think of what life will demand from you. Everything has its price. Much is expected of us.

Blogs are interesting because they are honest windows into other people's interests and passions. As it turns out, the world is full of fascinating, extremely smart people. The opportunity to learn what motivates, interests and excites them-- professionally or personally-- is invaluable. And often in a purely practical sense. I've found an answer to a Google query in a blog entry more than once.

Our greatest strengths can become our greatest weaknesses.

You may be skilled and well prepared in some areas of your life, but that can also become a great weakness if you rely solely on these abilities. If you are not careful, the skills you have gained can be very self-serving when not properly balanced, and they may become very limiting.

For instance, if you cannot get along with other people, you will fail. You must now apply the knowledge you have gained to strengthen the Church, your family, your work, the community, and your friendships.

Our greatest strengths can become weaknesses to us whenever we forget that our gifts, talents, and intellect are given to us by God—whenever we rely on the “natural man” (Mosiah 3:19) and forget that God is the giver of all the gifts of life. If we would keep our strength from turning to weakness, we must “confess … his hand in all things, and obey … his commandments” (D&C 59:21).

Next to family and Church, the community probably has the most powerful influence on an individual's moral sensibilities. The moral standards of a community determine the nature of the entertainment allowed and the types of magazines and books sold in the community. In fact, U.S. courts of law use prevailing community standards to judge whether or not materials are pornographic.

...If we choose to overlook or ignore our community responsibilities, we may well be abdicating control of the influences on our families to others. Our standards and values can be an influence for good in our community-but only when we become involved and share that influence.

There is something else Joseph accomplished—something that is obliquely suggested by the very difficulty of knowing whether to define the people who now revere him as a church, a religion, a culture, an ethnicity, a global tribe, or something else. Joseph succeeded in creating a community with no real parallel—and few precedents—in the history of the world. The Prophet’s brother Hyrum tried to capture the unique quality of this society when, a few months before Joseph’s death, he said: “Men’s souls conform to the society in which they live, with very few exceptions, and when men come to live with the Mormons, their souls swell as if they were going to stride the planets.”

It is the quality of this community, not its rate of increase, that is the more vital fact—and the more enduring mystery—of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Political thought has traditionally been polarized between competing theories, one position emphasizing man's communality and the other his individuality.

The theory of communality has been characterized by a belief in objective reality---a strand of classical Greek thought which held that because the good existed and could be discerned, force was justified in obtaining it; that is, the good is known and is embodied in the whole of the community, and the individual may therefore be coerced into conforming to that fact. Force is legitimated by the end to be achieved.

The theory of individuality was based upon a rejection of the premise that man can discern objective reality by reason and by intuition. Denying either (or both) the existence of universal principles or the ability of man to perceive them if they did exist, this form of liberalism asserts the subjectivity of knowledge and ethics, since both arise solely from man's sense experience and his individualistic desires. Freedom becomes simply the untrammeled accomplishment of individual desires. Coercion therefore has no moral base but is simply tolerated, at the lowest possible level, so that individual man might accomplish without infringement by others his individually discerned desires. Community is therefore minimal and artificial.

Latter-day Saint theology maintains that a mixture of truth and error exists in both classical Greek and liberal thought. Objective reality exists and can be known, forming the basis of uncoerced and natural community. At the same time, however, the Latter-day Saint belief in man's uncreated individuality and in the sanctity of his agency---an agency so sacrosanct that God himself will not infringe upon it---denies the legitimacy of force as a means of attaining the community's ends. Man's goal is seen as being the perfection of his individuality in the image of his Heavenly Father, until he is able to enjoy a celestial community. The attainment of such a goal, however, can only be accomplished by loving persuasion, not by force.

Latter-day Saint theology offers a solution to an age-old paradox---the conflict between individualism and communality---by suggesting a harmony between them in which each is essential to the other. Man's individuality, stemming from his eternal and uncreated intelligence and protected by the principle of agency, is developed to its ultimate godlike potential as he serves his brothers and sisters without compulsory means in righteousness and love.

A second characteristic of great learners is that they keep commitments. Any community functions better when people in it keep their promises to live up to its accepted standards. But for a learner and for a community of learners, that keeping of commitments has special significance.

That is why we sometimes describe our fields of study as "disciplines." You've noticed as you studied in different fields that they have different rules. In physics there are some rules about how to decide to believe something is true. That is sometimes called the "scientific method." But when you move over into your course in engineering or in geology, you find yourself learning some slightly different rules. When you arrive in your history or your French literature class, you find yet another set of rules. And your accounting professor seems to be living in a very different world of many rules. You will someday, if you haven't yet, experience the turmoil of trying to learn in a discipline that is trying to agree on new rules but failing.

What all disciplines have in common is a search for rules and a commitment to them. And what all great learners have is a deep appreciation for finding better rules and a commitment to keeping them. That is why great learners are careful about what commitments they make and then keeping them.

If we think we have ours and don't owe any time or money or effort to help those left behind, then we are a part of the problem rather than the solution to the fraying social fabric that threatens all Americans.