I have been reading the "Prelude to Glory" series by Ron Carter. It's set during the American Revolution, and is a series of historically accurate fiction. However, it has given me a deeper understanding of the problems that faced the Americans during the War, and the 10 years afterwards, and has made me admire such greats as George Washington, James Madison, Ben Franklin and others, more. The vision and the courage that they all had in setting up our government is frankly astounding. They created a form of government that was unknown at the time, and had never been thought about except by a few individuals. Our current form of government was the brainchild of James Madison, with input from George Washington and a select few others. This series of books has reaffirmed to me that Heavenly Father created this nation for a purpose, which was the Restoration of His church, and that he was watching and helping our leaders make good decisions, and helping others to make very poor decisions, which benifitted us.
I could do a whole other post on my astonishment at the ineptitude of some of the American generals during the Revolution, but I won't do that right now. Suffice to say, God made sure that things happened His way, in spite of the agency and stupidity of others. Simply amazing.
I started reading biographies before I got hooked on my current series, but I am going to read a biography on J. Robert Oppenheimer after I'm done. The bio on Einstein was quite informative, as was the one on FDR. Good info. I'll post later on today if something interesting happens. I'm out...
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Wednesday stuff...
Posted by Daishi at 11:59 AM
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7 comments:
You might be interested in reading a biography of Alexander Hamilton to get a good sense of how the economics of our government operate. They're nothing like what Madison and Jefferson had originally planned and hoped for - nor is the Judiciary (e.g. Marbury v. Madison).
What Madison et al. managed to do was combine the characteristics of ancient Athenian democracy with Republicanism along the form of ancient Rome. Athens enjoyed democracy for roughly 400 years, and the Roman Republic lasted approximately as long.
Our judicial system is founded in common law, as it evolved over 600 years throughout the course of English history. British philosopher's such as John Locke captured certain ideas such as the Social Contract and rights.
We've got a unique system, certainly, but the ideas behind it are not new - there were centuries of thought, practice, and experimentation that led up to what we now have as our Constitution.
i realize that the ideas aren't new, but he was the one to put them together at the time when the country needed them.
One other thought - I don't think God helps people make bad decisions. My thinking on this is based on Moroni 7:13-16, D&C 123:7, 132:8, along with another reference I can't recall.
Agreed - he did a good job, at that.
BYU produced a video titled A More Perfect Union sometime around the early 1990's, I believe. I think you'd enjoy it, as it covers this topic.
well, a "stupor of thought" might be an influence on someone, would it not? that would cause someone to make a decision that might go awry, perhaps...
The scriptures are pretty clear that the Lord works on us through inspiration. An absence of inspiration causes a stupor of thought, just as an absence of light causes darkness.
If we do what we're supposed to, we can enjoy inspiration from the Lord's spirit. We aren't confused. If we violate God's laws, His spirit is withdrawn, and we're left to our own devices - hence the confusion and stupor of thought. Thus the problem is completely self-induced.
maybe they were just stupid... i don't know.
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