Member Training – The Importance Of Fathers In A Free Society

Member training from February 3rd, 2025. In this meeting, we discussed the critical role of fathers in maintaining a free society and the importance of morality and religion in governance. We emphasized that without a religious foundation, there can be no true security for life and property, and that morality is essential for good government. Drawing on scriptural examples, Ben highlighted the necessity of strong family structures, where fathers lead by example, instilling values in their children and fostering a sense of community. The conversation also touched on the consequences of absent fathers and the societal implications of undermining traditional family roles, and the importance for a return to foundational principles that support liberty and personal responsibility.

Another interesting book on the subject is “Get Married: Why Americans Must Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families, and Save Civilization” By Brad Wilcox. You can get your copy by clicking on the title of the book.

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TRANSCRIPT

Father in heaven, we ask you for your blessing on this meeting tonight. We ask you to help us to be wise in learning what we need to learn to help fight this vicious conspiracy that's dead set on enslaving not only your people, but all of mankind. We ask your blessing on our speaker, our leader tonight, and give us also the courage. to take the knowledge we've learned and use it in our lives to fulfill your law, God, to stand for liberty and freedom and against security. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Mark. Okay, Carmen, would you give us our minutes for the January 27th? Well, as soon as I find it again. Oh, there it is. Okay. All righty. Tree of Liberty Society minutes for Monday, January 27. The opening prayer was offered by Linda Stowell. Ben commented on an email that he had sent out that day. Talked about the member activity report. Joyce Mitchell suggested she said she's copying and pasting the form onto the calendar to do it each week.

And Ben said that this report will help each person see what can be done. Training was dusting the feet off and the final warning to civil authorities and elected officials. And we're not to treat them as legitimate. Mark said others want a seat at the table. Ben talked about various. Well, he said we're not to engage scripturally with civil magistrates. He talked about the woman and the unjust judge, Elijah on the run, where the Lord told Elijah to show himself to Ahab, who was trying to kill him, gave them an opportunity to claim who they serve. They would not repent the consequences death. later laban was killed when he refused god after being given two chances mormon writes to the chief judge and leaders were righteous dealing with their own problems and they are not offended by being called out a good person in government will respond to what's going on they're given warnings the opportunity to do right and then consequences for not heeding the warning given to them.

Mark talked about Jeremiah courageously condemned the Hebrews for pagan worship. Joyce commented about the January 6th event and how the people were actually lured onto the lawn and then false arrests and lives were ruined. asked if contention was bad. And he answered, he said, about Jesus at the temple. And Ben asked, how do you address authorities? Do you butter them up? He said, you call on the leader, call out the leader demanding action, and you name the consequences. Mark said they're implying they have authority when... and are enabling them. Ben says it's a form of idolatry when you're honoring the ungodly. Give voice of warning. If it's rejected, you bear testimony. If they don't receive you, leave a curse, cast off the dust of your feet and the consequences for the action. The underlying principle that if it's worse, you salute it. If it's worse, worse. If worthy. I'm not sure what I wrote there. They don't receive you. If they don't receive you, leave a cursing. Cast off the dust from your feet. We're not begging permission. We're giving one last chance to repent. God's will will still be done. Don't be concerned about the short-term effectiveness. You can't be friends with evil. Mark said evil will expose themselves. Ben says there's a godly solution at the right time. Shortcuts cause problems. Jesus warned them. Then he took the next step by overturning the tables. Mark said Moses had many trials and lots of work. He could have been killed. But confronting means courage, persistence. persistence.

Alan said it was easier on all is to cut their heads off. Joyce said need to have a good inspired consequence. Alan again piped up and said when you turn your lights on, expose them and the rest will flee. Ben said that all prophets followed the same pattern. In Killing No Murder, it shows the pattern in that book. Taking the shortcut is longer than doing it right from the get-go. The closing prayer was offered by Bobby. Wonderful. Thank you, Carmen. Is there any corrections or clarifications that should be made? Alan sounds like a radical. You all do. Who gave the opening prayer? I'm sorry. Today? Yeah, just now. Yeah, that was Mark. Alan? They keep broadening the definition of terrorists. So you've got to be getting pretty close to the new definition. Well, I've been embracing it for a long time. Yeah. Well, there's a lot of laws out there unconstitutional to do people in that are considered terrorists. So be careful. Go ahead. Sorry, Carmen. I'm ready.

Okay. Well, I hope the topic wasn't something that turned people off. Hopefully we get some more folks coming on tonight. But either way, we'd like to go ahead and get started. I've asked my son Moses to give the spiritual thought for tonight. So go ahead and make sure I can hear you in the mic. Everyone can hear me? Yes. Okay. Yep. Okay. So usually, or one of the commandments is not lying. or not bearing false witness and um usually we think that applies to everything but um there are many examples of people lying for god in the scriptures and they are rewarded for it and so um in exodus 1 15 it says and the king of egypt spake to the hebrew midwives of which the name of one was Shiphrah, in the name of the other Puah. And he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew woman, and see them upon the stools, if it be a son, then ye shall kill him, but if it be a daughter, then she shall live. But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive. And the king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said unto them, Why have ye done this thing, and have saved the men children alive? And the midwives said unto Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women, for they are lively and are delivered ere the midwives come in unto them. Therefore God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and waxed very mightily.

And it came to pass that because the midwives feared God that he made them houses. So they directly lied to Pharaoh. And Ben's brought this up before in previous meetings. But another example is in Alma 55. And now it came to pass that Moroni caused that a search should be made among his men, that perhaps he might find a man who was a descendant of Laman among them. And it came to pass that they found one whose name was Laman. Now Moroni caused that Laman and a small number of his men should go forth unto the guards who were over the Nephites. Now the Nephites were guarded in the city of Gid, therefore Moroni appointed Laman and caused that a small number of men should go with him. And when it was evening, Laman went to the guards who were over the Nephites, and behold, they saw him coming. And they hailed him, but he said unto them, Fear not, behold, I am a Lamanite. Behold, we have escaped from the Nephites, and they sleep.

And behold, we have taken of their wine and brought with us. Now when the Lamanites heard these words, they received him with joy. And it came to pass that they did take the wine freely, and it was pleasant to their taste. Therefore they took of it more freely. And it was strong, having been prepared in its strength. And it came to pass that they did drink and were merry, and by and by they were all drunken. And the armies of the Nephites come, and they take the prisoner and take their Nephite captives back. And it was because they lied directly. And Joseph explains in History of the Church, Volume 4, page 479. The reason we do not have the secrets of the Lord revealed unto us is because we do not keep them, but reveal them. We do not keep our own secrets, but reveal our difficulties to the world, even to our enemies. Then how would we keep the secrets of the Lord? I can keep a secret until doomsday. So one of the other reasons besides us not being worthy is the reason we don't have the mysteries of God. The secrets of God is because we cannot keep a secret, which I thought was very interesting. Thank you.

Yeah, we see that today. A lot of times we'll hear people say that, you know, that that there's that the distinction between not bearing false witness versus just flat out always telling the truth. You know, there's a principle of it's not always wise to reveal all truths. Just picture yourself in. world war ii germany and a nazi soldier knocks on your door and says are you hiding any jews and and you lie do you think god's gonna hold you you know he's gonna condemn you for such a thing you know uh deceiving wicked uh tyrants is something that we see throughout the scriptures uh being being done and so it's important that those examples of no that's another example of nullification that you brought up so thank you moses appreciate that Any other thoughts? Just that omission is one of the main forms of deceit that the conspiracy members use all the time. And politicians have learned one tactic is to plead ignorance when they're not ignorant. Right. Anybody else? Okay. Juddster, were you going to comment? What? Oh, I just thought I saw Juddster's camera come up, so I thought maybe you had a comment. No. Okay, well, let's go ahead and get into the bulk of our training tonight. Make sure I share my sound. Again, as always, feel free to comment, ask questions. So if you make a comment in the chat, feel free to do so. I won't be able to see it till afterwards, just as a reminder.

So tonight I wanted to talk about the importance of fathers in a free society. And this, you know, I don't know if it didn't sound, you know, might not sound as... uh, sexy, I guess, as a lot of other things that we could be talking about, but I felt that it was very important for us to understand maybe some more practical application, more of the foundational things, um, kind of getting back to what I talked about a couple of weeks ago, those where I showed the example of, um, the, in the karate kid, the wax on what, you know, how he had him do all these things to lay a foundation for his talent and being, being able to, um, win in a tournament or be able to defend himself in the future. And this is one of those things, you know, as we prepare for other things down the road, it's important for us to have these foundational principles internalized and applied. And so I think this is one of those things that are very important for us to understand is the idea or the importance of fathers in a free society and so i want to i want us to ask ourselves even though it might on its surface i think hopefully it does seem obvious but i if it doesn't i hope we'll ask ourselves um how do these things apply to a free society okay and that goes for both both ways right if doing this uh how does that help a free society or how does not doing it provide for a free or a less free society whichever the the case may be That way we're really getting the context of the point of what I'm trying to reach tonight. And so that, of course, is that one of those foundationals foundational principles is from George Washington about morality.

This is in his farewell address. He says of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable support. So today that seems to be very nobody wants to talk about. Having morality and religion mixing with government and the idea of having that is relevant to a free society. You'll have some people want to promote the idea of, oh, I'm spiritual, not religious. But he's saying, no, this is a very important principle that we understand if we want a free society, those foundations of religion and morality. And I think we'll do it. We'll go deeper into that in a future training. that that principle but i want to continue on with what he says is let it simply be asked where is the security for property for reputation for life if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice. So if we look at the Declaration of Independence, it says the role of government is to protect your God-given rights. And so he's asking here is if you don't have a religious obligation, there's no security for your property.

There's no security for your life if we are not religious. There's no justice in courts if we're not religious. And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. So if you think that you can be moral without religion, he's saying that is untrue. It is a violation of natural law. You cannot have one without the other. It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. And so anybody like you. tells you that you cannot, that you can have good government without religion and morality and virtue. They are undermining good government. They're undermining free government. And that is the foundation for the topic tonight. So I want us to have that as well with fathers. And so we get into that natural law principle that I mentioned in our first bootcamp about the ball going up in the air, right? As gravity brings the ball down. the father guides what a society becomes it is just yeah go ahead make a comment on what you just said yeah we are constantly being told to ignore uh virtue and and honor constantly but it's implicit in their statements because they're telling us to pay attention to and have all the criteria how to support politicians or vote for them so forth but These days, it's just the opposite of what we saw. Even 120 years ago, honor is of no consideration and who we support and virtue. But it's implicitly communicated. Yep, absolutely.

They are inseparably connected. And so we have to understand that actions are as immutable as physical acts of natural law. That, you know, as much as we can't see it, maybe immediately as we, but the same thing as we throw a ball up in the air, it's going to fall down. The same thing of, of what fathers are in a society to be able to be free. So we go back to Samuel Pufendorf, one of my favorite natural law philosophers, well-read by the founding fathers. Oh, I'll get into it afterwards, but in his book, The Whole Duty of Man. which gets into the whole duty of man according to the law of nature. This is one of the books that were read by the founding fathers to understand natural law, and that it does apply to the family, as he says, our duty. He says, this is a part of natural law, and it applies to the family, that hereby married persons might take the greater delight in each other's company. and that both might have the more cheerfulness applied to themselves to the necessary business of propagation. Okay. For those grammar Nazis out there, the capitals in the middle of a sentence, even though it's not a proper noun, that's from the original. So just making sure you know that it's not a grammatical error, but Siri says, okay, so it's a, it's a, it's a natural law that the married people get together and they both might with more cheerfulness apply themselves. to the necessary business of propagation. So propagating the species, having children, is a necessary and natural part of marriage and of human existence. Marriage is a part of human existence and then having children. That all use the part... Do you mean your interpretation of cheerfulness? Are they just saying be cheerful during the process?

What does it mean by cheerfully apply? More cheerfully apply. Oh, cheerfulness. yeah with more so um without complaint okay that all use the parts destined by nature for this work is contrary to the natural law if it tends not to this end so it is against natural law the law of nature to use that relationship for anything else besides producing children on which account also are forbidden all lusts for a different species or for the same sex, all filthy pollutions, and indeed all copulations out of the state of matrimony, whether with the mutual consent of both parties or against the will of the woman. So it doesn't matter. Either way, it is against the law of nature. And of course, you know, as a Christian, because it's against the law of God, but he also says that it's observable. Everything that he's going through in here is observable. That when we violate this law, it leads to the degradation of society, which leads to the degradation of individual liberty. Man may be such a one as is fit to become the master of a family. So that is the role, that is his natural, that is to be able to have a good society, that is the natural course one must take as the foundation. And so... have natural man, which is spoken of negatively in the scriptures, and then we have the law of nature.

And so we must distinguish between those two, that there is, with the light of Christ in us, before it is beaten out of us, we tend towards, the Savior talked about being as little children, to not being childlike, but being somebody that is... willing to be molded and working to be molded and as we follow that light of christ that is the direction that we go as opposed to childish or natural man tendencies and so we go to the scriptures teaching these same principles as well this we read in the bible low children are in heritage of the lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward as arrows are in the hand of a mighty man so are the children of youth Happy is the man that has his quiver full of them. So just like Puffendorf talked about, we see in the scriptures that having children is the natural consequence or the natural tendency towards man as he is following the laws of nature, laws of God, and that it is preferable to have, you know, the mighty man has his quiver, which is the thing that holds your arrows. And so full of them, having as many of them as you can, is something that leads to happiness and prosperity physically and spiritually. Going on in the scriptures, without understanding covenant breakers. So this is the first part of it.

Going back to the, there's two principles that Puffendorf talked about that I'm laying out in these, that we're showing in these scriptures. The first one is marriage and children. And the next one is the natural. law of governing marriage and so the the first one getting into the importance of children and this one understanding unnatural affection so with that understanding covenant breakers this is the The Apostle Paul prophesying of what things would be like in the end times. He says, without understanding, they'd be covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful. And then we go to Timothy again, without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good. So we see that without natural affection. And so this was something. They didn't have to describe. It was something that was as the founding fathers put it in the Declaration of Independence. These were self-evident truths. We didn't need to know what natural affection was. But because as time goes on, it's important for us to lay that out. What is natural affection and what is especially within marriage? What does that lead towards? And so that is leading that. And then we go to Colossians, fornication, uncleanliness, inordinate affection. evil concupiscence and covetousness, which is idolatry. So fornication and inordinate affection are forms of idolatry. You are worshiping the body as opposed to, to God and it's natural. What's the word I'm thinking of what those things are made for naturally and abusing those powers.

And so going back to Puffendorf talking about how do we, Once we recognize the role of the individual is to get married and then have children, once we have children, how do we raise good children? He says, Now that this care may be rightly managed, it is requisite, or meaning required, that they have a power of ordering the actions of their children for their good, because these, meaning the children, as yet, understand not, for want of discretion, how to govern themselves, that he may become a fit member of human society. So in modern tongue means that it's important, it's vital that parents train their children at a very young age to be a benefit to themselves and others, since at a young age, they don't know how to govern themselves without that proper training. It is our duty once we have the children to train them to be good, godly individuals, self-governing individuals. Ben, logic follows that we have a responsibility to train the children to be disciplined and govern themselves. We have that same responsibility with adults that never learned it. Right. That's presupposed. Absolutely. Yeah. And then we've got a big task there because most of the adults haven't learned it. Yeah. Hopefully, you know, maybe if we haven't learned to do that ourselves, we do start to apply and learn to be self-governing. and as we can teach that to our children. Yeah, if we're supporting tyranny, they're not allowed to be self-governing.

Our leaders and our teachers have done everything they can to destroy that. Isn't that funny that the people today cater to Dr. Benjamin Spock on how to raise kids, and they're not raised? They turn out to be well in their 20s or 30s, and they still don't know how to act in public. Yeah. They destroy as much as they can of the gospel and what God and righteous men have supposed how to take care of kids to just letting them run loose. Yeah. And could I share a quote from Brigham Young? Please do. He said, when we conclude to make a Zion, we will make it. And this work commences in the heart of each person. When the father of a family wishes to make a Zion in his own house, he must take the lead in this good work, which it is impossible for him to do unless he himself possesses the spirit of Zion. Before he can produce the work of sanctification in his family, he must sanctify himself. By this means, God can help him to sanctify his family.

There are many families in this community that have constantly with them the spirit of Zion. That's really good. It's important. We have to cleanse the inner vessel first, and then we can help that go out from ourselves to others. Thank you. So Puffendorf continues on about the duty of parents, consists chiefly of this. that they maintain their children handsomely and that they so form their bodies and minds by a skillful and wise education as they may become fit and useful members of human and civil society, men of probity, wisdom, and good temper. Oops, let me go back. So we see here that it is, we have to mean handsomely, we have to show them, right? Cleanliness is next to godliness and being unkempt is a part of. being self-governed and that it's showing with your bodies and your minds a skillful and wise education and all being well-rounded in that aspect and that they may become fit and useful members of human and civil society. Good temper, wise, all of those things. Of course, we have to start with ourselves, but our job is to help our children at the very earliest of ages all the way up to do these things.

And I think it's interesting that he talks about maintain their children handsomely, because that is the foundation. Even before they can understand what you're saying, they understand what you're doing. And if you are having a priority of making sure that they are they are kept, they are well kept. They will see that as something that is self-governing. They want to make sure that that is something that they are showing by their, you know, their inner self by their. outward appearance it's not about trying to show off for other people it's not about putting on a face that you're something that you're not it is a outward manifestation of an inward commitment so going back to the scriptures again teaching the same principle hebrews if you endure chastening god deal dealeth with you as with sons for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not. So God in the scriptures, we hear that he says, he loves whom he chastens. And so if we are going to show that same God-like love to our children, a part of that is chastening them when needed, right? You be proved them with sharpness, with an increase of love.

So they don't esteem you to be their enemy. And so that chastening is a vital part of love. We're told today, like it was mentioned, like Alan mentioned a second ago, that Dr. Spock, right? It's mean to offer them any direction or course correction, which is the exact opposite of what the Lord says and what natural... We can see just what the consequences for following Dr. Spock's methodology or philosophy today. And so in Proverbs... Yeah, go ahead. That was also a communicated one. In the verse where it says, do not spare the rod. Yeah, absolutely. Spread the rod, spoil the child, right? It was always offensive to me that one of the arguments me and my first wife had was she thought I was too hard on the kids. And so I went to parent-affective training, assertive option, all these stupid classes, step team. And I would show the counselor. pamphlet that was put out by the church, Plain Talk to Parents. And I don't know if it was by Orson Hyde or Orson Pratt, but here's people within the church, counselors within the church, would rather placate to Dr. Spock, where you don't have to do anything, than to follow one of the apostles and plain talk to parents how they should raise their kids. Yeah. And we look at the natural consequences of those actions. It's clear who's right and who's wrong. So we continue on to Proverbs. We read, discipline your children while there is hope. Do not set your heart on their destruction.

So not disciplining your children leads to their destruction. And it says before there is hope, while there is hope. So meaning that, you know, you have to start very young. Otherwise, you know, they're going to get to a point where. the course correction is more difficult. The longer you wait, the more difficult the course correction is. And of course, I think it should be said without saying that just because you follow correct principles doesn't mean all of your children are going to turn out right. We have example after example of righteous patriarchs in the scriptures that have children that turn away from the teachings of their fathers. They have their agency and ability to do so. But if we stick to these principles as a whole, society as a whole will maintain that civilness and the liberty that is necessary. So Proverbs again, folly is bound up in the heart of a boy, but the rod of discipline drives it far away. So we see here that... This isn't a contradiction of, you know, spare the rod, spoil the child. It's, I think, going on with what I was saying earlier of reproving time with sharpness with an increase of love afterwards, that we don't just beat, beat, beat, but we correct, we course correct, and then we make sure that they know that we're not their enemy.

And then Proverbs 22 is, yeah, go ahead. Yeah, a point you made a second ago in psychology, we call it the nature versus nurture argument. Yeah. to explain a behavior. And of course, a nurture means it's the environment and the family has a major role there on how the child turns out. But there are nature, excuse me, that's a nurture, but there are nature people born with all sorts of reasons why they turn out bad. A lot of it's psychological psychosis, things like that, that had nothing to do with the parents. raising of the child. Well, I don't know. I never stopped raising my kids. I keep telling them that I'm gaining more momentum on retroactive birth control than I ever have in my life. Well, that's horrible for a lot of reasons. You support terrorist taxes? You support abortion? No, no. I don't support abortion. I support retroactive birth control. Well, as we've seen, neither one of those is appropriate or godly. So let's go ahead and continue on. Proverbs 22. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself nevertheless. Let every one of you in particular so love his wife, even as himself, and the wife see that she reverence her husband.

Okay, so this is a little bit not as clear, maybe openly obvious, how this is relevant. So I want to ask your input. How is this relevant to the overall topic? Any thoughts? Nobody? How does a husband loving a wife help to raise children, which then makes society better and freer? Well, he sets an example for his children to, you know, love his wife. And then in turn, the wife sets an example of how she's to honor the massive job that her husband has. And it's a massive job. It's, you know, it's not easy. And he's got a lot of things to consider. You know, he doesn't wake up in the morning. I'm sure he doesn't wake up in the morning and say, what can I do today so I can screw my kids up for the rest of their life? You know, they don't do that. They they're human. And, you know, everybody makes mistakes. And, you know, and you can't assume that you can read your husband's mind or your wife's mind. And, you know, you get it's a fine. A fine line to try. If we do the best we can, it sets an example of our Heavenly Father and His love for us. If we can show our kids that by loving their mother, that we love them, that brings the whole thing of heaven down to their understanding. It helps in showing God's government. by the way we treat the wife absolutely to some extent this is the golden rule towards your wife on on kind of on steroids yeah because much of this in here is the golden rule of love love others or how do you love yourself absolutely go ahead sorry okay so i i have a thought that um This may not be true in every home, but I think the father, the way that he loves his wife, it allows the mother to love her children more effectively.

I don't know. I just think that because then the husband can help her feel her worth, then that trickles down to the children, and then she can help the children feel their worth. just be a more effective mother like all around i guess part of training is setting a good example so if he's loving his wife you're setting a good example for her for the children if she has respect for him because he loves her then he's she's going to teach that respect to the children and that's going to lead into their uh being obedient and and then taking to the the training that they're receiving and it also goes back to But Puffendorf said the natural course of man is to is to get married. And so if we're setting a bad example of marriage and we're not we're abusing our wives or we're not loving them in the way that the Lord would have us, then we are showing that marriage would be miserable and not something that they would want to enter into, therefore stunting and shunting the natural course of human existence. And so it's a very important part of the big picture of how a man treats his wife. One other thought maybe is that love really is an act of selflessness.

So truly loving your spouse and truly loving your children requires selflessness. And one of the characteristics of being civic minded is putting others above yourself. So that act of being selfless also translates into civics and how you, I guess, how you deal with other people, how you think about your country, your nation. You know, you can turn that around. It's really an act of selfishness. You value your wife tremendously. So you want to do what's necessary to communicate that value and help the family and help her. as well so uh in a way it's a really a selfish act which is uh just like i think that's really important people realize that it's not true altruism when you uh give your part of your life your your effort your labor uh your mind to something it's uh that you value highly well and that goes expression of value expression of value uh to a great extent expression of love sure And we go back to what Corey was saying, reminded me of what Carmen talked about, you know, how a man, even if he is treating them badly, they're not meaning to. It's not on purpose. It goes back to the wicked selfishness. So they're just they're not thinking about the things around them. They're not thinking about their children, not thinking about their wives.

They're just thinking about themselves and what they need to be doing. And so it's important for us to have that have that reverse of. focusing that on... Narcissism self-centeredness is a person that's not grown up in most cases. Yeah. Orally and religiously. Yep. In today's society, if you're happily married, something's wrong with you. We've drifted so far into evil and so far into doing things against God. That retroactive birth control sounds like most of the only remedy. That's a horrible idea. We should train them up in the way that they should go. Let's go ahead and instill the importance of a good reputation. That's also an important thing. Again, the world has twisted this into this idea of saying that if you care what other people think about you, then you're not moral and you're not principled. But this is the different. This is not. sacrificing correct principles for people to like you. This is meaning the good reputation means your actions have been as such where people want to be around you. They want to emulate you. They want to have you around them because you're a good example to them, not because you've capitulated to whatever they want. So we need to make sure and understand those distinctions.

Samuel Pufendorf says, simple reputation amongst the people in their natural liberty consists chiefly of this. that by their behavior they have the honor to be esteemed and treated with as good men ready to comport themselves in society with others according to the prescription of the law of nature. The foundations of a solid reputation generally include all kinds of qualities, whether they truly possess or are believed to possess some great excellence and perfection. These qualities tend to align with the laws of nature. A society and examples include a quick and sharp wit, the ability to understand various arts and sciences, sound judgment in business, a steady spirit that remains unaffected by external events. So going back to the idea, you don't just go along with the crowd. You have a steady spirit that does the right thing no matter what. And being equally immune to flattery and fear. That's what leads to a real, not a counterfeit, but a true good reputation. Eloquence, beauty. and wealth also contribute, but most importantly, performing good and brave actions. So Samantha, you got your hand raised. Go ahead. Yeah, I don't know if you're going to get into this, but I mean, obviously when you can govern yourself, there's the fruits of happiness that come from that.

You enjoy the blessings that God gives you. And then you're able to govern a family and extend that to them because they learn those principles. But this is talking about... good reputation and being esteemed and and why is that good it's it's huge because it allows you to have the respect of more people around you which allows you to affect more good because if you are a man of honor or a woman of integrity people will look to you especially when things get hairy and emergencies or or just tough situations you can be someone that people know that they can rely on and trust in these difficult situations because you've already proven yourself as such and steady and whatever it is that people really look to. So it's really like these are good reminders that we don't just affect ourselves, that there's a lot of people looking at us.

And in the coming days, I really hope that we can be the kind of people that others will esteem and look at us as having a good reputation and being wise. and, you know, having forethought and that we can have more effect as things, you know, as decisions are going to need to be made and leaders are going to need to be chosen, that we can be the leaders in the communities where we are and have more influence than we would otherwise. Absolutely. Ben, let me give a little different take on this. The first paragraph, it's really not clear until they get to the last phrase there, according to the prescription of law of nature. So they're talking about reputation among who, and they're talking about people that prescribe to the law of nature. So that suggests they're good people. For example, gangsters and criminals and murderers that are part of a criminal syndicate, their reputation is based on evil conduct to a large extent. And we don't care about what they think about us. That's the kind of person we don't care about. Yeah, that's kind of important. We don't want a good reputation among bad people.

The whole thing, right? You can judge a person by the company they keep, right? Yes. And also important here is that if we're looking to... highly value reputation among people, we may be neglecting God. God is the being who our reputation is most sacred and important. So we should never compromise gaining... a good reputation of at the cost of, uh, uh, surrendering God's law or violating God's law. Hopefully that's self evident and put in, and it's, uh, he lays it out, maybe not so succinctly and, and specifically, but I, hopefully it's, it's, it's clear that that's the, uh, it's implied in the second paragraph. Yeah. So why are eloquence and beauty that doesn't that seem superficial? Why does that matter? for a righteous reputation. Any thoughts? Well, those are high godly human qualities to value both and display that kind of conduct. It's again that outward manifestation of your inward commitment. Yes. Of who you are on the inside because it's hard to judge who you are without... watching you for a long time. And so it's, it helps people to be able to see that immediately. So going back to the scriptures, Proverbs, a good name is rather to be chosen than great riches and loving favor rather than silver and gold. So again, you're not looking for the praise of men. You want to have a good name amongst the godly. And so getting to the next point is father's responsible. for children's spouses.

Now, this is maybe controversial in today's world, but I think that society bears it out. Uffendorf says, and as the father ought not to turn his child out of his family while he stands in need of education and assistance from him without the most weighty reasons. So you're responsible for your kid until they're ready to go off on their own unless something crazy is going on. The guy is just ungovernable, whatever. So also ought not the son or daughter leave the parent's house without his consent. So a child shouldn't leave until their parents are ready to, you know, have consented and said, yes, you are ready to go out on your own. Since it much concerns parents what persons their children are married to and from whom they are to expect grandchildren, hence it is a part of a filial duty herein to comply with the will of the parents and not to marry. without their consent. Wow, that's, you know, today's world, that's, you know, that's, wow, that's so controlling, that's so bad.

But we see that as an example that's borne out in the scriptures, and we'll talk about it as we move on tonight, what the result is for rejecting this natural principle. Throw a ball up, it comes down. If we don't obey this, what happens? We see the same thing, we see it with the ancient patriarchs. That they honored this principle. We'll talk about Jacob. This is in Genesis. And Jacob loved Rachel and said, I will serve thee to her father Laban seven years for Rachel, thy younger daughter. And Laban said, it is better that I give her unto thee, that I give her to thee, than that I should give her to another man. Abide with me. And Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed unto him but a few days for the love he had for her. And Jacob said to Laban, give me my wife for my days are fulfilled. So Jacob recognized Laban. He didn't try and elope. He didn't try and say, hey, Rachel, let's just go off. Your dad's being unreasonable. He says, no, this is what the rule is.

And I want to marry you. I'm going to follow the requirements of your father. And we know that even after he did that. And Laban said, you got to do it again, another seven years, because I gave you my older daughter first. Now you get my, you know, you got to work seven more years for the wife that you asked for originally. And did Jacob say, oh, man, you broke the deal? No, it was he he recognized the father's role to be able to be responsible for their children. And it was up to him when he was going to give up his child. to another man to leave the family uh yeah got your hand raised go ahead yes uh however joseph smith did elope with emma sure and uh also there's a guy who uh i don't remember his name but he did a a short thing and he said that uh he knew this man from the army that Just did everything with every woman and stuff, you know, was a womanizer and that. And when he had a daughter, he went to him and asked him, what can I do so my daughter will stay away from men like you? And he said, make sure that she knows you love her, love her and treat her like she should be treated or else when she gets. When she wants to be loved because she's not getting it from you, some other guy will come along and tell her he loves her when all he wants to do is use her and she'll believe him. So fathers are very important to raise their daughters to be able to be, to not be fooled by men that are just trying to use them. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. And these are about, as society rejects these principles as a whole, what happens to that society?

So, Mark, you had your hand raised as well. Yes. What you were saying just a moment ago, and then it's consistent with the Jacob Rachel message here, is that don't turn your child out, your son, your daughter, until they're ready to be turned out. So the audaciousness of this, they're saying that this wisdom is above government's wisdom. Because government tells us once they turn 18, they're ready to be turned out, whatever. It's the age that decides whether they should be turned out or not, not their conduct or their maturity. Yeah, this idea, they turned 18, K, get out of the house. Yeah. Sean, you got your hand raised. I was a little bit late with this, with some of the commentary, but what was just shared, there was a quote by David O. McKay that has already essentially been expressed numerous times. And it goes something to the effect he said, fathers, the greatest gift you can give your children is a loving relationship with their mother.

And that's always impacted me as something observably pretty potent and true, I believe. Thank you. Okay. So now we go to the conspiracy to avoid this as... removed fathers and now mothers from the home. Right. We just it became common for women to work outside the home starting in the 50s, 60s, maybe even World War Two of all the men were off. And so they have Rosie the Riveter. But then it really compounded starting in this in the in the 70s and 80s. And we've talked about that in previous trainings. But we don't really remember because outside of most of our lifetimes. Prior to the early 1900s, you go back to the early 1800s. And prior to that, it was fathers were also working in the home. And it wasn't until the late 1800s, early 1900s with the Industrial Revolution that removed the father from the home. And so it has been the goal of the conspiracy to remove. the parents from the home one at a time, because of course it was easier with the father because it's his duty to care for and make sure that the family is provided for. And it made it, you know, they made it easier and in some ways harder to be at home and bring them outside of the home to provide for their families. And so that has been a purposeful effort to be able to destroy the family. by taking the fathers out of the home as much as it was to take the mothers from the home in more recent history.

And so I want to show this clip of a larger presentation about what is the natural consequence of having fathers not in the home, either because of divorce, generally speaking, them being not there at all, or... people that were just immoral, people that fornicated and don't have a husband and a father with the children, or just even more generally speaking, what we see today of even with fathers out of the home for work. Do you know what? That's what the welfare system did too. Yeah. Sorry, go ahead. The welfare system made it so women didn't have to have a husband. They could just have babies. And the more babies they had, the more money they got. And I graduated over 50 years ago that there was a girl that was my age that went and got pregnant because she didn't want to live in her mother's house anymore. And if she had a baby, the state would give her an apartment and the food and all that kind of stuff. Basically, welfare took fathers and broke up families a lot. Yep, another contributing factor for sure. Not only welfare, that's a very good point, but also just destroying the economy to the extent that an average household... to have the same lifestyle that they had 50 years ago or 80 years ago, two bread earners is required.

But you had that quote from Aaron Russo that you played, I don't know if it was at a training, where he talked about the Rockefellers saying that the reason they want the women... the whole feminist movement was based on that principle we want the women working that's another tax source was one of the reason uh but one thing that i've seen in my experiences in the 50s and 60s there were a lot of uh women patriotic organizations, and they slowly got smaller and smaller and then disappeared as the culture changed where women are working. There's more women in colleges than men, and you see a lot of this. So that's also, you can't fight the conspiracy to a very good extent while you're working the machine in the factory. So that's another reason to get the women out. to get rid of those kinds of patriotic organizations that were educating people. Thank you. Okay, I'm going to play this clip where she discusses the statistics, meaning the consequences for violating the principles we've talked about. Girls with no fathers in the home have lower self -esteem. Okay, fine, that sucks, but also women with low self-esteem are more promiscuous. No father family is more likely to be victims of abuse, especially with single... Mothers. Single mothers bring, men just tend to be more predatorial. But either way, there's violence and abuse. And this is sexual and physical. We know this. Children with high BMI more often come from fatherless homes. Here's something interesting. More, say that word. I can't say it. Thank you. Fathers have the fittest children.

The more opportunities a child has to interact with a biological father, the less likely they are to commit a crime or have contact with a juvenile justice system. Okay, another way to say that is men and women who are incarcerated, the population of the prisons mostly encompass fatherless homes. Now, here's something that no one else has mentioned, which I think is cool, and I don't really say this eloquently. If a man and wife raise a child, they're less likely to end up in jail. But they have the same statistical chance as children raised by just their father. So if we want to keep children, adults, out of prison, mother, father, or just father. Well, we don't want to hear just father, so let's try to keep the families intact. Pretty interesting how important a father is to keeping children out of that system and the other examples of what happens when a child doesn't have a father. in their home. And so there's very powerful evidence to that. In California, they did an assessment of the death row prisoners that were murdered and so forth. And virtually, I think it was like 99% or something like that were from fatherless homes.

And another point we're talking about about welfare was brought up. The aid to families with dependent children was altered a little bit during the administration, but only a little bit. They actually punish the mother and they won't give welfare if there's a father in the home. And many of my clients, I used to see this, where the father would have to sneak into the home to see the kids or be there. And they did all sorts of things to try to keep it as quiet that the father shows up at all because they will lose their welfare. So the government was actually set up to an incentive to ensure that the father won't be in the home. Because they want to destroy society. Yeah, that's right. Absolutely. So, yeah, go ahead. Isn't that the pattern that we have here on earth is we deal with our father in heaven directly. Not, not, uh, even though we know that there is a heavenly mother, we don't really, she's not directly involved. Yeah. So we have that pattern. So that, that is a true principle. Yep. Thank you.

So we ask ourselves, what would the world look like if more men lived up to these eternal truths? Can you just imagine how different society would be if we saw these things and we applied them as a general rule? How would this affect our liberty? You know what? In our ward, we've had several men that work at the boys' home, boys who have been in jail, but they're in juvie somewhat. And some of those boys, they'll ask them what they want in life. And they'll say they want to go to such and such prison because their dad is there. Their uncles are there. And we want to be with our family. That's how important fathers are. Absolutely. Absolutely. So real quick, the things that we focused on that I covered, I got most of it from, obviously, the scriptures. And then this book by Samuel Pufendorf. That's kind of, but it's the whole duty of man, according to the law of nature. And then Corey mentioned this one, but I also, I had this before he said that, highly recommend the discourses of Brigham Young. He shows the duty of a father, husband, man, and we follow those principles. This is not right. We start in the very beginning with George Washington explaining that you cannot separate government. You cannot separate liberty from religion and morality.

You cannot separate those two from each other and you cannot separate them from government. And that is why they have worked so hard to destroy the mother and the father in the home. That is why they've worked so hard to separate morality and religion from government. Because they know that if they can, that they can give us the situation that we're in today. What we see today is the natural consequence. There was no other outcome that could have happened from rejecting those principles than what we see today. And so if there's anything that we've seen tonight that we fail in, it doesn't do us any good to just learn these things and say, hey, that's true. I'm hoping that I can become more in line with these things. I've seen my own life. This isn't an attack on women or on single mothers or whatnot. This is an attack on, this is me exposing the principles the conspiracy has done to do these things. I've seen the consequence of my own life.

My parents were divorced at a very young age. I got into lots of trouble. I got bad grades in school. I got into lots of trouble as a teenager. And that doesn't take responsibility away from myself, but we can see that was by design by removing fathers from the home. And we can see that, I think anybody that has that same thing, they can see that in their own lives and in the lives of those around us. And so my focus on this is to help us to see, here's a correct principle. How am I failing in it? How can I do better? this day forward. Not to make excuses, but to say, this is true. How can I do better moving this day forward? How can I become this? Because this is one of the ways that we fight the conspiracy, not just exposing it, but we get married, we have children, we raise them to the Lord, and we have them be the kinds of people that will... produce a righteous society that will not allow the conspiracy to exist and that they can be good influences on others to then lead more people to be doing the right thing. So we are over time. So let me, we'll get to the comments after the prayer and we can have more comments on this. I apologize. If we can have a closing prayer, have Corey, if you're available, Corey Schmidt, would you be willing to say the closing prayer for us? Sure. Thanks.

Heavenly Father, we're grateful this night to have been taught truths and to have been reminded, especially us as fathers, of our role and how critical our role is for our families. We pray that that would be with us, inspire us, direct us, chastise us, and help us repent of the things that need to be corrected. We pray that we can be examples to those around us to help them. also understand these principles. We pray that we can share those things with the Spirit and with love. We ask that thou would bless Ben and his efforts and all that he does to further liberty. We offer this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Thank you.