Man, Freedom, and Government (1968)

This is not technically a "Mormon" video, though it is an intriguing artifact from the cultural history of the Church. President Ezra Taft Benson, then Elder Ezra Taft Benson and a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, served as Secretary of Agriculture for President Dwight D. Eisenhower's administration from 1953-1961 after receiving Church President David O. McKay's permission and blessing to do after Benson had been asked by Eisenhower to serve in his Cabinet.
Following his time in the Federal government, Elder Benson continued to remain politically active in service to the American ideals he had grown up with. While never allowed to become a member of the organization, he enjoyed a long-standing friendly and supportive relationship with the John Birth Society and other highly conservative organizations concerned about growing Federal political power and the rise of global communism. This filmstrip was prepared by the JBS, adapted from a speech Elder Benson delivered in Salt Lake to another conservative political organization. He was invited to re-record the adjusted script for the filmstrip, which, in edited form, saw widespread distribution by the JBS across the country.
While not technically a video produced by the Church, nor for the Church, I've made the decision to upload this anyways as for Elder and President Benson there was no line between patriotism and American exceptionalism and LDS doctrine. Throughout his life, President Benson strongly and proudly proclaimed his personal view that LDS doctrine supported and expanded upon the ideals of conservative American political thought and theory, and this filmstrip gives a good overview of his basic approach to good government and is a fascinating window into his history whether or not you agree with his forceful, unconventional perspective.

[@zukakog]

Great information for anyone studying the founding (and fall) of nations.

[@BrotherMercer]

Oh what a treasure.

[@colincofield3747]

Glad you put this out. We the people need to hear þis important message.

[@RobertJohnson-gi3sl]

Thank you for posting!

[@Themanyfacesofego]

20:38 -21:15... Very true, and today we reap the consequences. Love from England 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

[@thursoberwick1948]

Lucky you are not Australian (3 min.s) kzbin.info/www/bejne/o4DNYZtufJykias

[@missingshoefilms]

Lol love that the opening photos are of people marching for Civil Rights and the church warns of the evils of politicians following popular trends. Perfect encapsulation of the church. So hilarious to read all the comments that love this.

[@sarak6860]

At least George Romney supported Civil Rights. One of the few who disregarded their Seed of Cain status.

[@sudonim4085]

In Paine's day, deism was as close as almost anyone could logically get to atheism. Also, until recently, and continuing even today, many people are afraid to "come out" as atheist in a society which is so rabidly religious. It can even be hazardous to your health.

[@deboraholsen2504]

All three of you are disrespectful. Unless you’ve done an open minded, sincere study of the teachings and doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and prayerfully read the Book of Mormon and the Bible, you should not publicly criticize the Church, because you cannot be sure of its origins and you do not know if it really is Jesus Christ’s church! May I remind you that KZbin is a wide-spread public forum. May I also invite all of you to sincerely investigate the Church, from its OWN sources, not from others, before you make an informed opinion. The Church has blessed my life immensely, in ways unmeasured! Furthermore, Ezra Taft Benson served unselfishly in the Church and in our Country and was a respectable man who loved God, Jesus Christ, and all people. That’s exactly why he bothered to inform us of these teachings. Another interesting fact: All of the Founding Fathers had IQs of 160 or more. I wouldn’t criticize them even based only on this fact alone!

[@missingshoefilms]

@@deboraholsen2504 Lol I know more about the church than you do. I was raised in the church and left at 18. Went to seminary all 4 years and thoroughly read the Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price, and Doctrine and Covenants. My grandfather was a bishop in the church my ancestors left Missouri pulling hand carts and settled southern Idaho as potato farmers. You don't even know the history of the church. If you did then explain why black people couldn't hold the priesthood until 1978 or why it's okay Joseph Smith had 40 wives including Helen Mar Kimball who was 14 at the time. And not to mention the iceberg of horribly racist things most of the early prophets said and did during their tenure as leaders in the church. No sane person who knows the actual history of the church is a member.

[@brothecanary20]

​@@deboraholsen2504 u ever heard of christopher nemelka and his sealed portion?

[@sfitzbyu2023]

How little progress we have made and at what cost to our sanity… at least we are now spared this insult.

[@ILikeFreedomYo]

I wish our modern leaders would defend our divine founding.

[@thursoberwick1948]

GAs are defending this instead. kzbin.info/www/bejne/o4DNYZtufJykias

[@robertthompson3447]

He could have given this message today (without any edits.)

[@dolcepeter]

Surreal

[@alannahmay3823]

John Birch Society?

[@patriotpep]

Play at 1.75x Speed! you're welcome 😉

[@sarak6860]

I can see how the church felt about Social Security.

[@jeremyfinch2835]

Sorry for copy/pasting this a few times; I'm trying to make sure that you see this message. YOU ARE AMAZING! All these videos are SOO fun and SOO great to watch! May I please make a request? (even if it has to be uploaded in ten-minute clips). I'd LOVE to see the 1940 movie called "BRIGHAM YOUNG" starring Tyrone Power and Linda Darnell (also Vincent Price as Joseph Smith!). It did very poorly at the box-office even tho it was a big budget movie at the time ($2.4 million). It is sometimes also called "Brigham Young--Frontiersman" if that helps any. As I said, it's almost impossible to find copies online, only a couple clips here and there. So in advance, I thank you for your dedicated work

[@thursoberwick1948]

I second this. I've only ever seen it once, and that was most of the way through when it happened to be on British TV. Never seen it since.

[@Cuinn837]

In this film, the church (or the LDS who made it) doesn't seem to realize that Thomas Paine was an atheist.

[@DragonZlayerx12]

He was a deist

[@Cuinn837]

@@DragonZlayerx12 I was taught that he was an atheist. I guess I'll have to research it.

[@thursoberwick1948]

@@Cuinn837 He wasn't an atheist. A lot of so called atheists are deists, agnostics or non-religious people on closer examination, none of which are the same thing.

[@ibehm]

How did this evolve into Mitt Romney? Something went way wrong.

[@sudonim4085]

ETB was opposed to civil rights. That is all anyone really needs to know about him.