Ezra Taft Benson, one of the greatest American's in the 20th Century by opinion of Awake and Arise.org sites Ronald Reagan's citing of historians of the savage condition to which ancient Rome succumbed, leading to the destruction of that society, it's liberty, prosperity, and peace. Of course Rome became an Empire, as has America today. Though we are prone to look with admiration to the Empires of the past, wise men warn that "there is a darker side" to every one of them, with their “grim and tragic overlay of brutal conquest, of subjugation, of repression, and an astronomical cost in life and treasure.” (War and Peace, Gordon B. Hinckley, Ensign May 2003.)
Rome Fell, excerpt from Ezra Taft Benson's Watchman Warn the Wicked, 1973 General Conference address
As a free people, we are following very closely in many respects the pattern which led to the downfall of the great Roman Empire. A group of well-known historians has summarized those conditions leading to the downfall of Rome in these words:
". . . Rome had known a pioneer beginning not unlike our own pioneer heritage, and then entered into two centuries of greatness, reaching its pinnacle in the second of those centuries, going into the decline and collapse in the third. Yet, the sins of decay were becoming apparent in the latter years of that second century.
"It is written that there were vast increases in the number of the idle rich, and the idle poor. The latter (the idle poor) were put on a permanent dole, a welfare system not unlike our own. As this system became permanent, the recipients of public largesse (welfare) increased in number. They organized into a political block with sizable power. They were not hesitant about making their demands known. Nor was the government hesitant about agreeing to their demands and with ever-increasing frequency. Would-be emperors catered to them. The great, solid middle class--Rome's strength then as ours Is to day was taxed more and more to support a bureaucracy that kept growing larger, and even more powerful. Surtaxes were imposed upon incomes to meet emergencies. The government engaged in deficit spending. The denarius, a silver coin similar to our half dollar, began to lose its silvery hue. It took on a copper color as the government reduced the silver content.
"Even then, Gresham's law was at work, because the real silver coin soon disappeared. It went into hiding.
"Military service was an obligation highly honored by the Romans. Indeed, a foreigner could win Roman citizenship simply by volunteering for service in the legions of Rome. But, with increasing affluence and opulence, the young men of Rome began avoiding this service, finding excuses to remain in the soft and sordid life of the city. They took to using cosmetics and wearing feminine-like hairdos and garments, until it became difficult, the historians tell us, to tell the sexes apart.
"Among the teachers and scholars was a group called the Cynics whose number let their hair and beards grow, and who wore slovenly clothes, and professed indifference to worldly goods as they heaped scorn on what they called `middle class values.'
"The morals declined. It became unsafe to walk in the countryside or the city streets. Rioting was commonplace and sometimes whole sections of towns and cities were burned.
"And, all the time, the twin diseases of confiscatory taxation and creeping inflation were waiting to deliver the death blow.
"Then finally, all these forces overcame the energy and ambition of the middle class.
"Rome fell.
"We are now approaching the end of our second century." (Address by Governor Ronald Reagan of California at Eisenhower College, New York, 1969.)
In 1787 Edward Gibbon completed his noble work The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Here is the way he accounted for the fall:
1. The undermining of the dignity and sanctity of the home, which is the basis of human society.
2. Higher and higher taxes and the spending of public monies for free bread and circuses for the populace.
3. The mad craze for pleasure, sports becoming every year more and more exciting and brutal.
4. The building of gigantic armaments when the real enemy was within the decadence of the people.
5. The decay of religion--faith fading into mere form, losing touch with life, and becoming impotent to warn and guide the people.
Is there a parallel for us in America today? Could the same reasons that destroyed Rome destroy America and possibly other countries of the free world?
For eight years in Washington I had this prayerful statement on my desk: "O God, give us men with a mandate higher than the ballot box."
The lessons of history, many of them very sobering, ought to be turned to during this hour of our great achievements, because during the hour of our success is our greatest danger. Even during the hour of our great prosperity, a nation may sow the seeds of its own destruction. History reveals that rarely is a great civilization conquered from without unless it has weakened or destroyed itself within.
The lessons of history stand as guideposts to help us safely chart the course for the future.
As American citizens, as citizens of the nations of the free world, we need to rouse ourselves to the problems which confront us as great Christian nations. We must recognize that these fundamental, basic principles moral and spiritual lay at the very foundation of our past achievements. To continue to enjoy present blessings, we must return to these basic and fundamental principles. Economics and morals are both part of one inseparable body of truth. They must be in harmony. We need to square our actions with these eternal verities.
The Church of Jesus Christ of [p. 41] Latter-day Saints stands firm in support of the great spiritual and moral principles which have been the basic traditions of the free world. We oppose every evil effort to downgrade or challenge the eternal verities which have undergirded civilization from the beginning.
We will use every honorable means to strengthen the home and family; to encourage obedience to the first and great commandment to multiply and replenish the earth through noble parenthood; and to strengthen character through adherence to high spiritual and moral principles.
In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints chastity will never be out of date. We have one standard for men and women, and that standard is moral purity. We oppose and abhor the damnable practice of wholesale abortion and every other unholy and impure act which strikes at the very foundation of the home and family, our most basic institutions.
A continuation of these immoral practices will surely bring down the wrath and judgments of the Almighty.
Full text of this talk found at Latterdayconservative.com
