Alleged Secret Combinations in The Modern World
During the Cold War, LDS Apostle Ezra Taft Benson repeatedly described communism as a secret combination. Apostle Bruce R. McConkie claimed that "eliable modern reports describe their existence among gangsters, as part of the governments of communist countries, in some labor organizations, and even in some religious groups." LDS Apostle M. Russell Ballard described secret combinations as including "gangs, drug cartels, and organized crime families. ... They have secret signs and code words. They participate in secret rites and initiation ceremonies. Among their purposes are to 'murder, and plunder, and steal, and commit whoredoms and all manner of wickedness, contrary to the laws of their country and also the laws of their God.'" LDS President Gordon B. Hinckley compared modern terrorists to the "Gadianton robbers, a vicious, oath-bound, and secret organization bent on evil and destruction."
Ezra Taft Benson also stated in the November 1988 edition of the Ensign) in an article entitled "I Testify", that "A secret combination that seeks to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries is increasing its evil influence and control over America and the entire world."
Read more about this topic: Secret Combination (Latter Day Saints)
Famous quotes containing the words modern world, alleged, secret, combinations, modern and/or world:
“In an age robbed of religious symbols, going to the shops replaces going to the church.... We have a free choice, but at a price. We can win experience, but never achieve innocence. Marx knew that the epic activities of the modern world involve not lance and sword but dry goods.”
—Stephen Bayley (b. 1951)
“Most observers of the French Revolution, especially the clever and noble ones, have explained it as a life-threatening and contagious illness. They have remained standing with the symptoms and have interpreted these in manifold and contrary ways. Some have regarded it as a merely local ill. The most ingenious opponents have pressed for castration. They well noticed that this alleged illness is nothing other than the crisis of beginning puberty.”
—Novalis [Friedrich Von Hardenberg] (1772–1801)
“The secret lies, I think, in his intimate knowledge of the people he is addressing be they black or white, and in the forthrightness with which he speaks of those things which hurt and baffle them.... He allows them their self-respect—indeed, he insists on it.”
—James Baldwin (1924–1987)
“What is the structure of government that will best guard against the precipitate counsels and factious combinations for unjust purposes, without a sacrifice of the fundamental principle of republicanism?”
—James Madison (1751–1836)
“Merely external emancipation has made of the modern woman an artificial being.... Now, woman is confronted with the necessity of emancipating herself from emancipation, if she really desires to be free.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“The bourgeois stands like a question mark,
Speechless, like the hungry cur,
The ancient world stands there behind him,
A mongrel dog, afraid to stir.”
—Alexander Blok (1880–1921)