Alma 27:24; 46:35; 53:13-17; 62:9-11; D&C 58:21-22; 98:4-7; 134:4-5; 1 Peter 2:13-17; Articles of Faith 1:12; Book of Mormon 121-122 Student Manual, p. 102; Articles of Faith, Talmage, pp. 422-423; Gospel Doctrine, Smith, p. 512; A New Witness for the Articles of Faith, pp. 687-688
“Even though we sense the hellish origin of war, even though we feel confident that war will never end war, yet, under existing conditions, we find ourselves as a body committed to combat this evil thing. With other loyal citizens we serve our country as bearers of arms, rather than to stand aloof to enjoy a freedom for which others have fought and died.” (David O. McKay, Man May Know for Himself, ed. by Middlemiss, pp. 365-368)
“We have been asked today [1942] to be patriotic. This Church, as has been read by President McKay, has a record of accomplishment that is a … testimony to the world of the patriotism of this people. We have been sending our boys into the army, and will continue to do so. We will buy war bonds and stamps. We will pay inordinate taxes, for the carrying on of the work for the buying of planes and munitions of war. We will produce and conserve foodstuffs, that there may be sufficient of the necessities to carry on, as we have been requested by our government. But beyond all that, the Latter-day Saints have a responsibility, that may be better understood when we recall the prophecy of Joseph Smith who declared that ‘the time would come when (the destiny and) the Constitution of these United States would hang as it were by a thread, and that this people, the sons of Zion, would rise up and save it from threatened destruction’ (Journal of Discourses 7:15). I want to ask you to consider the meaning of that prophecy, in the light of the declaration of the prophets of the Book of Mormon times, who declared that this land was a choice land above all other lands, and would be free from bondage and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of this land, even our Savior, Jesus Christ (Ether 2:12). This is a people whom the Lord has chosen to preach the gospel of righteousness. We talk of security in this day, and yet we fail to understand that here on this Temple Block we have standing the holy temple wherein we may find the symbols by which power might be generated that will save this nation from destruction. Therein may be found the fulness of the blessings of the Priesthood.” (Harold B. Lee, Conference Report, Apr. 1942, p. 87)
“A Latter-day Saint must give allegiance to (his) sovereign and render it loyal service when called thereto. This includes military service. The attitude of a Latter-day Saint should be fully to render loyalty to (his) country and to free institutions which the loftiest patriotism calls for… . The Church is and must be against war… . It cannot regard war as a righteous means of settling international disputes; these should and could be settled—the nations agreeing—by peaceful negotiation and adjustment. But the Church membership are citizens or subjects of sovereignties over which the Church has no control… . When, therefore, constitutional law, obedient to these principles, calls the manhood of the Church into the armed service of any country to which they owe allegiance, their highest civic duty requires that they meet that call.” (Heber J. Grant, J. Reuben Clark Jr., David O. McKay, Conference Report, Apr. 1942, pp. 92-95)
“The Church is opposed to war because it causes the blood of brothers and sisters to be shed. It opposes war because wars destroy spirituality… . But notwithstanding the horrors and evils of war and the beauty of peace, there is a greater purpose in life than merely remaining peaceful. Life calls for growth of the soul. The opportunities for growth requires that man shall retain his freedom, his free agency, his right to live and work and worship according to the dictates of his own conscience… . The right to a world where the individual is recognized, the right to protect our loved ones, our liberties and our religion is more important than the keeping of peace.” (William E. Berrett, Teachings of the Book of Mormon, p. 177-178)
“Certainly a true American cannot have too much patriotism. Surely Americans who have respect for our traditions, who support our freedoms and are willing to fight to preserve them have been called patriots from the very beginning of our nation. I am proud to be called a patriot, for it correctly denotes one who loves his country. I love America’s traditions and its freedoms and I believe they are well worth fighting for, against all that which threatens from within as well as from without.” (Ezra Taft Benson, The Red Carpet, p. 199)
“The only real peace—the one most of us think about when we use the term—is a peace with freedom. A nation that is not willing, if necessary, to face the rigors of war to defend its real peace-in-freedom is doomed to lose both its freedom and its peace! These are the hard facts of life. We may not like them, but until we live in a far better world than exists today, we must face up to them squarely and courageously.” (Ezra Taft Benson, An Enemy Hath Done This, pp. 161-162)
“A man does not necessarily have to volunteer. In fact, it would be hoped that young members of the Church would have the strengthening stabilizing development of missionary service, and perhaps some schooling, before they enter the service, if indeed they are required to do so at all. And sometimes they are required to serve. If so, the brethren have said: ‘… the members of the Church have always felt under obligation to come to the defense of their country when a call to arms was made …’ (Improvcment Era, May 1942, pp. 346, 348-49). Though all the issues of the conflict are anything but clear, the matter of citizenship responsibility is perfectly clear.” (Boyd K. Packer, Improvement Era, June 1968, pp. 58, 60-61)
“Someone asked me once how I felt about amnesty for the draft card burner and the deserter. I told him that I thought every one of them should be taken before General Moroni to be judged.” (Vaughn J. Featherstone, Ensign, Nov. 1975, pp. 7-10)
“There are many persons who are engaged in wars who are devout Christians. They are innocent instrumentalities—war instrumentalities, for the most part—of their warring sovereignties. On each side, people believe that they are fighting for a just cause, for defense of home and country and freedom. On each side they pray … for victory. Both sides cannot be wholly right; perhaps neither is without wrong. God will work out in his own due time and in his own sovereign way, the justice and right of the conflict. But he will not hold the innocent instrumentalities of the war—our brethren in arms—responsible for the conflict.” (Harold B. Lee, From the Valley of Despair to the Mountain Peaks of Hope, p. 3)
“If, harkening to that call [to serve one’s country] and obeying those in command over them, they shall take the lives of those who fight against them, that will not make them murderers, nor subject them to the penalty that God has prescribed for those who kill… . For it would be a cruel God that would punish His children as moral sinners for acts done by them as the innocent instrumentalities of a sovereign whom He had told them to obey and whose will they were powerless to resist… . In this terrible war now waging, thousands of our righteous young men in all parts of the world and in many countries are subject to a call into the military service of their own countries… . That in their work of destruction they will be striking at their brethren will not be held against them. That sin, as Moroni of old said, is to the condemnation of those who ‘sit in their places of power in a state of thoughtless stupor,’ those rulers in the world who in a frenzy of hate and lust for unrighteous power and dominion over their fellow men, have put into motion eternal forces they do not comprehend and cannot control. God, in His own due time, will pass sentence upon them.” (Heber J. Grant, J. Reuben Clark Jr., David O. McKay, Conference Report, Apr. 1942, pp. 92-96)
“We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount … Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living.” (General Omar Bradley, quoted in Studies in Scriptures, ed. by K. Jackson, 8:78)
“Every gun made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.” (Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower, quoted in Studies in Scriptures, ed. by K. Jackson, 8:78)
“Victory and defeat alike leave countries devastated and the conqueror and the conquered reduced. Wickedness brings war, and war vomits destruction and suffering, hate and bloodshed upon the guilty and the innocent. This impressive book [the Book of Mormon] should convince all living souls of the futility of war and the hazards of unrighteousness.” (Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, p. 414)
“I would like to share an incident which took place during the Vietnam War… . President Harold B. Lee was the President of the Church at the time. While at an area conference in another country he was interviewed by reporters from the international news services. One reporter asked President Lee, ‘What is your church’s position on the Vietnam War?’ Some recognized the question as a trap—one which could not be answered without a very real risk of being misunderstood or misinterpreted. If the prophet answered, ‘We are against the war, the inter-national media could state, ‘How strange—a religious leader who is against the position of the country he is obliged to sustain in his own church’s Articles of Faith’ (Article of Faith 1:12). On the other hand, if President Lee answered, ‘We are in favor of the war,’ the media could question, ‘How strange—a religious leader in favor of war?’ Either way, the answer could result in serious problems regarding public opinion both inside and outside the Church. President Lee, with great inspiration and wisdom, answered as would a man who knows the Savior: ‘We, together with the whole Christian world, abhor war. But the Savior said, ‘In me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation’ (John 16:33). And then the prophet quoted that other comforting scripture from John: ‘Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you’ (John 14:27). President Lee then explained: ‘The Savior was not talking about the peace that can be achieved between nations, by military force or by negotiation in the halls of parliaments. Rather, he was speaking of the peace we can each have in our own lives when we live the commandments and come unto Christ with broken hearts and contrite spirits.’” (Robert Wells, Ensign, May 1991, p. 86)