“We are a warlike people, easily distracted from our assignment of preparing for the coming of the Lord. When enemies rise up, we commit vast resources to the fabrication of gods of stone and steel-ships, planes, missiles, fortifications-and depend on them for protection and deliverance. When threatened we become anti-enemy instead of pro-kingdom of God; we train a man in the art of war and call him a patriot, thus, in the manner of Satan’s counterfeit of true patriotism, perverting the Savior’s teaching ....”
“Know Ye That Ye Must Lay Down Your Weapons of War”
War is never the solution to men’s problems. Though it may be necessary to protect one’s family and rights (see commentary on Alma 43-62), its side effects and after effects are devastating. The Saints are called to “renounce war and proclaim peace” (D&C 98:16), even the peace that can come only through gospel living. President Spencer W Kimball wrote of the buildup of military might as a form of national and international idolatry: “In spite of our delight in defining ourselves as modern, and our tendency to think we possess a sophistication that no people in the past ever had-in spite of these things, we are, on the whole, an idolatrous people-a condition most repugnant to the Lord.”