On Setting the World in Order – Sunday, August 06, 1944
Frequently when we become aware of conditions which need correction, we are led to wonder why those responsible for such things do not correct them. In a home or family, in a community or a commonwealth, usually it will be found that there is someone whose moral or legal responsibility it is to see that such conditions do not exist, and we are led to wonder why they are permitted to continue uncorrected.
There could be many answers to this line of questioning, and to ascribe any one cause would be to oversimplify the problem. It sometimes happens that those responsible for moral or legal, action are lazy or indifferent; it sometimes happens that they are actually unaware of the condition, even though it is their responsibility to be aware of it; and it sometimes happens that private conviction or public opinion is against doing anything about it.
Any of these reasons could be responsible for a person’s sitting down and watching things go on which it is his obligation to see are corrected or eliminated. But beyond all these possible explanations, there is one reason yet unmentioned which is frequently responsible for failure to correct evils that need correcting—and that —is the lack of moral courage that comes with the failure of a man to have his own house in order. He who is carrying a burden on his own conscience finds it difficult to set someone else right who is guilty of the same or similar offenses. A prosecutor with a sense of guilt must feel that he is pointing the finger at himself every time he accuses someone else. A parent who corrects child in matters in which he himself does not conform, is usually rather unconvincing.
The leadership of any nation or people, the leadership in any home or community, finds difficulty in telling others what to do, with conviction, in matters in which they themselves do not have a convincing record. In other words, the world finds great difficulty in cleaning up some of the things that need cleaning up because it is true now, as it has always been true, that there is lack of strength in a man whose life isn’t in order—which fact is a destroyer of moral courage, and one of the reasons why more things that need to be set right aren’t set right. You can’t be weak inside and strong outside. You can’t be weak at home and strong away. In other words, if we’d like to reform the world we pretty well know where to begin. There are more things than charity that begin at home, and setting things in order is one of them.
Heard over Radio Station KSL and the nationwide Columbia Broadcasting System from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Sunday, Aug. 6, 1944. Copyright – 1942.
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August 06, 1944
Broadcast Number 0,781