LDS Email Forwards: July 2026

Dallin H Oaks - TIPS FOR MAKING PERSONAL POLITICAL DECISIONS

Political decisions can feel like they come with a lot of pressure — from family, from your political party, or even from social media. But recognizing your personal authority in politics — your ability to be informed, to make principled decisions, and to take action — is empowering. It builds a sense of confidence in your own politics and creates space for others to make their own decisions as well.

Here are several tips from President Oaks to keep in mind as you approach political decisions, elections, and actions.

There are many political issues and no party platform or individual candidate can satisfy all personal references.

Each citizen must therefore decide which issues are most important to him or her at any particular time.

Then members should seek inspiration on how to exercise their influence according to their individual priorities.

This process will not be easy. It may require changing party support or candidate choices, even from election to election.

Such independent actions will Sometimes require voters to support candidates or political parties or platforms whose other positions they cannot approve.

That is one reason we encourage our members to refrain from judging 1 another in political matters.

We should never assert that a faithful latter day, saint cannot belong to a particular party or vote for a particular candidate.

“Defending Our Divinely Inspired Constitution,”

2021April General Conference

These Principles Protect Liberty - Learn Them - Honor Them - Defend Them

We encourage our members to refrain from judging one another in political matters. We should never assert that a faithful Latter-day Saint cannot belong to a particular party or vote for a particular candidate. We teach correct principles and leave our members to choose how to prioritize and apply those principles on the issues presented from time to time.

I testify of the divinely inspired Constitution of the United States and pray that we who recognize the Divine Being who inspired it will always uphold and defend its great principles.”

Dallin H. Oaks, General Conference
April 2021
“Defending Our Divinely Inspired Constitution”

From Instagram churchofjesuschrist_laguna

Dallin H Oaks - US Constitution: Five Divinely Inspired Principles

In his April 2021 General Conference address
“Defending Our Divinely Inspired Constitution,”
President Dallin H. Oaks shared insights that came from studying the U.S. Constitution for more than 60 years.
In particular, President Oaks highlighted five divinely inspired principles that he has found - listed below:

I believe the United State Constitution contains at least five inspired principles.

First is the principle that the source of government power is the people.

A Second inspired principle is the division of the delegated power between the nation and its subsidiary states.

Another inspired principle is the separation of powers.

A fourth inspired principle is in the cluster of vital guarantees of individual rights and specific limits on government authority in the Bill of Rights, adopted by amendment just three years after the Constitution went into force.

Fifth and finally, I see divine inspiration in the vital purpose of the entire Constitution. We are to be governed by law and not by individual, and our loyalty is to the Constitution and its principles and processes, not to any office holder.

Despite the divinely inspired principles of the United States Constitution, when exercised by imperfect mortals their intended effects have not always been achieved.

The stature of the Constitution is diminished by efforts to substitute current societal trends as the reason for its founding, instead of liberty and self-government.

The authority of the Constitution is trivialized when candidates or officials ignore its principles.

The dignity and force of the Constitution is reduced by those who refer to it like a loyalty test or a political slogan, instead of its lofty status as a course of authorization for and limits on government authority.