The Golden Thread of Freedom

Throughout the gospel plan

There lies a golden thread

Giving free agency to man

To choose where one is led

Defend the constitution

Each freedom it provides

Safeguard it from pollution

And strengthen it with your lives

Give of yourself in service

As it is vitally important to activate-

Those finer qualities of purpose

That refine us and are a joy to radiate

To summarize our capacity to influence those around us, President McKay said the following half a century ago:

There is one responsibility which no man can evade and that responsibility is personal influence. Man’s unconscious influence, the silent, subtle radiation of his personality. The effect of his words and acts. These are tremendous. Every moment of life he is changing to a degree the life of the whole world.
Every man has an atmosphere which is affecting every other. Man cannot escape for one moment from this radiation of his character. This constantly weakening or strengthening of others. He cannot evade the responsibility by saying it is an unconscious influence. He can select the qualities he would permit to be radiated. He can cultivate sweetness, calmness, trust, generosity, truth, justice, loyalty, nobility, and make them vitally active in his character. By these qualities he will constantly affect the world. This radiation to which I refer comes from what a person really is, not from what he pretends to be. Every man by his mere living is radiating sympathy, sorrow, or morbidness, cynicism, or happiness or hope, or any other hundred qualities. Life is a state of radiation and absorption. To exist is to radiate. To exist is to be the recipient of radiation.

"To radiate our positive influence in civic affairs, we must become righteous and moral; we must, as Ghandi once said, be the change we wish to see in the world. We need to learn and abide by the principles found in the Constitution, for as President McKay taught: "Next to being one in worshiping God, there is nothing in this world upon which this Church should be more united than in upholding and defending the Constitution of the United States!" (Instructor Magazine, 1956, 91:34). We must take that knowledge and understanding of the Constitution, and infuse our political system with its disinfecting simplicity and principled restraints; we must become leaders and work diligently to support good people in public office, or seek office ourselves. And finally, we must radiate our influence by exposing ourselves to those who might be impacted and uplifted by our actions, words, and character."


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