Seeing image after image of police lousy with military gear I while doctors and nurses struggle to get adequate PPE, food cupboards struggle to meet needs, and homeless shelters overflow, I can't stop thinking of these tragically prophetic words from 1976:

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"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—

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ships, planes, missiles, fortifications–and depend on them for protection and deliverance. When threatened, we become anti-enemy instead of pro-Kingdom of God.

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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 ther Savior's teaching: Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully...

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use you and persecute you; that utter may be the children of your Father which is in Heaven."

Spencer W. Kimball, "The False Gods We Worship."

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