An Imperfect Constitution

Last week in class we watched the movie "A More Perfect Union" which is about the passing of the Constitution as a new government to replace the failing Articles of Confederation. I have also been reading Just and Holy Principles, a book that we have to read and write an essay about for this class. It includes different speeches given by leaders of the Church from Joseph Smith's time to ours. There are some similar themes I have recognized in the movie and in this book.

One of the most striking is that the Constitution is not a perfect document. Throughout the movie we saw change after change come to the document, and the delegates of the conference had a hard time agreeing on what the best path would be. Comprimises had to be made and they created a government that could be changed as was neccesary for the nation. Not everybody was happy with what decision the Second Continental Congress came to, but they all knew that what they had created would work.

Brigham Young in a speech given on the 4th of July some years ago spoke of how the Constitution wasn't working. Granted, he knew that it could work, but after going through and seeing so much persecution of the Church he had a hard time believing that the government was part of the "more perfect union" set up by the founding fathers. He even went so far as to say that the country was no longer Republican in that it refused to hold up the rights of those under its protection even if they were in the minority.

Brigham Young was right about one thing in particular. The Constitution wasn't perfect then, and it still isn't perfect, but because it gives the people of this nation the power and right to make changes to make it better, it is "a more perfect union" than any on the earth. Now whether or not the citizens and leaders of our nations live up to that standard is the test, but I have hope as Joseph Smith and Brigham Young did that when we, as a nation come to a breaking point, and destruction is looming on the horizon, we will make the hard decision that will save our nation--and it's hard to be hopeful these days...