On my mind late on October 29th

I have included below what I felt was one of the most memorable statements from the October 2009 Semiannual General Conference. Elder D. Todd Christofferson made the statment, and he quoted a columnist published in the Deseret News by the name of Walter Williams.

Self-discipline has eroded and societies are left to try to maintain order and civility by compulsion. The lack of internal control by individuals breeds external control by governments. One columnist observed that “gentlemanly behavior [for example, once] protected women from coarse behavior. Today, we expect sexual harassment laws to restrain coarse behavior. . . .

“Policemen and laws can never replace customs, traditions and moral values as a means for regulating human behavior. At best, the police and criminal justice system are the last desperate line of defense for a civilized society. Our increased reliance on laws to regulate behavior is a measure of how uncivilized we’ve become.”