At one of the bicentennial general conferences, President Benson was full of the red, white, and blue . . . and the beehive.

I pay fervent tribute to the forebears who made this possible—the Founding Fathers of this republic and our Mormon pioneers. I pay tribute to their faithful deeds, their noble lives, and their lasting lessons of faith in God, courage, industry, self-reliance, and integrity.

My emphasis.  We Mormons are the heirs of a twice-founded nation.

from lunarmotion.com

And to a surprising extent, President Benson seemed to see the American founding as more of a moral and spiritual founding, like the Pioneer one.

We stand today as beneficiaries of their priceless heritage to us, a heritage based on the truth that righteousness brings forth the blessings of God.

Today the flags aren’t out on my street, and on the 24th, for the nth year in a row, the Pioneer celebration will probably be mostly show tunes.  The outward heritage is slipping away and, one fears, the inward heritage also.

At the same time, it is possible to bury oneself so much in the outward heritage that the inward heritage vanishes altogether.  Episcopalian church services tend to have a high amount of ceremony and precise liturgy.  What people expect when they think of Catholic services, they get from the Episcopalians.  But within that church is full of dead men’s bones, and all uncleanness.

Other Posts from the Saturday afternoon session of the October 1976 General Conference

• In a Single Bound by Daniel Ortner
• Tides by Marilyn Nielson