Details may change, but principles tend to hold steady. I hope 101 years is long enough ago that this 1919 talk by Heber J. Grant will let us focus on principles and not fight over the details …

On one important matter I desire to place the position of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints fairly before the people. An illustrated hand-bill has been circulated and has been widely republished in newspapers under the heading: “Mormon Bible Prophecies Become Issue in Opposition to the League of Nations.” The position of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is that the standard works of the Church are not opposed to the League of Nations.

I regret exceedingly that this great and important question has become a political issue, and I desire to ask each and all of the members of the Church, over which I have the honor to preside, that in all their controversy in connection with this great issue, they express themselves as to their views with due deference to the opinions of others. During the controversy I would like them to read, occasionally, the very wonderful and inspired hymn “O Say, What is Truth?” written by John Jaques, to be found on page 71 of our hymn book:

O, say what is truth? ’Tis the fairest gem
That the riches of worlds can produce;
And priceless the value of truth will be when
The proud monarch’s costliest diadem
Is counted but dross and refuse.

Yes, say what is truth? ’Tis the brightest prize
To which mortals or Gods can aspire;
Go, search in the depths where it glittering lies,
Or ascend in pursuit to the loftiest skies:
’Tis an aim for the noblest desire.

The sceptre may fall from the despot’s grasp
When with winds of stern justice he copes,
But the pillar of truth will endure to the last,
And its firm-rooted bulwarks outstand the rude blast,
And the wreck of the fell tyrant’s hopes.

Then say, what is truth? ’Tis the last and the first,
For the limits of time it steps o’er.
Though the heavens depart and the earth’s fountains burst,
Truth, the sum of existence, will weather the worst,
Eternal, unchanged, evermore.

On page 66 of our hymn book we find the following:

Should you feel inclined to censure
Faults you may in others view,
Ask your own heart, ere you venture,
If that has not failings, too.

Let not friendly vows be broken;
Rather strive a friend to gain;
Many a word in anger spoken
Finds its passage home again.

Do not, then, in idle pleasure,
Trifle with a brother’s fame.
Guard it as a valued treasure,
Sacred as your own good name.

Do not form opinions blindly;
Hastiness to trouble tends.
Those of whom we thought unkindly
Oft become our warmest friends.

Seeing that I have gotten into the habit of quoting poetry, another poem has just come to mind, which I will repeat, as I think it will be of value to us in teaching us to have respect for the opinions of other people:

Let each man learn to know himself:
To gain that knowledge, let him labor,
Improve those failings in himself
Which he condemns so in his neighbor.
How lenient our own faults we view,
And conscience’ voice adeptly smother;
But oh! how harshly we review
The self-same errors in another!

And if you meet an erring one
Whose deeds are blamable or thoughtless,
Consider, ere you cast the stone
If you yourself be pure and faultless.
Oh! list to that small voice within,
Whose whisperings oft make men confounded,
And trumpet not another’s sin.
You’d blush deep if your own were sounded.

And in self-judgment, if you find
Your deeds to others are superior,
To you has Providence been kind,
As you should be to those inferior:
Example sheds a genial ray
Of light, which men are apt to borrow;
So first, improve yourself today,
And then improve your friends tomorrow.

– Philip De La Mar

I regret exceedingly that in political controversies men seem to lack that courtesy and that respect for their opponents that I believe all Latter-day Saints ought to have. I have never yet heard a Democrat make a political speech that I felt was fair to the Republicans. Being a Democrat, I shall not say anything about what I think of the speeches of Republicans regarding Democrats. It is a strange thing – but they say that “Love is blind,” and some people have added, “and can’t smell.” I have sometimes thought that both statements were true. From my own personal contact with dear and near friends, Republicans and Democrats, I have not been able to discover the exercise of what you might call charity if you like, for the opinions of others who oppose them politically, at least not as much charity as should exist among our people.

I am a thorough convert myself to the idea that it is not possible for all men to see alike. You know the remark made by a man once: “It is a splendid thing that we do not all see alike, because if we did, everybody would want to marry my Sally Ann”; and the other man remarked, “Yes, thank the Lord. If everybody saw your Sally Ann as I see her, nobody on earth would have her, and she would die an old maid.”

I’ve posted the clipping, as large as the screen will allow, here in case you want to try to make it out; but remember, it’s the principle that we’re talking about here, not the details of that old fight.