“Free agency means that a man may serve either God or the devil, without external compulsion. How can a man be compelled to serve the one or the other? It must, in the nature of the case, be a matter for free choice. He has his free agency to commit all sorts of crime, even to murder. But he will very soon learn that he has no legal right to do so. The idea of non-interference with the lives, the property, and the peace of others are commonly taken as a basic principle in determining legal rights.”
(Concerning the Education of Young Men. by Milton Bennion, M. A., Professor of Philosophy, University of Utah., Improvement Era, 1906, Vol. Ix. April,)
“An intelligent, responsible being, be it man, woman or child, in the peaceable, harmless exercise of its personal agency, has the heaven-born right to be let alone to pursue any purpose or exercise any privilege which the eternal Parent of all parents has placed at its disposal.” (Orson F. Whitney, Contributor, vol. 3 October 1881-September 1882, Vol. Iii. July 1882. No. 10. 300 – 301.)
“Rights are either God-given as part of the divine plan, or they are granted by government as part of the political plan. If we accept the premise that human rights are granted by government, then we must be willing to accept the corollary that they can be denied by government. I, for one, shall never accept that premise.” (Ezra Taft Benson, BYU Devotional, 16 September, 1986)
Human RIGHTS are government defined.
Agency is the Light of Christ given to EVERY man and can not be removed. It can however be ignored.
."When we chafe at being compelled (by threat of consequences that might compromise our agency) to donate some of “our” money to help the poor, haven’t we forgotten that in reality it all belongs to the Lord?" (Yes, The Gospel of Redistribution by By Forrest Simmons)
“This is a law which has always existed from all eternity, and will continue to exist throughout all the eternities to come. Every intelligent being must have the power of choice” (Discourses of Brigham Young, sel. John A. Widtsoe [1954], 62).
You CANNOT have your AGENCY taken from you. It is a God given ETERNAL law.
“This agency,” said President Wilford Woodruff, “has always been the heritage of man under the rule and government of God. He possessed it in the heaven of heavens before the world was, and the Lord maintained and defended it there against the aggression of Lucifer and those that took sides with him. … By virtue of this agency you and I and all mankind are made responsible beings, responsible for the course we pursue, the lives we live, and deeds we do” (Discourses of Wilford Woodruff, sel. G. Homer Durham [1946], 8–9).
Certain things are necessary in order for us to use our agency. First, we must have a knowledge of good and evil; second, we must have the freedom to make choices; and third, after we exercise our agency, there must be consequences that follow our choices.
Therefore, the Lord gives us principles, laws, and commandments to follow, and Satan tempts us to disobey them.
The Lord tells us to love our neighbor and our enemy. Satan tells us that we are being "forced to love our neighbor when we are taxed for social programs, and that this is a a loss of agency." It is not a loss of agency. Choosing to not love our neighbor or not pay our taxes, both have consequences, but our agency is still in tact.
President David O. McKay stated: “Next to the bestowal of life itself, the right to direct our lives is God’s greatest gift to man. Freedom of choice is more to be treasured than any possession earth can give. It is inherent in the spirit of man. It is a divine gift to every normal being. … To man is given a special endowment, not bestowed upon any other living thing. God gave to him the power of choice. Only to the human being did the Creator say, ‘… thou mayest choose for thyself, for it is given unto thee; …” (Moses 3:17). Without this divine power to choose, humanity cannot progress” (“Man’s Free Agency—An Eternal Principle of Progress,” Improvement Era, Dec. 1965, 1073).
In this life, people continue to have agency; even if their personal freedoms are restricted or taken away, they can choose how to feel and react.
Agency is still active among subjects in a monarchy, someone in a republic, and someone in a gulag. Agency can’t be taken away without destroying existence. Since we are eternal beings, destroying our existence may be impossible. Perhaps limits on political freedom constitute a category of a sphere in which intelligence and truth are placed to act. Agency is never diminished and accountability is always present, except for persons who are unaccountable due to mental disability, etc. (That’s beyond the scope of this article.) However we may be limited by the amount of truth we are able to perceive based on the sphere in which we exist at any given moment in eternity.
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