Religion the Antidote for Crime

Religion the Antidote for Crime By Melvin J. Ballard, of the Council of the Twelve and Assistant General Superintendent Y. M. M. I. A. NO PEOPLE or nation can preserve a desirable civilization ex- cept through the ability of the great majority to practice self-control. Whenever a large number of the people are employed in policing the country to enforce the law, the stability of the institutions are in grave danger. The strength in the early gov- ernment of the United States was the willingness on the part of the people to honor and obey the law without police regulations except in rare instances. Crime comes as the result of perverted appetites and desires developed because of a lack of self-control. The only thing that seems to restrain many people is the fear of being caught by the officials of the law. The breaking of the law seems to create no particular concern to these individuals, but their anxiety is whether they will be discovered. Will more laws correct this evil? Increased police vigilance may check it to some extent, but surely men cannot be made to have honor and regard for the law by the multiplication of laws. Then what is the remedy? What men need is to have more of the fear of God always in their hearts, whether they may be detected in the violation of the law or not. They are then accused before their own guilty con- sciences in such a way as to restrain them from breaking the law. If they do so, there is a secret punishment administered that may prove corrective. The religion of Jesus Christ, which teaches the universal brotherhood of man, makes me to feel that I am my brother's keeper, and that I should be willing to do unto him as I should like him to do unto me. He is not a victim for me to prey upon, but I am to love him as myself. Religion alone can create this feeling in the hearts of men. The gospel of Jesus Christ also teaches me to know that if my crimes are not detected in this life, there is a perfect record made of all I do, and I must in the day of judgment meet that record. What a restraining influence this would have over all men if they but believed it. There are two powers in this world; one inducing men to sin, to commit evil; the other restraining them, reproving them. Men who live outside of the pale of the gospel of Jesus Christ lack that powerful spiritual influence that makes the right clearly visible and gives strength to do it. The United States reports show that there are fifty-eight millions of people living in this country who are

RELIGION THE ANTIDOTE FOR CRIME 377 without any religious convictions. Is that not, in part, one of the chief reasons why there is such an increase of crime in this country? These records also show that ninety per cent of the criminals in our state prisons today committed their first crime before the age of twenty. This lack of religious faith is chiefly among the youth of this land today. Is that not another evidence that the chief thing they are lacking is religion to restrain them from crime? It is an epidemic that seems to be sweeping the world, and one of the chief remedies, therefore, is to awaken youth to a consciousness of the truths of religion, to establish faith in God in their hearts, and, through that, love for their fellow-men and a desire to live in harmony with Christ's noble teachings. I submit, as evidence that the foregoing statements are true, the record of crime among the members of the "Mormon" Church, as given in The Fruits of Mormonism, by Dr. Franklin S. Harris: A study of the past twenty-five years reveals the fact that con- viction to the penitentiary decrease as the proportion of "Mormons" in the counties increase. Convictions to the Utah State Penitentiary in 1919 to 1923 show 156 "Mormons." This is 28.9 per cent of the total convictions, and yet the "Mormon" population in Utah is 61.8. Our proportion would have been 334 convictions. The same thing is true with reference to the record of the "Mor- mons" in Idaho, which shows that the number convicted were 1 1 less than the average, for each 100,000 of population in that state. The same thing is true in Arizona. In 1916 there were 438 con- victs in the state penitentiary of Arizona; four of these were "Mormons;" yet the census of Arizona gives the "Mormon" popu- lation as 12,624. Their quota would have been 31.7 persons for each 100,000. If the religion of Jesus Christ as taught and practiced by the Latter-day Saints will restrain crime among them, as these records show, why would not the same results obtain everywhere if men would only accept the gospel of Christ and live according to his teachings? Since youth is the time in which to implant faith in the hearts of the children of men, there is nothing more important for the members of this Church or the people of the country to do than to lay, in security, for the generations that are to come, a foundation against these destructive influences. Unless checked, they may prove the undoing of our civilization. A vigorous campaign should be instituted to revive in the hearts of the youth of the land love of God and a. knowledge of the teachings of Jesus Christ. This will establish an invisible power, controling the actions of men more effectively than all the police power combined, much as this also is desired,