At a speech to the Council of the Congregational Churches in Washington, D.C., nearly 75 years ago, President Calvin Coolidge spoke about how governments are limited in their capacity to make people do good. Known for his sparing use of words, he got right to the point.

"The government will be able to get out of the people only such virtue as religion has placed there," he said. (Library of Congress web site, speech preserved by the Everett Sanders collection.)

As the United States enters into its political season, marked by the election of a president every four years, and as nations around the world struggle with competing ideologies in the election of parliaments and prime ministers, this is an important principle to remember. Without religious worship, and without individual conversions to true principles, no political system can succeed in providing liberty or prosperity. Homes and churches are more important to political success than convention halls.

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints have been blessed with a fullness of the gospel, giving them both a greater understanding of what is needed for happiness, and a greater responsibility to live these principles and to share them with others. They also have a keen understanding, through the Book of Mormon, in particular, what can happen to a nation that forgets God.

In his speech that day in 1925, President Coolidge offered a keen insight into what would happen if religion lost its hold on the people:

"The righteous authority of the law depends for its sanction upon its harmony with the righteous authority of the Almighty. If this faith is set aside, the foundations of our institutions fail, the citizen is deposed from the high estate which he holds as amenable to a universal conscience, society reverts to a system of class and caste, and the government instead of being imposed by reason from within is imposed by force from without. Freedom and democracy would give way to despotism and slavery."

If people do not have strong, personal religious convictions, "society might go on for a time under its own momentum, but it would be had for destruction," he said.

While President Coolidge was not a member of the LDS Church, his vision of a faithless society finds plenty of support in scripture. The prophet Nephi, speaking a few years prior to the Savior's visit on the American continent, described the dramatic unraveling of his own society because of a loss of faith.

Wealth and prosperity led to pride. Corruption replaced the rule of law. The chief judge was murdered. "And the people were divided one against another; and they did separate one from another into tribes, every man according to his family and his kindred and friends; and thus they did destroy the government of the land." (3 Nephi 7:2.)

"Now all this was done, and there were no wars as yet among them; and all this iniquity had come upon the people because they did yield themselves unto the power of Satan." (3 Nephi 7:5.)

With the people adrift, missing the rudder of faith in Jesus Christ and obedience to His commandments, chaos reigned. Government had no control on the people, nor would they unite to recognize any authority other than their own. They stoned the prophets and cast them aside, and they persecuted those who still believed. Finally, they were ripe for the terrible destructions that preceded the resurrected Savior's visit.

Could better laws have saved them? Of course not. President Spencer W. Kimball noted that people have tried for centuries to use laws to correct evils. "Through the ages we have come to know we cannot legislate goodness," he said, adding, "The world would legislate goodness and make men fear to do wrong. The gospel would cause men to do right because it makes them happy to do right." (The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, p. 411.)

It is this gospel message that acts as the glue to bind all free societies.

As President Coolidge ended his talk, his summation was succinct. "I have tried to indicate what I think the country needs in the way of help under present conditions," he said, adding simply, "It needs more religion."

And so it is today. We who have the blessings of the restored gospel in its fullness have a great responsibility in our homes, our personal conduct and our missionary efforts to share the faith that is vital to freedom-loving people everywhere.