General Omar Bradley once said of contemporary Americans, “We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount.” In a “world of nuclear giants and ethical infants,” he continued, “we know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living.” His concern over our society’s infatuation with the instruments of death rather than the conditions for peace is paralleled in the teachings of president Spencer W. Kimball. Addressing members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, President Kimball remarked sadly that “we are a warlike people” and warned against our tendency to turn to the false gods of armaments “for protection and deliverance.” He lamented that members of the Church “are easily distracted from our assignment of preparing for the coming of the Lord.”
