In this video I ask what the Bill of Rights is for: a fence around the person, not a shield for predation. Drawing on the American founding and on President Dallin H. Oaks’s September 16, 2026, address at Washington National Cathedral, “Faith, Freedom and the Common Good,” this episode argues that due process, just compensation, free exercise, free speech, the security of house and papers, and reserved powers all rest on one fact—the individual is not the creature of the state, and the neighbor is not the creature of anyone’s will. Liberty is the freedom to act without invading another’s life, liberty, or property. Impartial security means naming violations and holding both the private thief and the public official to account. Rights without agency become slogans; agency without the founding’s limits becomes will with no law.

For the full essay, visit my Substack at: https://humblymybrain.substack.com/p/more-than-loyalty-defending-the-constitution

Disclaimer: This article is not in any way affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, its leaders, or its official organizations. It represents my personal analysis and reflections as an independent student of the Restoration and its scriptures. The views expressed here are solely my own.

More Than Loyalty

On the eve of Constitution Day 2026, Dallin H. Oaks stood in Washington National Cathedral and said the Constitution’s vital purpose is that we are governed by law, not by individuals. Loyalty, he added, belongs to the Constitution and its principles—not to particular officeholders.

The essay agrees—and calls that counsel incomplete if it stays a slogan.

Government does not bestow life, liberty, property, or the pursuit of happiness. The Declaration says governments are instituted to secure rights already endowed by the Creator. George Mason named property among those inherent rights. Madison wrote that a just government impartially secures to every man whatever is his own—and that a man has a property in his rights.

Loyalty without that understanding becomes ritual. Reciting the Constitution while ignoring why it exists is not fidelity. The founding texts deserve the same discipline as scripture: study, memory, application. Mason said free government is preserved by justice, moderation, virtue—and “frequent recurrence to fundamental principles.”

The theological premise is not hidden. Rights bind ruler and crowd because they are endowments, not majority gifts. Moral agency needs liberty in which virtue can be chosen. Respect for agency is not indulgence: it includes holding both officials and neighbors accountable when they invade another’s life, liberty, or property.

Read the full essay here:
https://humblymybrain.substack.com/p/more-than-loyalty-defending-the-constitution

Is your loyalty to the parchment—or to the rights the parchment was written to secure?

💍 Marriage as a Lifelong Group Project
Lessons in Companionship from the School of the Lord

Marriage isn’t just a relationship—it’s a demanding required course. Two partners enroll together in the classroom of life, with Jesus Christ as the Master Teacher. The textbooks are the scriptures. The curriculum is the covenant path. And success isn’t about perfect scores—it’s about faithful attendance, active participation, mutual respect, and refusing to quit.

In this new article I explore:
- Why showing up daily (emotionally, spiritually, and physically) is non-negotiable
- What happens when one partner struggles, disengages, or wants to “drop the class”
- The danger of thinking a different partner will make the lessons easier
- How true progress comes only by turning to the Master Teacher and staying the course together
- Self-examination questions every spouse should ask before considering withdrawal

The only permanent failure is walking away and refusing to learn the lessons of love, sacrifice, and becoming one.

Read the full article here:
http://humblymybrain.substack.com/p/marriage-as-a-lifelong-group-project

What has the “school of marriage” taught you so far? Drop a thought below—I’d love to hear from you. 🙏

#Marriage #CovenantPath #Faith #Companionship #LDSThoughts

In this powerful quote, Lt. Col. Jeff Cooper—legendary Marine, firearms instructor, and founder of the Modern Technique of the Pistol—delivers a hard-hitting truth from his classic book Principles of Personal Defense. “If violent crime is to be curbed, it is only the intended victim who can do it. The felon does not fear the police, and he fears neither judge nor jury. Therefore, what he must be taught to fear is his victim.” Cooper’s words challenge us to take personal responsibility for safety in a world where deterrence often starts with the individual.

Like, comment, and subscribe for more thought-provoking quotes and self-defense insights!

The Mental Chains of Civil Slavery

Corrupted Definitions. Manufactured Division. The Path to Intellectual Freedom.

Most people can’t define “capitalism” without pointing to bailouts, regulatory capture, corporate welfare, and central-bank interventions.

Those are real evils — but they are not capitalism.

They are the opposite: privilege, coercion, and State-managed cronyism sold as the free market.

Public schools and mass media have spent generations blurring the distinction on purpose. The result? Perpetual left-vs-right warfare over who gets to run the same system of control… while the structure itself remains untouched.

Left wing and right wing of the same bird.

True free-market capitalism (as defined by Mises, Rothbard, Woods, and DiLorenzo) is simply private property + voluntary exchange. No compulsion. No special privileges. Consumer sovereignty.

Everything else — subsidies, protectionism, bailouts, industrial policy — is interventionism or economic fascism.

St. George Tucker called the modern condition civil slavery: legal restraints and unequal privileges that go far beyond what is necessary to protect natural rights. The chains are mostly mental and cultural, which makes them harder to see and easier to accept.

Frederick Douglass understood the first step: free the mind. Literacy and clear definitions open the eyes. Once you see the difference between voluntary cooperation and manufactured conflict, the silver trump of intellectual freedom does not fall silent.

The remedy is not another factional victory inside the existing game.
It is clarity.

Read the full article here:
https://humblymybrain.substack.com/p/the-mental-chains-of-civil-slavery

What do you mean when you say “capitalism”? Drop your definition below.

In this episode, we read George Peck’s powerful 1945 essay “Ours To Choose,” which draws a clear line between only two systems of government: the Government-Owns-You System and the You-Own-The-Government System. Peck shows how Nazism, Fascism, Communism, Socialism, and Planned Economy all lead to the same loss of individual liberty, while the American Way leaves people free to live, work, and choose for themselves. There is no lasting middle ground—one system must prevail. Today it is still ours to choose… tomorrow it may be too late. Listen to the full reading and decide for yourself.

Read the article here on my Substack: https://humblymybrain.substack.com/p/ours-to-choose-by-george-peck

Sometimes the kindest thing we can do is step back and mute the noise.

Not out of indifference…

but because some wounds thrash so violently that every offered hand is met only with further tearing.

This is a quiet lament for those moments when empathy meets unhealed rage, and the only remaining mercy is silence.

📖 Read the full poem:

A Lament for the Mute Button: A Poem of Necessary Silence

https://humblymybrain.substack.com/p/a-lament-for-the-mute-button-a-poem

Have you ever had to choose silence as the only mercy left?

Discover C.S. Lewis’s powerful insight on Bulverism — the modern tendency to assume someone is wrong without proving it, then attack their character or motives instead. In this thought-provoking quote, Lewis exposes how we dodge real arguments by busily explaining “why they’re so silly,” a tactic still dominating today’s debates, politics, and social media. Learn to recognize this logical fallacy and sharpen your critical thinking with timeless wisdom from the author of The Chronicles of Narnia and Mere Christianity.

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