PROVO, Utah — Elder Ronald A. Rasband remembers participating in flag ceremonies as a young Boy Scout. “We took the assignment seriously, and we drilled to get it just right,” he said. His mother would wash and press his uniform so that as a guard, a flag bearer or the color guard commander, “I took the part and would learn the part of a patriot.”
Now a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Elder Rasband recalls saluting the flag and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance: “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
“‘One nation, under God,’” he repeated in the Marriott Center on the campus of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, on Sunday, June 28. “Those words have stayed in my heart and my soul for all these years.” Elder Rasband was the keynote speaker in the 2026 Patriotic Service of America’s Freedom Festival.
Quoting 2 Chronicles 13:12 — which says that “God himself is with us for our captain” — Elder Rasband said: “Jesus Christ is our captain. We revere, love and trust Him to champion the Father’s plan. That includes preserving this, the promised land, ‘choice above all other lands’ (Ether 2:10), for the great unfolding of the gospel in the last days.”
He added that “this promised land is a stepping stone to life eternal, to the presence of God the Father and Jesus Christ — if we live faithfully. That is why it is called the promised land. That is why we love our country. That is why we love our Lord and Savior.”
A land of promise ‘preserved for a righteous people’
In the Garden of Eden — “in what today we consider the heartland of America” — God the Father and His Beloved Son visited Adam and Eve and taught them the gospel, said Elder Rasband.
Their posterity eventually became so wicked that the Lord cleansed the earth with water. The surface ”fractured into great continents separated by oceans, all to protect what was destined to be the promised land, ‘which the Lord God had preserved for a righteous people’ (Ether 2:7).”
Some time later, the Lord brought the Jaredites to this hallowed land and declared, “Whoso should possess this land of promise, from that time henceforth and forever, should serve him, the true and only God, or they should be swept off when the fulness of his wrath should come upon them” (Ether 2:8).
Although initially righteous, the Jaredites eventually became exceedingly wicked, destroying the nation. This pattern is seen throughout the Book of Mormon. After Lehi and his family were brought to the promised land, their descendants cycled through righteousness and wickedness for a thousand years, ultimately ending in the destruction of the people because of wickedness.
“The family of Adam and Eve, the Jaredites and the Nephites could not sustain willing ‘the good of the other,’” said Elder Rasband, referencing the definition of “love” from St. Thomas Aquinas. “God did place them in the promised land, the perfect setting, but the evil one crept in and took over.”
God governs the affairs of His children
On June 28, 1787 — coincidentally “239 years ago this very day” — the Continental Congress convened for another day to write the Constitution. Little progress had been made in the weeks prior, with divisive opinions halting agreements.
Benjamin Franklin, a Founding Father, “rose from his seat in the midst of contentious debate and called for the Congress to pray for divine guidance. He reminded those assembled that when the movement began to break with England, it started with a prayer, a practice that is still very much a part of our Congress today,” said Elder Rasband.
Franklin told the congress: “The longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth: that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?”
In his first address as the first president of the United States, George Washington also gave thanks to the Almighty: “No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand, which conducts the affairs of men more than [the people] of the United States.”
Love ‘your country and its values’
In a 1775 letter, Washington wrote: “A kind of destiny ... has thrown me upon this service. I shall hope that my undertaking of it is designed to answer some good purpose.”
That “good purpose,” said Elder Rasband, was the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In 1820, “the Restoration was set in motion” after God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared in vision and spoke to Joseph Smith.
Of the U.S., Elder Rasband said: “Here our Lord intended for liberty to take hold so that agency might thrive. Here the gospel would put down roots and then branch out with truths to bless millions. By divine design it has always been so.”
He quoted Church President Dallin H. Oaks, who in 2022 wrote: “Teachings based on faith in God — however defined — have always contributed to moral actions that benefit the entire nation. This will continue to be so as religious people love and serve their neighbors as an expression of their love of God.”
All face resistance, resentment, hostility and cynicism, said Elder Rasband, and religious freedom is under fire.
“If religion is not there to help with shaping character and mediating hard times, who will be?” he asked. “Who will teach honesty, gratitude, forgiveness and patience? Who will exhibit charity, compassion and kindness for the forgotten and the downtrodden?”
Elder Rasband concluded by bearing witness of Jesus Christ and “His remarkable love” shown through His Atonement. “I bless you with sincere and abiding love for all others, love for your country and its values, and most of all love for Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Reflections on U.S. liberties
Celeste Galbraith from Orem, Utah, told the Church News she felt Heavenly Father’s love while recognizing the liberties He’s given. “America will always be special because it’s God that’s directing our affairs,” said Galbraith, born in the Philippines. “We have to trust in God, and He is there to guide us.”
She added: “We are so blessed to be in this land, where we have religious freedom, where we are free to worship.”
Tony Nisse from Provo, Utah, appreciated Elder Rasband’s declaration that the liberties available in the U.S. come from the Lord.
“I have always felt — even before I joined the Church in my teenage years — America was special,” said Nisse. “Now I feel that responsibility to teach my children ... the special importance of what the U.S. represents.”
