Emeritus General Authority and general counsel for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Elder Lance B. Wickman, was on the Kansas City campus of the University of Missouri earlier this month to speak at a gathering of the Liberty Missouri Stake of the Church and the Alexander W. Doniphan Community Services and Leadership Foundation on 14 February 2014.
His remarks, titled “Love, Law and Liberty,” focused on two men he considers men of principle—Missouri statesman and patriot Alexander W. Doniphan and Joseph Smith, founder and Prophet of the Church.
Elder Wickman remarked, “If ever there was an oxymoron, ‘Liberty Jail’ has got to be it!” He described the conditions as, “Cold, filthy, cramped, dark, destitute of even the rudest implements of civilization.” But, he said the prophet emerged from the jail a “more Christ-like prophet of the Lord.”
Elder Wickman also received the Alexander W. Doniphan Community Service Award in a special ceremony in conjunction with the annual conference of the J. Reuben Clark Law Society. Doniphan, a militia officer, refused to execute Joseph Smith, along with his brother Hyrum and five other Church leaders in October 1831.
More information about Elder Wickman’s remarks and the Doniphan Award can be found on Church News and Events.