As a law clerk to Judge John Sirica in the 1970s, Elder D. Todd Christofferson had the rare opportunity of experiencing the Watergate trials from a closer perspective than most.
And recently, Elder Christofferson shared on Facebook how his experience with the Watergate trials impacted his life, and how we can avoid our own "Watergates" as we go through life.
Yesterday, I spoke at the University of Oxford in England about my experience serving as the law clerk to the Honorable Judge John J. Sirica during the Watergate trials that involved President Richard M. Nixon, an experience I have mentioned on Facebook before. I have reflected on this experience countless times throughout my life.
The life lesson I took away from this experience was that my hope for avoiding the possibility of a similar catastrophe in my own life lay in never making an exception—always and invariably submitting to the dictates of an ethical conscience. Putting one’s integrity on hold, even for seemingly small acts in seemingly small matters, places one in danger of losing the benefit and protection of conscience altogether. A weak conscience, and certainly a numbed conscience, opens the door for “Watergates,” be they large or small, collective or personal—disasters that can hurt and destroy both the guilty and the innocent.
Lead image from Facebook