Religious Freedom

Thoughts on Religious Freedom

In this post I wanted to give some of my thoughts on religious freedom.  Recently a current republican presidential candidate put forth a proposal to stop for a period of time all Muslims entering our country until we can improve our vetting process.  Much of this is spurred by the recent shootings in San Bernadino by two terrorists (who also happened to be Muslim).  As I read the news feeds and especially the comments that people make I have been shocked that there is so much misunderstanding and so much hatred towards the Muslim community.  

Many people are putting all Muslims under the same broad stroke of Islamic Terrorist organizations like ISIS.  However, from my perspective every religious organization has individuals who take their religion to an extreme.  I'm reminded of the Dannites and the individuals who participated in the Mormon mountain meadows massacre amongst my own history of Latter Day Saints.  The Christian crusades were barbaric and I have friends who cannot stomach anything to do with Christianity because of it.  The point I am trying to get across is that there are crazy, evil, misguided people in nearly every form of religious or secular thought.  We can't judge the many by the actions of the few.  Some individuals point at the teachings of Jihad by Mohammed as justifiable proof that Muslims are violent awful people as their own religious scripture teaches that these atrocities are justified.  Yet, if we look at the Old Testament we can find many instances where God commanded entire civilizations to be obliterated.  Many Roman Catholic popes used the word's of Jesus Christ to justify the destruction of infidels which led to the medieval crusades.

Yet, as I state this I am not trying to give the impression that religion is evil and bad (as I have read some secular thoughts put forward).  Rather, I believe that much of what is good and noble in this world is inspired by religion.  Most of our modern day mathematics and philosophical thought has been based on or influenced by the Muslim religion.  One of the tenets of my faith is that we seek after all that is noble, good, or praiseworthy and try to incorporate that into our faith.  I know that we as a country also try to do the same.  We are a great melting pot where we attempt to bring together all that is noble and good from all walks of life as well as all faiths.  If we as a country start selectively deciding which religions are allowed into our country, and just a person by their religion, in my view it violates the very principles this country was founded on.  Many of our ancestors fled England because their religious walk of life was not permitted.  The right to worship how we want and where we want is one of the most precious freedoms we should uphold above all other things.

I do want to state however, that there are limits to what should be allowed with religious freedom.  We as a nation should not condone violence of any kind.  We do need to do all that we can to screen for potential terrorists, but the current system of approximately two years that it takes for someone to be screened in my view is adequate, if not even too extensive.  There are millions of people who are suffering and being forced from their homes.  It takes years for them to make it into the united states.  I'm all for monitoring them when they come into our country, but putting people through a religious verification test in my view is contrary to my faith, and contrary to the civic values we as American citizens should hold.

I really like these quotes from the founding prophet of our church Joseph Smith.  I'm taking it from a newsletter our church put out in regards to the same topic (you can read it here).

“If it has been demonstrated that I have been willing to die for a ‘Mormon,’ I am bold to declare before Heaven that I am just as ready to die in defending the rights of a Presbyterian, a Baptist, or a good man of any denomination; for the same principle which would trample upon the rights of the Latter-day Saints would trample upon the rights of the Roman Catholics, or of any other denomination who may be unpopular and too weak to defend themselves. It is a love of liberty which inspires my soul—civil and religious liberty to the whole of the human race.” —Joseph Smith, 1843

“Be it ordained by the City Council of the City of Nauvoo, that the Catholics, Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, Latter-day Saints, Quakers, Episcopals, Universalists, Unitarians, Mohammedans [Muslims], and all other religious sects and denominations whatever, shall have free toleration, and equal privileges in this city.” —Ordinance in Relation to Religious Societies, City of Nauvoo, Illinois, headquarters of the Church, March 1, 1841

I am willing to die as well for the rights of all men and women to worship God as they see fit in our country.  Religious diversity is what makes our country great and I am proud to be an America.  I hope that we as citizens can vote for those individuals who will uphold our religious liberties.

If you want to read more from an Apostle of God on what you can do to preserve religious liberties here is a wonderful article: Preserving Agency, Preserving Religious Freedom

Good, Better, and Best, focusing on the real meaning of Christmas in our families.

The last few weeks in one of my classes I'm taking we've been talking about our responsibilities towards our children. I was able to review an article about good, better,and best things by Elder Dallin H. Oaks. What's been on my mind for this post is to write about doing the best things as a family for Christmas time. I also hope to do a better job this time of incorporating a few more media elements to enrich this blog post.

I talked about this idea with my wife and had the following dialogue:

My Wife:  I've been thinking about that a lot. I put a quote on Facebook:

 We find the real joy of Christmas when 

we make the Savior the focus of the season

President Thomas S. Monson

Even in gift giving if I can try to be more serviceable, that's better than giving gifts.

Me: It depends because sometimes the way to reach someone is through gifts, especially if it's their love language. (We also spent time talking about the Chapman's five love languages in class as well, mine is Quality Time and so is my wife's).

I think that the gift giving goes too far, when you're not focusing on the real needs of people, and just getting them something even if they don't kneed it.

My Wife: I think things that help people to come unto Christ is what's best. The people that influenced my life the most has been those who have helped bring me unto God. It's not so much the gifts, but the time and the effort and the fact that they care.

Me: I think of President Monson, he told a story of a family that was coming in as refugees from Germany. Their brother had secured for them an apartment, however, it was a stripped down cold apartment with no furniture. This family was coming with absolutely nothing. President Monson (at the time Bishop Monson) couldn't stand the thought of them being in that apartment on Christmas eve. The ward council decided they would do something about it and that Christmas they fixed up the electrical, provided furniture, painted the room, stocked it with food. The whole ward pulled together to make that apartment a beautiful place. To me this was one of the best things that could be done with their time.  I've included the story below (this is a clip from the full biography of President Monson you can find here)

This story reminds my wife and I of the refugees from Syria. This Christmas season we've been trying to think what more we can do as a family to help the refugees. We've contacted the Utah center for refugees in some refugees into our home, however, this Christmas time we have some family members who are struggling and we may need to take them in as our 'refugees'.  The question is how do we make our service something we do as a family rather than something we do as just my wife and I.  Our desires are in whatever act of service, we do something that brings people unto Christ.

However, it's a challenge for people to come unto Christ if their temporal needs (not their wants) but their needs are not being met. When you meet their needs in a Christlike manner we believe that it brings them unto Christ.

In our society we get so caught up on giving gifts and consumerism that we forget that sometimes the true needs are a caring friend, a listening ear, or a loving heart. My children hear about all the gift giving and they beg us for presents. Yet, they soon forget those things when I just play with them and spend time with them. As I think about this topic I think about this video where the son ends up trying to 'buy' some of his dad's time.

Really what my children need for Christmas is my time, and not just fun time, but time that helps them remember their Savior and their need to help their fellow man. I truly believe that this is the best thing that I can be doing for them.  If all I'm doing is working to get ahead to save up for college to provide the luxuries of life for my children I think I'm doing something good, but I'm missing the point.

Obviously if my kids don't even have food or shelter, or clothing (their needs, not their wants), I should do all within my power to make sure this is being met. However, once those basic essentials are met (and those in my opinion are far lower, than what society would say is essential), the best thing I can do is to be with them and show them by example how to become a disciple of Jesus Christ and a productive member of society.

Yet, how easy it is to fall into the consumption track when we conflate our desires with our needs.  For us our consumerism challenge is the purchase of education products. We love to read and we often times find ourselves spending money on books and computer education products because we feel like it will be a good thing for our children.  Yet, when we look at things over time we realize that we didn't really need those products as we rarely if ever used them.  I suppose my point is how easy it is to fall into the trap of sacrificing our best things for something that is better or just merely good.  It's a danger that we all have to watch out for and keep making adjustments to make this better.

So to my readers, how have you avoided traps of consumerism and focused on the 'better' and 'best' things in your family?