MONKS, NUNS, and LOVE 10-11-08

Yesterday I was sitting in a parking lot (I do that a lot) reading a book and occasionally looking up at people walking by. A Buddist Monk walked by and I realized that I smiled. It occurred to me then that I had smiled the day before when I saw a Catholic Nun (you don't see too many of them in full dress anymore) But any how I realized that I enjoy the evidences of the religious freedom that we have in this great country that we live in. Seriously we must be the most religiously diverse country in the world. Due to a comment Lindsay made on an earlier post I have really been thinking about my life and the role my religion plays in my day to day life. Religion is my life. Every thing that I believe, all my core values, is because of my religion. Joseph Smith wrote the Articles of Faith, thirteen statements describing the fundamental beliefs of our church. When I was a little girl attending primary I memorized those 13 statements. Number 11 reads, "We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may." Twelve of the thirteen articles of faith start out "We believe..." The eleventh is the only one that starts out "We claim..." The definition of claim is to ask for something especially as a right. I love it. We are asking for the right to believe in God. Yet we want others to have the right to believe in whatever they want to believe in. The Pilgrims came to this country seeking religious freedom. In fact "pilgrim" is the name given to people who travel for religious purposes. I love my country almost as much as I love my religion. I have heard it said that you can tell how good a country is by it's borders. If you open the borders watch and see which way the people run. So many people want to live in our United States. I know that probably most of them don't come for religious reasons any more, probably more for financial reasons. And in our immediate case, for love (I want Ibis here so bad I can't stand it). There is a lot of country bashing going on right now especially with this election, the war, the economy. But as bad as it seems, there is nowhere I would rather live. Nowhere.