Personal Thoughts & Insights: Freedom of Religion, Freedom of Choice

I feel very blessed today is the Sabbath because I had the opportunity to attend Church and renew my covenants with God by partaking of the Sacrament and receive further revelation from Him on how I'm doing and how I can improve myself as a person. Even when I couldn't attend Church in the early stages of the Pandemic, I still had the chance to worship and have Church in my home. Even when I couldn't partake of the Sacrament, I did what I could to keep the Sabbath Day holy. I still do today.

Being a religious person, a Christian, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has helped me grow and transform into the person I am today. Some people who hear others say that would think I have it so easy. But that's not true. I've been through so many difficulties my whole life, and there've been times I wanted to give up. Because of my religion, I've been persecuted due to the Church's positions & policies on same-sex marriage and abortion. The Church has also been persecuted for its history with plural marriage (aka polygamy). I have ancestors who practiced polygamy, and they and their children (including my grandpa & his siblings) were treated horribly by people who couldn't stand that. They were even treated poorly by people who were members of the Church after my great-grandfather was excommunicated for refusing to divorce his then-pregnant second wife (my great-grandmother). Yet he encouraged his children to keep attending Church and practice their faith as he never lost his in the Church.

My family had gone through so many hardships as Christians, even before the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was founded in the US. Before the Mayflower Voyage, there were people in Europe, particularly England, who weren't allowed to practice religions contrary to what the monarchy had permitted. I have ancestors who came on the Mayflower, one of them being William Bradford, whom I discovered is my 12th great-grandfather on my dad's side.

While I understand & agree when people say this was the Native Americans' land and it was "invaded by [some] outsiders," it hurts to know they believe the Europeans should never have come to America. I strongly stand on the side that says it's wrong to invade someone else's land and take over as a dictator and treat others like slaves, but I strongly disagree with the saying that all of the Europeans should've left America alone. Do people today only remember the merchants & explorers who came to America to make profits off the land they discovered? What about those who came to America not in pursuit of profit, but in pursuit of freedom? Freedom of religion? Freedom of choice? Where else were they supposed to go when they had no home, no support, and no choice but to live in their government's way of living had they stayed there?

I'm not content with the way America is today because of the government's positions on social issues, their poor treatment of the American people, and their running of this country. This is not what the Pilgrims came for. This is not what my ancestors wanted for me and my family. This is not the America that our Founding Fathers dreamt of and built. I hope and pray that things will get better for America. This is the land of the free and the home of the brave. This is the United States of America. But sadly... I don't see much unity in this country. This is becoming the land of the enslaved and the home of the fearful. People removing God's name from the Pledge of Allegiance are removing God from America. Even if God's name is erased from the written Pledge of Allegiance, I will recite that pledge with God's name unerased. One of my biggest fears for the future is the government will continually do everything possible to keep God out of this country as it is becoming communist (aka socialist) like it was in Russia. I pray that there'll never be a law forbidding people like me to practice our religions.

I hope there will be more enforcement of the First Amendment as it is desperately needed in this country. And I hope there will be more laws protecting religious rights so others can have more freedom of worshipping God and not be afraid of standing up for their beliefs. But even if there was a law forbidding religion today as there was in the Book of Daniel, I hope they continue to stand up for their religious freedom. I'd rather stand before the government in defense of my faith in God than to stand before God in defense of my faith in the government.