NOM BLOG

"Free to be quirky Mormons, or whatever religion we choose"

 

A Utah Mormon native writes about the freedom to be religious, quirks and all:

Religious freedom was the topic of a recent address by University of Utah President Michael Young, who said that Mormons in particular ought to be “among the most passionate civil libertarians in the world, to preserve our religious freedoms.” Young, a descendant of Utah colonizer Brigham Young, detailed what he sees as attacks on religious freedoms and called for individual LDS Church members to pay attention. “Often,” he noted, “it’s zoning boards or city councils that make decisions that impinge on religious liberties.”

And what would Utah Mormons do without our religious freedom? Who can imagine life without the freedom to avoid coffee and tea, while swigging down sodas and energy drinks?  Utah Mormons are free to worry about anybody who is over 22 and not married, free to decorate empty gallon paint buckets for our home décor, and free to wear ugh-lee floral print dresses. What would Utah Mormons do with our Sabbath Day, if we weren’t working so hard with church callings, meetings, meetings, and more meetings, followed by big Sunday dinners? Utah Mormons are free to corner the market on ice cream, dehydrated food storage items, Jell-O molds, and glue guns — and we actually have classes on making “scriptures” out of Hershey’s chocolate bars. We are free to say, “Let me know if there’s anything I can do,” and then do nothing. We have the freedom to select names for our children from the Bible dictionary and to make Easter bunnies from two spools of pink ribbon and a little white felt.  And we’re free to be genuinely nice people in spite of all of our quirks.

Free also to stand for marriage, we might add.

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