A few goings-on that I'm interested in:
Christina's thoughts on attending church with me today:
In all my years of living in Utah I had never been to an actual Mormon church service before, so I am so grateful to have had this experience and especially with our good friends who made it such a comfortable situation for us. They even brought extra Books of Mormon and Bibles for us to use!
And a very interesting literature review in the New Yorker about the faith of our founding fathers:
The four books achieve a kind of consensus in four related lines of argument. First, the United States was founded neither as a Christian nation nor as a secular one. Second, by the standards of Evangelicals of both their day and ours, Franklin, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison were not Christians; they wrestled, often profoundly, with religious questions, but, as Church points out, “they all doubted the divinity of Christ.” Third, the disestablishment of religion is itself responsible for Americans’ unusual religiosity, which (these writers all believe) is something to celebrate. Fourth, notwithstanding the Founders’ own remarkable secularism, the liberation of religion from government as much as the reverse was their aim. “The separation of church and state has greatly benefited religion, as Madison and Jefferson predicted that it would,” Wills writes. Nussbaum argues that because “the separation of church and state is, fundamentally, about equality, about the idea that no religion will be set up as the religion of our nation,” in the end “separation is also about protecting religion.” Waldman writes, “Madison, I suspect, would . . . be delighted by surveys showing that, compared with most developed nations, Americans believe in God more, pray more, and attend worship services more frequently.”
6 comments:
Hey!! I'm really glad that you've put this post up. It looks like good things are happening. I'm especially glad that Stina and her hubby had such a good experience attending church with you, even though it was Fast Sunday... lol. K, this is probably a stupid question, but is Brooke an in-law or a good friend? Just trying to fit her into your life in the right places. :) I had a pretty good weekend myself. I've got to get back to work... erf! I'm just not doing well getting organised. *sigh*
sounds like they had a postive experience at church, fast Sunday is good if they dont talke too long Aunt Sharol & Uncle Paul
Thanks again for being such wonderful hosts! And, that picture of the new arrival is one of the most precious mom/baby photos I've ever seen!
I love that picture! It really melted my heart. I'm glad that your friend had a good time at church. It sounds like she did better in fast Sunday then I usually do!
While my feelings don't echo the "I'm glad they had a good time at church" (as I don't really see that being the point of the post for me at least)...my feelings do rejoice in the freedom of worship. I love that there are so many religions that people identify with, that they learn from, that they use for good to improve the world. I love when people from various religions forge friendships based on mutual respect. What I love even more is when the spirituality of two people can actually become so connected that the religions aren't even seen.
Cool Stuff! When I visited Monticello (Jefferson's home in Virgina) it was really funny to see Jefferson's Bible. He actually cut out the parts he didn't like and believed some of it was incorrect.
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