"Oh because they look or believe a certain way, they must be >fill in the blank<." So to me, when people have a problem with people that are different from them, I just have to shake my head because I just don't understand it.
I often get the question "Where would you like to end up?" Often times my answer is California, which is usually followed by ...
" Oh I would never want to raise my kids there because..."
A: There's too many Mexicans
B:There aren't very many members of the church
C: California is too liberal
D: the crime rate is too high
or
E: It's so expensive
I would consider 2 out of those 5 answers legitimate. I don't want to raise my kids where they would be too sheltered. I want them to have friends that aren't all blonde haired and blue eyed. I want them to have friends that are of all religions, and have a respect for that. I DO NOT want my children to fear people that are different from them.
As Yoda would say
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”
Now, I don't have to end up in California. San Diego is just my ideal location laugh out loud.
In reality we'll end up wherever Matt gets a good job, and I'm just fine with that.
I was emailing my little brother who is on a mission speaking mandarin in New York, and he told me something that made me just want to fly out there and give him the biggest hug in the world.
He wrote,
"Later that evening we ran into a guy who was captured by the Taliban for7 months because he protected an American - he was a new york times reporter. Tahir Ruddin or something. He thought our church was great because we had polygamy - he has two wives. I love meeting Muslims. We both realize we're not trying to convert each other so it's easy to just have a friendly conversations like civilized people."
(To read my brother's emails home, check out the blog i set up for him, http://elderbenjamineddynynys.blogspot.com/)
Ben's comment came at a time when I'd been hearing a lot of complete crap about Muslims with the whole mosque ordeal and the anniversary of 9/11. Even today an article on my home page was about
Muslims face growing bias in the workplace. So, when I wrote back to Ben I told him of all this, and how I was so glad that he had a good view of Muslims. This week when he wrote back to me, he included an article from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' website " A Latter-Day Saint Perspective on Muhammad" I encourage all of you to read this. I thought it was a great article and really enjoyed it.
"Elder Russell M. Nelson quoted a public statement issued by the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in October 1992, calling upon “all people everywhere to re-commit themselves to the time-honored ideals of tolerance and mutual respect. We sincerely believe that as we acknowledge one another with consideration and compassion we will discover that we can all peacefully coexist despite our deepest differences.” He then added: “That pronouncement is a contemporary confirmation of the Prophet Joseph’s earlier entreaty for tolerance. Unitedly we may respond. Together we may stand, intolerant of transgression but tolerant of neighbors with differences they hold sacred. Our brothers and sisters throughout the world are all children of God.”"
With that, I've said what I need to say. I'll try to blog about something a little lighter next time :)
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