Alpha and Omega.

"The beginning and the end."

Yahoo! Answers

I love some of the questions people post on "Yahoo! Answers."

Here's one that's interesting:

What's Worst About Christmas: Family Fights or Family Not Showing Up? [link]

Soon There'll Be None Left To Protest.

FIRST THEY CAME.

They came first for the Communists,

and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews,

and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for the trade unionists,

and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Catholics,

and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me,

and by that time no one was left to speak up.

LDS ARTICLE OF FAITH #11

11 We claim the ^aprivilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the ^bdictates of our own ^cconscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them ^dworship how, where, or what they may.
************************************

I quoted all of that for a reason. Normally I'm not one who is real big on giving a helping hand to all the hippie nature religions, but an issue has been brewing (no pun intended) of late. Veterans who have served in the military and are practitioners of Wicca are being denied the right to place the pentacle symbol on their veteran grave stones when they die. See the article at Yahoo News [link].

I should think that we as Mormons, who have had to deal continuously with abuses and discriminations from corrupt governments, should be on the front lines support the freedom of religion of these people. I am not a Democrat or a liberal by any stretch of the imagination, but I am descended from no less than five families who were forced to leave their homes and cross the plains because of religious intolerance. I sincerely hope the courts will favor the Wiccan's cause, because if not, the door is open for the government to come after the Mormons and anyone else as well.

The December issue of The Ensign has a wonderful write-up on the history of the Willie and Martin handcart companies, and the trials they went through across the high plains of Wyoming. It's a wonderful article, and I have a hard time reading it without a tear or two.

One summer I drove a moving van along a highway through some of the same terrain, and having observed it I thought to myself that I sure would not want to be caught out there in the middle of winter, like those people were. There were pioneer women who gave birth out there in that God-forsaken place, in driving snow and only propped-up tarps for shelter. It breaks my heart to ponder that.

I am deeply grateful for the sacrifices of my pioneer forefathers, and I only hope that I can live worthy of the legacy they left me.

Communist Broadcasting System.

Last night I watched a documentary on CBS about the Nativity. The Liberal Communist Atheist Secular Humanist reporter doing the piece basically went out of her way to cast a bunch of hog-wash theory as "fact" about the birth of Christ. Basically she said that St. Mark made up his gospel out of whole cloth, Christ was the illegitimate offspring of an adulterous Mary, and the Christ was born in a cave somewhere around Nazareth, not Bethlehem.

I can understand that she wanted to speculate about Biblical history, but the thing that really bothered me is that she went out of her way to claim that her speculations were absolute fact. Liberals have a way of doing that. They take pet theories and use junk science to proclaim them as incontravertible, undeniable fact.

I shouted "what a bunch of crap!" and threw my soda bottle at the TV. Never before have I changed the channel so fast.

Kwitcher Belly Achin'

So many times I gripe and gripe about my inability to succeed in the business world, and I often wonder whether or not I've been cursed because of the many mistakes I make and the non-stop parade of people who've tried to cause me trouble in the workplace over the years.

A couple of days ago I was stocking in the toy department at work when I had occasion to help a lady find a particular toy she was looking for. She was shopping for her four young kids. She explained to me that Christmas had become a very difficult time for her since her young husband had died. He was killed by armed robbers.

When my children get up in the morning to go school, I look into their groggy eyes and half asleep faces, and see angels. I am so thankful God has had mercy on me and has spared us from any harm.

I love my children.

(oh -- speaking of work. I found a job this month working in a national retail store. It's a start, anyway, toward getting back up on my feet. It happened right at the time we started paying tithing again. I'm hoping that if I continue to be faithful in tithing, God will help me to find a way back into a professional business environment again.)