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L D S Conservatives
An Introduction to an Email Group | |
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My father, Glenn L. Pearson, died on March 29, 1999 after a massive heart
attack. Before he died, we emailed daily and spoke several times weekly. During one visit, he told
me of an experience he had while on a speaking assignment with Elder Harold B.
Lee of the Council of the Twelve Apostles.
Elder Lee, who later became President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and my father, then a Professor of Religion at Brigham Young University, were assigned to speak at a stake conference in Logan, UT. After the Saturday evening adult session, they were left alone, looking at each other. Usually, a member of the stake presidency or other previously arranged member hosts the visiting authority and his companion. Elder Lee recommended they just get a motel room and retire, which they did. As my father came from the bathroom, Elder Lee was reading from the Book of Mormon. Dad asked about that and Elder Lee rehearsed to him the story of his ordination as an Apostle and being committed to read in the scriptures daily for at least 30 minutes. As Dad told me this experience, I thought to myself, "If it's good enough for an Apostle, it is certainly good enough for me. As a result of that thought, I committed to read nightly from the Book of Mormon. I've missed only 4 nights' reading since that day. Please don't take that as a boast. Those were my thoughts, personal and immature as they were. So, what does this have to do with an email group for LDS Conservatives? A very great deal. Let me explain, albeit briefly. As I read the Book of Mormon more and more, I became much more familiar with the experiences and beliefs of men such as Nephi, General Moroni, Alma, Helaman, Ammon and those called the people of Ammon. It began to sink deep into my heart that the very basis of religious conversion is God-given liberty and absolute freedom to practice the deep-rooted and God-endowed rights and privileges that allow men to freely choose who, what and how they worship. Before hearing my father's story, and committing to reading consistently from the Book of Mormon, I was beginning to believe that giving up a few freedoms would be okay, if it meant that the gospel could be preached easier to the countries behind the iron and bamboo curtains. I was wrong. Pacifism brings destruction and bondage. "They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security" --Benjamin Franklin If you wish to join this email group, click below, but please read our email group policies at our Email Groups Web Page.
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