RELIGIOUS GARDENS

Having spent my adolescent days in communities where the majority of the population were affiliated with the same religious organization, I may have had a young mind stilted with localisms. There were several categories which described the relationships the citizens had with said religion. There were those who identified themselves as being a member of a family which belonged to the church. There were those who were identified as inactive, a term which was later was changed to less active. There were part member families. There were those who were talked about behind their backs as being fanatical. There was a cute category of those who were C and E members, meaning they attended church on Christmas and Easter. There were those who were known more by the title of the office they currently held or had previously held. There were some who used the word Mormon to identify their church identification, a term which would later be discouraged and supplemented as being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

The summer before I was to enter the fourth grade our family moved to Long Beach, California, and my sheltered religious community suddenly became populated by friends and neighbors who belonged to what I had previously always heard as being referred to as ‘other churches’. There were those who called themselves Jews. There were some who called themselves Catholics. There were all sorts of those who called themselves Protestants with an additional identification such as Methodist, Baptist or Lutheran. There were even a few who referred to themselves as agnostics, which as far as I could tell just meant they went to the movies on Saturdays or Sundays rather than church.

My little Utah, Idaho, garden filled only with roses was now being enriched with beautiful daffodils, lilies, pansies and a whole variety of wonderful flowers which made my life full of exciting, new and unexpected experiences which then filled my mind with all kinds of wonderings and questions.

By the time I entered High School our family had moved once again to a small community in Orange County, California, called Garden Grove. I never counted the orange trees during those years, but since Garden Grove only had 3,000 inhabitants at the time I am sure the orange trees outnumbered the people by many times over. Anyway, as I entered High School, I was suddenly cast into a world where my church membership made me an unwelcome minority in the community. The few of us who were Mormons, the name was still being used at that time, would cluster in a tight circle during lunch and walk together between classes and where possible to and from school. I don’t feel like it stunted my emotional growth, but at least during the first two years of High School, I can honestly say I experienced, for the first time, the ugliness of bullying and persecution. Sadly, these conditions didn’t allow for the multiple flower gardens filled with religious variety which I had enjoyed in Long Beach, to flourish, in fact they came very close to completely dying out.

Although, during the succeeding decades of my life there have been times when there have been an abundance of variation in the religious gardens which have surrounded me, there have also been times when all gardens looked quite barren.

During this latter stage of my earthly sojourn it has become clear that there are many who have become disenchanted with the wilting flowers they perceive the religions of the world are planting. There are many who continue to believe in God, or whatever term they use to describe a universal force, but have chosen to refuse to belong to or enter into any garden which bears the name of a religion.

In chapter 31 of Alma of The Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ, Alma tells us about an interesting religious garden planted by the Priests of the Zoramites.

12 Now, when they had come into the land, behold, to their astonishment they found that the Zoramites had built synagogues, and that they did gather themselves together on one day of the week, which day they did call the day of the Lord; and they did worship after a manner which Alma and his brethren had never beheld;

13 For they had a place built up in the center of their synagogue, a place for standing, which was high above the head; and the top thereof would only admit one person.

14 Therefore, whosoever desired to worship must go forth and stand upon the top thereof, and stretch forth his hands towards heaven, and cry with a loud voice, saying:

15 Holy, holy God; we believe that thou art God, and we believe that thou art holy, and that thou wast a spirit, and that thou art a spirit, and that thou wilt be a spirit forever.

16 Holy God, we believe that thou hast separated us from our brethren; and we do not believe in the tradition of our brethren, which was handed down to them by the childishness of their fathers; but we believe that thou hast elected us to be thy holy children; and also thou hast made it known unto us that there shall be no Christ.

17 But thou art the same yesterday, today, and forever; and thou hast elected us that we shall be saved, whilst all around us are elected to be cast by thy wrath down to hell; for the which holiness, O God, we thank thee; and we also thank thee that thou hast elected us, that we may not be led away after the foolish traditions of our brethren, which doth bind them down to a belief of Christ, which doth lead their hearts to wander far from thee, our God.

18 And again we thank thee, O God, that we are a chosen and a holy people. Amen.

In these seven verses I think Alma teaches us many of the conditions which cause beautiful religious gardens to wither into desolated patches of barren ground, which have little hope of attracting people to come and enjoy them.

God can only be worshiped in certain places and at certain times.

Worship of God is only valid if it is witnessed and appreciated by an audience.

There is only one attitude and condition which makes true worship possible.

Making God a mysterious a being which cannot be understood.

Believing that because you belong to a particular group, you are therefore better than others.

Denying the existence of Jesus the Christ.

Believing those of your faith are the only ones to be saved, while all others are damned.

Belief that anyone in any other religious group is bound by false teachings and traditions.

Believing themselves to be holy while all others are condemned.

In subsequent verses Alma adds these additional conditions which will make any religious garden become bleak.

Having hearts swallowed up in pride.

Being puffed up because they possessed a great deal of the vain things of the world.

Ornamented themselves and set their hearts on the trinkets the world deems to be precious.

Believed they had riches because they felt they were chosen of God.

Latter Day Prophets have added the following to the list of elements which need to be eliminated from religious gardens if they have any hope of continual flourishing.

Believing in exclusion rather than inclusion.

Disagreeing and while doing so being disagreeable.

The bestowal of truth by God is a gift to only the elect.

Mistrust of that which is different or unknown.

Whenever we allow any of these noxious weeds to take hold in our religious gardens and do not set our might, minds and souls on their eradication our own beautiful scape will be doomed to becoming another desolate blight.

Just one last thought, we would all do well to concentrate on our own little corner of whatever garden in which we have chosen to walk, diligently nurturing the good plants while being constant in keeping our plot free of these noxious weeds.


THOUGHTS FOR A SABBATH DAY – WILLIAM L. RILEY

EDITED BY – KATHLEEN W. RILEY

❣️THINK + PLAN + PREPARE + DO + HUGS + PEACE + JOY + LOVE + INTEGRITY + FAITH + HOPE + CHARITY = THE GOOD LIFE❣️