Champions of other Faiths

 

This is a note President Ballard tweeted on X.  I was struck by his admonition to be Champions of other Faiths.  This has been something dear to my heart for years!

When I was in the Philippines Elder Daniel Johnson and went, by invitation, to the Negros Oriental Provincial Governor’s home for his birthday party.  The home was large and tables were set on the first and second floors and also on a shaded open air veranda.  As the Savior admonished, we sat at a lower table, but then were invited not only upstairs, but out onto the balcony with the Governor himself.  Gathered there were a few prominent Mayors from the Province as well as three Irish Jesuit Priests.  The Governor had been to Hawaii and the Polynesian Cultural Center and had seen the Temple there.  He seemed eager to impress us and told of his experience there with reverence and great detail.  Everyone seemed quite impressed with the Governor’s account.  We didn’t ever get the chance to say much.  But at a moment of quiet one of the Priests leaned over to us and asked if we would be willing to join their team to play a game of Soccer against the Silliman University (Presbyterian) Soccer team.  We said we would.  Elder Johnson had played some, but I was pretty much a rookie.  They put me at the position of goalie, which was perfect, because these Irish fellows played so well that there never was an assault on the goal I was to protect.  This was my first close encounter with folks of another religion, in which differences were closely juxtaposed.  We found it to be delightful.

Later, in my Mission Elder Lyle Drake and I were touring the Mountain Province, when we found ourselves stranded in Sagada.  It was during a festival and no rooms in the inns were available.  Someone mentioned that the Nuns at the Episcopal Church and School, might be able to accommodate us.  We were received warmly and since it was a boarding school and school was not in session we had our pick of rooms in the Dormitory.  The Sisters fed us dinner and offered to guide us around the festival, but first they need to finish pressing the host for Sunday’s communion.  We volunteered to help and they put is right to work making the Sacramental wafers.  This too was a great delight!  After spending the night and needing to leave before dawn to catch the bus, we not wanting to disturb the Sisters, made our way to the bus depot.  We boarded the bus and were waiting for departure when the Nuns appeared with warm homemade bread with butter and honey for our breakfast.  They truly served us in a Christlike manner.  We had given them a copy of The Book of Mormon during dinner the previous evening, which they accepted most graciously.

Toward the end of my Mission, Elder Joe Hapi and I were busy making preparations for a fund raising basketball game between a Pro Team, UTEX and some of our better Missionaries.  Suddenly, we got word that the Philippine Basketball Association had denied a request to play such an exhibition game.  Further inquiry revealed that the head of the PBA was a Catholic Priest located in Quiaopo.  We went down there with some trepidation, found his office and discovered he was out.  We were, however, invited to wait however long it took for the Father to return.  We waited all day!  When he did come he arrived with his collar undone and a big cigar between two fingers.  He asked the receptionist, in a thick Irish brogue, who we were and after a brief introduction, he invited us into his office.  He reminded me of Spencer Tracy in Boy’s Town.  After explaining our predicament he puffed on his cigar, leaned back in his chair and announced that there would be no problem allowing UTEX to play the game.  As we departed he shouted, “Go with God me boys!  And tell ‘em a Jesuit sent ya!!”

There have been more adversarial moments as well.  Like the time Reverend Herbert W. Armstrong, of the Radio Church of the Air, picked me up in Heber while I was hitchhiking home from Provo to Vernal.  We began discussing the gospel and he quickly became argumentative.  I tried to be respectful and to answer his questions to the best of my ability.  He was very confrontational and would always find some fault related to any answer I provided.  I remember he made a big complaint that we haven’t built Temples all around the world to accommodate people elsewhere.  I pointed out New Zealand, England and Switzerland, but he was bitterly unsatisfied.  I wish I could show him now what has been accomplished in that regard.  Eventually, I grew wear of his assaults on my beliefs and quit responding to his affronts.  He kicked me out in Roosevelt, knowing full well I wanted to go to Vernal.  I surreptitiously left a copy of The Book of Mormon under the front seat of his car.

One day I was out working with the Full Time Elders here in Vernal.  We began knocking on doors over on about 1250 W in Vernal 6th Ward.  I was in 9th Ward at the time.  We knocked on a door and a sweet young Hispanic lady of about 30 came to the door.  We approached her about the Gospel and she told us she’d grown up around Latter-day Saints her whole life, having been raised in Tooele, and wanted nothing to do with us.  Even when we invited her to a neighborhood party she balked.  I asked her if she had found a home in the local St. James Parrish of the Catholic Church and she lamented that she didn’t feel welcome there, hinting that there were no other Hispanics in the Parish.  I felt bad for her.  We moved on.  Later, over in 2nd Ward on about 3rd South and 2nd West we encountered my friend Sue Beers (now Sue Wallace).  She being Catholic and also having been raised here in Vernal among Latter-day Saints was also resistant to hearing our message.  It was then that I took over the conversation.  I asked Sue if she was familiar with the term Visiting Teacher.  She was.  Then I said, “I have a Visiting Teaching assignment for you!”  She protested saying that she was a Catholic and couldn’t be a Visiting Teacher.  I explained that it was a Catholic that I’d like her to visit.  I explained about the Hispanic lady and about how she felt about attending St. James.  Sue accepted the call, took the information about her and promised to be her Visiting Teacher.  About six months later Leonard and Nell Heeney invited me to the Catholic Spaghetti dinner.  Delighted with the invitation I took the kids on a Sunday after Church and went.  We were welcomed with open arms.  As we passed through the line to get our food, we encountered both Sue and the Hispanic lady standing side by side serving spaghetti.  I wish I remembered the lady’s name, she smiled and thanked me for sending her a Visiting Teacher.  She was now happily involved in her Catholic community.  I was delighted!  As I ate, I remembered how the Elder’s jaws dropped when I made that assignment to Sue.  We were out to bless the lives of others and bless we did!

When I went to work for Wayne Merrill at Sundance RV I was introduced to my fellow salesman, Jim Still.  Jim was Pastor at the Landmark Missionary Baptist Church.  We had waltzed uncomfortably around one another for a week or so, when Jim approached me with a proposition.  He told me that he was aware of our differences and that if I was willing, we might consider the similarities in our belief systems, which would likely lead to more harmony and less awkward and contentious moments.  I agreed.  From then on we had the most wonderful conversations and discovered that our differences were far fewer than either of us had ever imagined!  For instance, on day Jim asked if I had been Born Again?  When I replied in the affirmative, he about fell off his chair!  “You’re the first Latter-day Saint I’ve ever met who said yes to that question!”  Further discussion helped us both to understand better.  We eventually agreed that being Born Again and being a Saint means essentially the same thing in the scriptures.  Thus we discovered that culturally, his church members were very uncomfortable being called Saints and that likewise, members of our Church are equally uncomfortable with calling themselves Born Again.  It was a matter of familiarity with the semantics.  This was amusing to both of us because he could find examples in the New Testament like Philippians 4:21 that indicate members of the Church are Saints and I found reference after reference in The Book of Mormon admonishing us to be Born Again. (See Mosiah 27:25).  I have since attended Landmark Baptist Church a couple of times and found both meetings informative, inspiring and beneficial.

When my Granddaughter Megan was baptized into the Vernal Christian Church, I attended in support of her decision.  After the meeting I gave her a big hug and she introduced me to Pastor Schaun Colin.  Pastor Shaun is from South Africa.  Pastor Schaun took my hand in both of his, looked me in the eye and with all sincerity, said, “I think I know what it has cost you to be here today.  Thank you for coming to support Megan.”  I thanked him for his kindness and complimented him on his sermon and the welcome we had enjoyed from everyone in the congregation.  It was a very pleasant experience for me.

When I served at the Detention Center and previously at the County Jail, I of course was representing The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but often the inmates were from from other religions.  I made a concerted effort to connect them with the Clergy of their own Church.  This was met with mixed results, but generally was a heart warming experience as I knocked on the door or otherwise made contact with Ministers, Pastors and Priests of the various local denominations.  Most of the time they were appreciative, friendly and responded quickly to the needs of the incarcerated members of their flock.  I think one of my favorite moments from the Detention Center came when a Native American youth seemed resistant to suggestions I was making about setting goals for his future.  His mind was inside the religion box I’d been presenting and he didn’t like it in there.  Once he’d expressed his problem to me, I suggested an alternative that he had never considered.  I suggested that upon his release that he might check with his Tribal Elders about the possibility of participating in the Sundance.  I told him of friends of mine who had done that ordeal and had grown in powerful ways from the experience.  A couple of years later the boy spied me in Walmart and ran over to report that he had done the Sundance just a few days prior and that it indeed had changed his life and set the tone for his future.  He said it was the hardest thing he’d ever done, but that now he knew who he was and where he wanted to go with his life!

When I came down with Rheumatoid Arthritis my doctor became Dr. Shakaib Qureshi.  My first meeting with him was wonderful.  I asked him if he was Muslim, which he was.  So I asked him if he had a place to worship near his home in Roosevelt.  He told me that during his very first week in Roosevelt the Bishop of the Ward he lives in came to his door and offered a room in the LDS Chapel for a place to worship if he needed it!  He told me he had declined because it was just he and his wife and they could do that just fine at home.  But was so moved by the offer that he began right away to feel at home here!  Next, I asked if he’d been on the Haj.  Suspicious, he asked why I wanted to know.  I told him that while in the Philippines I met a man who was going on the Haj.  He’d booked passage on a freighter to fulfill his life long dream of a pilgrimage to Mecca during his life.  I told Dr. Qureshi that upon his return, that man was simply radiant with joy and peace, despite a long arduous journey.  Sensing my sincerity, Dr. Qureshi told that yes, he had gone on the Haj, though he’d booked a luxury trip for $30,000.  He was a bit embarrassed by the comparison of his sacrifice when compared to my Filipino friend.  Nevertheless, he went on to tell me that the experience changed his life.  Previously, he’d been head of a large Rheumatology Department in a major hospital, with lots of money and two months of vacation every year.  He told me that upon his return from the Haj, he felt a strong desire to have a more meaningful life.  So he quit his job, found an underserved community in America (the Uintah Basin) and began practicing here one month followed by two months doing pro-bono work in Pakistan, in rotation.  He says that though he’s not making nearly as much money and has no time off to speak of, that he’s happier and more fulfilled than he’s ever been!  How blessed my life has been because of his treatments, his kindness, his expertise and his willingness to serve in a place like this!  His Haj has truly blessed my life!

There are more stories and perhaps I’ll include them some day, but suffice it to say, that I have enjoyed deep and lasting friendships and had wonderful experiences and have learned and grown from encounters with those of other faiths.  I find Elder Ballard’s admonition to Champion them both wonderful, satisfying and appreciated!