This is something that I've wanted to address for awhile, but especially after hearing the topic come up several times, I felt that now would be a good time to do so.
In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we have something called the Articles of Faith. Long story short, a newspaper editor asked what Latter-day Saints believe, and Joseph Smith wrote this to condense our beliefs into 13 short but powerful statements.
Our 11th Article of Faith states, "We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may." Why would we, the same church that believes that we have the fully restored gospel of Jesus Christ, say this? Because we all have free agency (the ability to choose). If we didn't have agency, we would all be robots and there would be no point in living on the earth--but we are here to make choices and prove ourselves faithful to the Lord. That means loving the Lord and showing our love for Him by obeying Him to the best of our ability, just as a child who truly loves their parent would show their love by obeying their parent to the best of their ability.
This is why religious freedom is so important: if we didn't have religious freedom, our agency would be restricted and, in fact, nonexistent in the religion aspect. But it is not just religious freedom that is important; we also need religious tolerance.
Now, I'm not suggesting that you have to agree with or condone the beliefs and actions of someone of another faith (or of no faith at all); what I mean is that we all need to be respectful of others' agency and allow them to make their own decisions. We can share with them our beliefs, but don't force a decision upon them; allow them to make decisions--any decision, really--for themselves.
Which brings me to something else to address:
Something that I've noticed throughout my life in regard to varying religions is that oftentimes, when someone is curious about another belief system, they don't go directly to the source. I've especially noticed this in Mormonism, both as a nonmember and as a member. Unfortunately, it was my ignorance of what Latter-day Saints really believed that made it hard on me when I found out that the misconceptions with which I'd known throughout my life were wrong. I had to strip myself of pride in order to find out what these people really believed. I went to the source to find out what these people had to say and why they believe what they do. And it made sense to me! I understood, and I agreed. And that's why I am a Latter-day Saint myself.
I'm not trying to force anyone to believe the same as I do, but please--for the sake of myself and others of various religions and denominations--if you want to know what someone truly believes, go to the source. Don't go to someone who has never been involved in the religion or even someone who used to be in that denomination and is no longer affiliated with it, because sometimes practices change or they may even say something to taint a religion's image. Go directly to the source: using the LDS Church as an example, go to LDS.org, Mormon.org, read the Bible and the Book of Mormon (especially if you've read/studied the Bible and are skeptical of the Book of Mormon), read what our church's leaders have to say, and, your best source for any religion, ask their members! I cannot emphasize that enough. If you want to know what a Baptist believes, ask a Baptist. If you want to know what a Catholic believes, ask a Catholic. If you want to know what a Buddhist believes, as a Buddhist. You get the idea.
And if you want to know what a Latter-day Saint believes, ask me or any other Latter-day Saint out there!
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