Penny's first sacrament meeting talk

 

Penny gave a great talk on religious liberty today.  Bishop Eric Morgan (smiling on the right) and one of his counselors, Kam Wall, are behind Penny in this photo.

This is the text of the talk she gave:

Hello! My name is Penny Ogden. I want you to imagine that you are about to eat a bowl of your favorite ice cream, when all of a sudden, one of your neighbors comes by and snatches your bowl. They tell you that eating ice cream out of a bowl is not allowed. You have to use a cone, the flavor has to be mint, and you can only have one scoop.  Oh, and you are only allowed to eat ice cream on Tuesdays at 4pm. 

I like ice cream cones, but maybe you would prefer a bowl. You think mint ice cream is ok, but I don’t like mint. I would rather have cookies and cream. And why are we only allowed to have one scoop? What if we want more or less? Why are we only allowed to eat ice cream on Tuesdays at 4pm? 

Just like I wouldn’t want my neighbor telling me how to eat my ice cream, I wouldn’t want them, or government leaders, telling me how I have to pray, what scriptures to read, or when or where to go to church. Being able to make my own choices about who, what, when, where, and how to worship is called religious liberty. 

Article of Faith 11 says: “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.” 

The prophet Joshua taught: “Choose ye this day whom ye will serve…but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”  

Heavenly Father has given each of us moral agency. This includes the right to learn about Him and then choose if we will love and follow him. But if we live in a place that does not allow us to have religious liberty, it becomes hard for us to choose if we really want to serve God or not. And even if we want to serve God, we could be limited in how we want to serve him. 

I am grateful to live in the United States where we enjoy greater freedom to choose how we worship God. There are people and governments around the world that would like to control how we worship. I am grateful for people like my dad who work hard to keep our country safe so that we can continue to have religious freedom.