Persecution

I didn't like reading about religious persecution when I read about it in the Doctrine & Covenants last year. I kind of wondered why people bother. So, some guy came up with a new religion. Why should that bother people? And especially, why should it bother people enough to physically attack people? It didn't make any sense to me, especially since my philosophy has almost always been to "Live and Let Live."

Yet, Moses didn't. Exodus 32:26-28 says:

26 Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the Lord’s side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him.

27 And he said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour.

28 And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.

A footnote in verse 27 refers to Numbers 25:5: "And Moses said unto the judges of Israel, Slay ye every one his men that were joined unto Baal-peor." Now, I don't know what sort of god Baal-peor was or what sorts of things their worshipers did, but unless it involved human sacrifices, it probably wasn't bad enough to be deserving of capital punishment. As a people who had suffered severe religious persecution, including some infanticide, at the hands of Pharaoh, I would have thought that the children of Israel would be more accepting of other religious minorities.

And certainly, we ought to be. After all, "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." We believe in religious freedom and freedom from persecution. Having been victims of persecution ourselves, we should know better than to dish it out. Rather, we should be respectful of other's beliefs, just as we had hoped that others would have been respectful about ours.

I hope that, whatever religious persecution happened in the past, we can learn to move past it and be understanding and accepting of other people and their beliefs, or at least not try to kill them. We certainly won't agree with everything they believe, and they won't agree with all of our beliefs, either, but I hope that we can all agree to put the persecution behind us, to live and let live, and to let everyone worship according to the dictates of their own conscience.