Religious Freedom

Amendment 1 to the US Constitution reads: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;". On July 23 I was struck by a couple of thoughts that were evoked by some things I heard in church. The first reminded me that Amendment 1 clearly forbids the establishment of a state religion "whereby one religious society is fostered and another proscribed in its spiritual privileges, and the individual rights of its members, as citizens, denied." (D&C 134:9) Thus, the Constitution is in harmony with the eternal principle of personal agency. While I believe that "this is a choice land, and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall be free from bondage, and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ," (Ether 2:12) such subservience cannot be accomplished through legislation or decree. It has to be a choice that each of us make. This brings up the issue of to what extent it is appropriate to legislate on moral issues, or to forbid things that might be viewed as publicly endorsing religion. I recommend an article written by Dallin H. Oaks on this subject. It is not as straight-forward as I might have thought.

The second idea is this: There are several kinds of religious freedom. One is the ability to openly practice one's religion and the freedom to "worship how, where, or what they may." (AoF 11) Another is freedom of thought and conscience which arguably can exist even if the open exercise of those beliefs is prevented. (I remember the Manchurian Candidate however.) However, the most important religious freedom is described in John 8:31-34, "Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. They answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin." In the end, freedom from sin is what saves us, and makes us truly free.

One final idea. I have been thinking about Lincoln's Second Inaugual Address as an example of a time when public figures were not hesitant to acknowledge God in a humble and sincere manner and to suggest that we as a people have made mistakes worthy of God's judgment. It is not very long and is worth reading. When he gave the address the Civil War had been going on for almost 4 years--much longer than anyone had predicted. The part that sticks in my mind is chiseled on the wall of the Lincoln Memorial, which is where I first read it: "Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said 'the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.' "

Can anyone imagine a current president saying such a thing?

Two questions

On Monday I had my mid-year conversation with my supervisor. He is a fine scientist/manager and has done a lot to give me opportunities to advance. He asked me two questions that I thought were interesting. He mentioned that folks at his level in the organization are asked to do "succession planning", which means they should have some kind of a plan to replace themselves if the need should arise. He said he was not planning on anything happening, but he had been asked to think about what the consequences might be if he were somehow not there anymore. Basically, the two questions boiled down to this:

1. Would I want his job?
2. If no, would my answer change if one of his other direct reports (my peers in the unit) would end up being my supervisor?

My answers were "No." and "No.", which did not surprise him. The reasons could be a subject for another post, but I thought the questions were good ones to consider.

The Street Nazi

We returned from Lawrence Sunday night to find a "For Sale" sign in the 'street Nazi's' front yard. Monday, I was passing the house just as Mrs. Cahill drove in, so I stopped and asked about the sign. Carrie was surprised that I didn't know all about their situation. Back in November, on the 16th, her husband Mike and Dave,a buddy from work, went hunting. Mike was driving a truck. On a small two-lane road, he swerved to miss on-coming traffic. The truck went over a culvert that prevented Mike from being able to steer and he smashed into a tree. His buddy's neck was broken, and the buddy died instantly. This sounds oh so familiar. Dave's widow has launched a law suit (one million dollars) for wrongful death. Carrie said the woman is a meth addict with three small children. It was the husband who kept things together in that family. The Cahills would like to be able to help the children. However, there is a very good chance Mike will be charged with involuntary manslaughter and have to serve jail time. Carrie said the widow threatened revenge and the Cahills had to move out of the house for a time. Mike lost his job, hasn't been able to work since the accident, hasn't been able to forgive himself for his friend's death, and has been borderline suicidal. Carrie found a job (finally) in O'Fallon or Wentzvill that she really likes (it helps pay the bills). The oldest of the three Cahill daughters is maybe 9. She sent out a flyer in the neighborhood a few weeks ago offering to wash and vacuum cars. I think I will line up everyone I know for her services! The Cahills considered moving, but they have lived in this house for twelve years; each of their children were born here; Mike built the addition to the house himself (with a little help from his friends). Carrie knows everyone in the neighborhood. "I know I could call anyone on this street any hour of the day or night if I needed help. If--God forbid--Mike does have to serve time, I need that support network." Their current plan is to move into a house on Old State Road. It is owned by a relative of someone who lives on Covert Lane. Living there will keep the children in the same school, essentially in the same neighborhood and allow Carrie to keep her support system close at hand. I wish friends or the neighborhood could purchase the house and allow the Cahills to live there. The world needs more people like Matthew who allow the Golden Rule to influence their decisions and relationships.

Behind the Scenes

A month ago (May 30th to be exact) the 2005 Nobel Prize in Medicine winner Barry J. Marshall visited where I work and presented a seminar on his research. There are several entertaining interviews with him and co-recipient J. Robin Warren on the Nobel Foundation website if you want to inform yourself. Basically, they challenged the entire medical establishment and showed that ulcers are NOT caused by stress, but by a bacteria, and that ulcers can be cured by antibiotics.

That evening, Mutti and I were invited (along with about 10 others) by one of the upper level managers at work to go to a Cardinal's baseball game and enjoy the company's luxury suite. This was a very nice invitation on his part. I don't normally move in those circles ( I am about 3 layers below him in the structure), but we had happened to run into this man and his wife in the airport back in February on our way to Beirut. He was very interested in where we were going and very pleasant to talk to. After the brief but fascinating airport conversation in which he told us about some of his experiences in his job (he is the site operations manager), he told me he would like to get together for lunch when we both got back. Getting together for lunch then led to the baseball game invitation.

At the game, I told him how much I enjoyed Dr. Marshall's seminar earlier that day, and asked him if he had something to do with arranging it. He did indeed. They were looking for a Nobel-caliber speaker, and he called Dr. Marshall's office in Australia to inquire as to his availability. His secretary said that 3 things might influence Dr. Marshall to make the visit (1) a lot of money, (2) a good opportunity to promote biotechnology investment in Western Australia, and/or (3) an opportunity for his wife to visit art galleries.

He didn't say how much they paid him, but he did say that he arranged for a private showing at the St. Louis Art Museum for Mrs. Marshall and was able to get Dr. Marshall an invitation to be keynote speaker at a St. Louis Biotechnology Conference where he spoke "about his groundbreaking research on mechanisms that cause ulcers and his experiences as an entrepreneur trying to reinvest intellectual property into budding biotechnology businesses." In connection with Mrs. Marshall's visit to the Art gallery, my friend was faced with the problem of finding a hair dresser to do her hair first thing Monday morning, May 29th, which happened to be the Memorial Day holiday. He solved this dilemma by calling on a personal friend, who was happy to do the job in exchange for tickets to the same game we were attending. I am very impressed by such people who can make things happen, and he does it exceptionally well.

By the way, I really did enjoy Dr. Marshall's seminar. At the time, however, I had no idea what it took to get him there. My manager-friend who had arranged it had had to deal with a number of issues to make it happen. I wondered, with all my friend had to do with it, if he could actually relax and enjoy it? I hope so, because he certainly deserved it.