Gratitude for Freedom
With the election season finally over, we can begin celebrating the holiday seasons in earnest. I've been secretly listening to Christmas music since August and I've begun posting my daily gratitudes. My gratitude for freedom of religion is so much larger than a tweat or a tiny post on Facebook. This country was founded upon religious freedom and many have lost their very lives in defending it. In the seventeenth century, pilgrams immigrated from Europe, seeking a land where they could practice their religion freely and as they believed, not as dictated by their government. Many were running from the belief and practice that there was one true religion and that it was the duty of the civil authorities to impose it, forcibly if necessary, in the interest of saving the souls of all citizens. Nonconformists could expect no mercy and might be executed as heretics. As with most pioneers, the pilgrams suffered illness -- scurvy, pneumonia, malnutr...