This week I spent a few days in Nauvoo, the last place the Latter-day Saints tried to build a temple before being forced to leave the United States. The conflict didn’t end there. It took a long time for Americans and Saints to make our peace with each other, and Mormons are still a peculiar people. We have loyalties to a community extending across the world, and into another world, that ultimately run even deeper than the commitments of national citizenship. <\/p>\n
But in Nauvoo I also met a couple I knew on my mission in Japan, who have come to the U.S. to live for a time, yea, and perhaps until the day they die<\/a>. They came because they and their children will be free to live as they think best, perhaps more than anywhere else on the planet. They have come despite the strangeness of the language, have worked hard, and found a place for themselves here, with neighbors who share much of their culture, even a bilingual school where they can send their kids. This is a land of promise<\/a>, and not only because of the land. It is a society fundamentally based on finding ways to cooperate and be a blessing to each other despite deep differences, sometimes even because of deep differences. What a beautiful place!<\/p>\n \nO beautiful for spacious skies, O beautiful for pilgrim feet O beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife. O beautiful for patriot dream \n–Katherine Lee Bates<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This week I spent a few days in Nauvoo, the last place the Latter-day Saints tried to build a temple before being forced to leave the United States.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-politics"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2389\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nFor amber waves of grain,
\nFor purple mountain majesties
\nAbove the fruited plain!
\nAmerica! America!
\nGod shed his grace on thee
\nAnd crown thy good with brotherhood
\nFrom sea to shining sea! <\/p>\n
\nWhose stern, impassioned stress
\nA thoroughfare for freedom beat
\nAcross the wilderness!
\nAmerica! America!
\nGod mend thine every flaw,
\nConfirm thy soul in self-control,
\nThy liberty in law! <\/p>\n
\nWho more than self the country loved
\nAnd mercy more than life!
\nAmerica! America!
\nMay God thy gold refine
\nTill all success be nobleness
\nAnd every gain divine! <\/p>\n
\nThat sees beyond the years
\nThine alabaster cities gleam
\nUndimmed by human tears!
\nAmerica! America!
\nGod shed his grace on thee
\nAnd crown thy good with brotherhood
\nFrom sea to shining sea! <\/p>\n