13 Feb 2024, Thursday

 13 Feb 2024, Thursday

Prioritized Daily

Call John in Service at Polaris in Heber about getting the Polaris delivered to the cabin in Timber Lakes.(Phone 435-654-7073)

Call Monique at the Tax Assessor's Office in Buchanan

Call John in Service at Polaris in Heber about getting the Polaris delivered to the cabin in Timber Lakes. (Phone 435-654-7073)

Note: INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM (IRF) SUMMIT

JD Vance, V.P. Spoke, Then a TV Star. A BYU Professor Was Next and Suggested a Major Shift in Direction

WASHINGTON — The speaker lineup during a 20-minute stretch at IRF Summit 2025 certainly was unusual.

 First, JD Vance spoke from teleprompters for 12 minutes to nearly 2,000 people in the ballroom of the Washington Hilton near the White House. He stood behind his own specialized podium bearing the seal of the Vice President of the United States of America and declared the Trump administration will support international religious freedom.

As what appeared to be Secret Service employees swiftly dismantled the podium, large screens around the ballroom broadcast live video of actor Rainn Wilson, who gained fame playing Dwight Schrute for laughs on “The Office.” Wilson spoke for seven minutes from New York City, where he is appearing on Broadway.

“What a strange and profound honor to be following the vice president of the United States in any kind of talk,” Wilson said.

So, how do you follow both the veep and a famous comedian?

That job fell to Brett Scharffs, a stylish BYU law professor who has helped lawmakers around the world add religious freedoms to national constitutions in many countries.

Scharffs needed just three minutes to outline a new framework for thinking and talking about religious liberty. His point was that countries and cultures committed to religious freedom should actively promote certain virtues as the seedbed for those rights to grow and flourish.

“Or to put it another way,” he said, “if Heraclitus was right, that character is destiny — what kind of character, both individual and social, would we strive to develop if we want to be people, and to live in places, that value religious freedom?”

He broke down his list of 13 of the most important virtues of religious freedom into three categories — habits of the head, habits of the heart and habits of the hand to be cultivated personally and in others, including children.

Habits of the head

Those who care about religious liberty will seek to develop people who:

• Are curious.

• Are open-minded.

• Seek for truth.

• Stand for truth.

• Are tolerant of others.

Habits of the heart

These seven virtues value reverence, awe and wonder, Scharffs said. He added, “Where better to learn these virtues than Sunday School, the synagogue, the mosque.”

• Faith, hope and charity.

• Humility, kindness, respect and love.

Habits of the hand

Finally, those who want to protect religious freedom rights will seek to develop and spread a specific kind of desire:

• To lift the downtrodden, to be of service to those in need, to reach out to the vulnerable and the broken.

“So in all of our talking about rights ... let us not forget to speak about the virtues of religious freedom,” Scharffs said.

“We want to live in cultures that cultivate people who will value religious freedom, not just as a right, but as deeply ingrained traits of character, habits of the head, heart, and hand, indeed, virtues of our very soul.”

I got up at 7 am and had prayer. Debbie is having shortness of breath and the pain in her back and shoulders is still there but not as bad as it was earlier.  When she got up we had pray together.  I paid Capital One Visa monthly statement and called the Haralson County Tax Assessor's Office in Buchanan, GA.  I spoke with Kim again.  Monique had someone in her office.  Kim told me she had given Monique my message from yesterday that Michael will be there to see her Friday afternoon; he will be coming in from Florida.  I called the Polaris service dept. in Heber at 345 N. Main St.  John was not in and I spoke with Rodney.  He said he would try to reach Dave to see if he could deliver the Polaris to the cabin in Timber Lakes today.  He will call me back and give me an hour and a half notice.  Debbie rode with me up to the Polaris Power Sports in Heber.  It is snowing so fast that the road crews can't keep up.  When we got to the store Rodney had made arrangements with Dave to take it up to the private parking lot in Timber Lakes and left the key in the ignition.  I drove it up to the cabin and Debbie followed me in the Outback.  It was a tight squeeze, the garage door had to be secured at the very top and the Palaris backed into one half the garage to keep the electric opener and track arm from cutting the top of the Polaris.  There is only an inch or so between the rear of the Polaris and the refrigerator door and the snowplow blade. in the front and the garage door.  Debbie to Brad Gale, P.A. on the phone in Lehi.  He has sent referrals for more testing on Debbie's heart, lungs and back.   We stopped at Arby's in Heber for dinner.  When we got home, our street and drive was covered in wet snow.  Debbie tried helping me use the snow blower and shovel to remove the snow.  She had to stop, it was too much for her to push the snowblower.  She has never been one to back off working and helping.  Something is wrong.  I worked on organizing tax documents in the computer, in our file cabinet, and recording these tax documents on the form Matt McCleary, CPA sent us.  Debbie and I had prayer and got to bed about 11 PM.