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Soul of Athens For Saturday
< < Back to soul-athens-saturdaySoul of Athens is an awarding winning, online multimedia publication created every year by over 100 students at Ohio University.
WOUB – in partnership with Soul of Athens – brings you some of the stories they're working on for this year's edition which will launch on May 30th.
Reporter Emily Stevens introduces the Crawford family, who share what being Mormon means to them.
“It kind of blows my mind when I think of the early history of the church. Heartbreaking stories about houses being burned, and people being shot, and people’s farms being stolen," said Rebecca Crawford.
Athens residents Rebecca and Cory Crawford are two of the approximately 6 million Mormons in the United States.
“I always think that we’re pretty mainstream, pretty Christian, pretty normal. But I’m consistently surprised that other people don’t think that way about me. I used to hide that I was Mormon. I didn’t want people not to like me because I was LDS. So, now my big step is being really open about it,” said Rebecca.
“I think it may be a little be easier to talk about my Mormon-ness in the context of the current political discussion because a lot of people are talking about with the Book of Mormon musical and the publicity surrounding Mitt Romney,” said Cory.
[Track]
Rebecca is a former history teacher who now stays at home with their three children. Cory is a professor in classics and world religions at Ohio University. They moved to Athens from Boston, against the wishes of a Bishop who claimed the church needed them THERE.
[SOT :23]
Rebecca: “I don’t agree with every single policy the church puts forth. One idea that I really value is the idea of individual agency. That God has given me my complete freedom of choice. And that he’s given me a good sound brain to make my own decisions.”
[Track]
The Crawfords say they focus on raising their children within the church and a diverse community.
[SOT unknown length]
Cory: “The example I try to set is one sort of thoughtfulness about the tradition, one that’s not so rigid that the kids will hide behind a blanket of mindless orthodoxy. I try to help them to look at things and to make decisions on their own.”
[SOT :23]
Rebecca: “The way that I see religious freedom is to practice according to the dictations of my own conscience. I think there are always going to be cultural and social restrictions to that.”
[nat sound :20, fade :01 under SOT, Rebecca leading kids in singing “we are Mormons…”]
Mormonism is one of the topics profiled in the upcoming, on-line issue of Soul of Athens.
You can follow the process of creating this award winning, on-line publication by going to our website WOUB.org.