Religion and Writing - My Story

I was born a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, otherwise known as the Mormon Church. My parents had both recently converted when they met, and some members of their congregation (we call it a 'ward') did some matchmaking and got them together.

So being LDS (yet another nickname for our religion - short for 'Latter-Day Saints' - it's such a long name...) was the only thing I knew growing up. Especially growing up in Salt Lake City among a sea of Mormons. I think the first time I became aware that there were other religions in the world other than my own was when my mother told me she used to be Catholic, but I wasn't sure what that was.

I had a lot of angst about writing as a member of the Church - what if I wrote something that offended someone somewhere? I was afraid to take the chance, so I spent a lot of years writing just for myself.

I kept a journal since I was eight years old, when I was baptized. My parents presented me with my first journal at the Sizzler Steakhouse after my baptism. It was a family tradition. I didn't know what a journal was. When they explained the concept, I was deeply impacted at the thought of it, and started writing. Almost forty years later, I'm still journaling here and there, along with my other writing projects.

I tried to cultivate pen pals, and wrote lots of letters, but no one wrote as much as I did. I wrote letters to missionaries, and they were equally bad about writing back.

Eventually I learned about other authors who were also LDS and who wrote - Glen Larson (the creator of 'Battlestar Galactica'). Chris Heimerdinger, who wrote a fantasy series about some kids who went back into Book of Mormon times.

I think the greatest moment of realization for me happened when the Twilight books came out, and I learned that author Stephanie Meyer was also Mormon. Being LDS as well, I could see how her faith and beliefs tied into the story itself.

It was at that moment that I realized that the only obstacles that stood in my way of writing something of really good quality was my own beliefs that there were obstacles.

My writing is informed in every sense by what I believe. My religion is as much a part of me and my writing as Victor Hugo's or Frank Herbert's Catholicism was part of theirs, and yet their work is no less entertaining because of it.

I wouldn't expect anything less from someone from any other worldview, be they Bahai to Zoroastrian or anything in-between. Their views being different from my own means that I probably won't agree with everything they write, but it's no less fascinating having the opportunity to see the world through someone else's eyes.