On Different Religions as Different Foods: Uncle John said grace

Lisa got married, and posted about it. However, the post wasn't quit complete, Lisa wanted me to know, so she put her post in context. First her explanation and then the post. -gw

The context is that Uncle John said this grace at my wedding for 250+ people of various ethnicities, ages, and religions. (We live in Hawaii.) I had asked him to say grace the day before because my dad was all upset that we weren't and my fiance gets all knee jerky about any sort of Christian things.

My uncle John attends and sings in the choir for First Presbyterian Church currently. I remember my first thanksgiving with them when they lived in Tacoma. They had been teaching a teen sunday school class all year that explored other religions. They didn't just lecture at the kids, they actually took the kids to the different places and had things going on with different religious leaders. I accompanied them to a Thanksgiving Baha'i ceremony, which was kind of like the whole class in a nutshell. My uncle is a retired airforce university math professor and has taken his family to live all over the world. He's pretty interesting. He did that prayer all on his own, and Jon was very happy with it. Jon was at first really freaked out over any sort of religious anything. I sort of had to force this one to make my dad happy. Uncle John didn't know about any of this yet came up with it on his own. He rocks my socks. What I like about them is that they are so deeply religious to the point where they are not afraid of other religions, or the opinions of other religions, but find them as interesting to explore as say, another culture's food. Why should another religion threaten your own if you believe whole heartedly in your own? Like, how could my love of Italian food threaten my love for soba?

Lisa, Voices from the Urban Archipelago

{Re-posted with permission}