Freedom of or Freedom from?
By Frank L. VanderSloot
President/CEO

June 2004

Recently I received an e-mail from a good friend who is a Senior Director. She brought to my attention that some of our leaders are beginning their Melaleuca meetings with a prayer and suggested that as President and CEO I give counsel to our leaders to cease what she believes is a “potentially dangerous practice.”

I have given her comments much serious thought. I think this is a very delicate, sensitive, and important issue. How we address this as a company could well have a serious impact on our business. I do not know that I know exactly how to respond. I will not try to tell you what I know, but I will tell you how I feel.

I know that society is leading us rapidly down the road to being free from all religion. We have been taught not to tolerate prayer in public for any reason whatsoever. They have taken prayer from our schools, our football games and our graduation ceremonies. Our right to pray in public to ask our Heavenly Father for his blessing or to thank him publicly is being rapidly eroded. This is all being done under the umbrellas of freedom of religion that is one of the most precious rights protected in our Constitution. Yet the way that society is addressing this issue is causing our culture to experience freedom from religion as opposed to freedom of religion.

There are often strong feelings about very personal issues. The decision you make about whom you marry, where you go to church and how you vote are personal decisions. Sometimes everyone around you doesn’t agree. That’s life. We have to accept that. I believe that most disagreement comes from misunderstanding. Therefore, I also believe when we believe in something deeply that we have a responsibility to share it at an appropriate time and appropriate place. There wouldn’t be a Melaleuca if we didn’t all believe that.

Whatever our religion, we should be proud of it, live up to it, respect it and reflect it in how we live and what we say. In a sense I feel that same thing is true of politics. We need more people studying the pros and cons, sifting out the spin, and working towards having more committed, dedicated citizens serving in every branch of government from the highest in the country to the tiniest community.

We are proud that in Melaleuca we have people from every persuasion you can imagine. We have Republicans, Democrats, Independents, Libertarians, and groups I don’t even know about. Yet they all clean their homes, wash their hair, most use deodorants, and all care about their health. That’s good. We are here to serve a universal market.

The same is true of religions. We have atheists and evangelistic Christians. We have Protestants, Catholics, Jehovah Witnesses, Jews, Mormons, Buddhists, and even those of the Muslim faith. We have some Seventh Day Adventists who can’t meet on Saturday and whenever we can we try to give them options. When we accidentally scheduled a Convention on a Jewish holiday at great expense we changed our plans. When we first opened our doors in Hawaii, a Polynesian or Oriental group (I forgot which) came forward and asked if they could have their priest bless the building. I told them, “Of course.” He came over and performed a ritual of placing or throwing salt in each of the corners of the building and in the entryway, while chanting a prayer. It’s not what my Bishop would have done, but I was happy to accommodate them. They felt good about it. When an Amish couple became Seniors and couldn’t use the car, we met their needs by paying for a wagon and a horse. That was fun for us. And it was well received. We try hard to be neutral in this area and not to let our personal beliefs about religion, marriage, or politics interfere with what we do.

Melaleuca is a company that when it comes to business, is a home for everybody. But it is important to remind ourselves that we accept everyone with their beliefs—not without their beliefs. There are some who point out, “But we don’t believe in any God and we do not want to be forced to listen to those who do not believe what we believe. So therefore we do not want to tolerate letting someone else say a prayer.” What they are asking is that we be tolerant of their non-belief. I would respond by asking of them to be tolerant of those who do believe.

And that is pretty much where I come down on this. We need to be tolerant of each other’s beliefs. We can take comfort that we live in a country where people are not punished or ridiculed for their faith—at least not yet. And while I understand there are many who would propose banning prayers from all Melaleuca meetings I would suggest we should not be willing to pass up the blessing that may come our way if we ask for guidance and give thanks publicly to someone who has infinite wisdom and power. I certainly do not want to pass up those blessings.

Although it has not been the custom to offer a prayer at the beginning of every Melaleuca meeting, if someone wants to, I would certainly allow them to do it. Now in saying all of this I think the person offering the prayer takes on a huge responsibility to be mindful of other people’s feelings and beliefs and that should be taken into account. It would be inappropriate to ever use a Melaleuca meeting to proselyte or try to convert others. That is not even a very fine line. We know proselyting when we see it. To worship together can be a wonderful thing, even when we all have a little different approach. One of my favorite meetings is when on our Caribbean cruises on Sunday we always hold a non-denominational church service. It is always wonderful! There are so many different approaches to worship and exercising of one’s faith. I always come away with a greater appreciation for others.

It has always been our tradition, at Melaleuca, to ask someone to offer a blessing on the food. We usually have both a Jewish blessing and a Christian blessing. People seem to be comfortable with that. It brings us all closer together. If there were another faith that wanted to offer a blessing we would gladly accommodate them. Once I was challenged by someone and asked, “If someone wanted to do an Indian rain dance, would you allow it?” My enthusiastic response was, “You bet! Especially since we need rain so badly here in Idaho!” I guess it’s my impression that God hears the prayers of all his children. But he can’t hear them or answer them if no one offers them.

Now, I am not advising or suggesting that from now on we have prayers to open all meetings. I’m just suggesting that if someone requests to be able to offer a prayer that we accommodate them. And if someone does offer a prayer that, to the degree our own beliefs allow us, to join them in their prayer. My bet is that we will be a better company for doing it and my other bet is it sure can’t do us any harm.

I do not want to be misunderstood here. I do not believe Melaleuca meetings should ever be a place for proselyting or revivals or evangelical opportunities or to be focused on one particular religion or another. This is no place to be trying to convert others. We all have a sense as to when things are getting out of hand. But if someone wants to acknowledge the hand of a Higher Being in their life or give thanks to, or acknowledge someone more powerful than we are, I think we can and should be tolerant of that. We will be better for it. And I believe we will all be blessed for it.

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