[ashton314]

For me it's my religion. I say religion to encompass: things I personally believe, the core teachings of my faith ("the gospel"), and the church that supports it.

I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It's not a perfect church, and there's definitely some weird stuff in the culture that it's so often tied to. I don't like a lot of the strange tacked-on culture stuff. And I don't think the organization is perfect.

That said, I am deeply grateful that I'm a member of this church because it's given me so many chances to help people from very different walks of life that I wouldn't have come into contact with otherwise. I've gotten practice teaching, running meetings, getting out of my comfort zone, helping others, getting help myself.

Then there's the gospel: I've gone through life much happier believing that there's a purpose to life, that death isn't the end, that family can be together forever. Christ's teachings have pushed me to be a kinder, more understanding, and more forgiving person than I otherwise would have been.

I know there are plenty of atheist and anti-theists here. I respect you! I hope you can appreciate that my religion has done fantastic good in my and my family's life.