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Scent of Light Episode
by Ken Norton
Faith
Broadcast on February 23, 2020
Mp3 Player
The audio file above is the spoken word recording
without background music provided to Radio KOWS 92.5 FM broadcast of the
Scent of Light episode for insert into the Radio Spotlight Magazine
with host Andre Marc.
In this episode on the Scent of Light I will speak on
Faith.
On researching my ancestry with the help of the
internet and DNA, I discovered on going up the father line that it includes
some leaders in faith.
My first ancestor to settle in America was a Baptist
minister Rev. Robert Norden. At age 64 in 1714, over 300 years ago, he was
sent by Baptist elders in Kent, England as the “messenger" to the colony of
Virginia to establish there some early Baptists' communities. Robert's faith
in what he felt was a more simple religion closer to that of the early
Christians than the rituals offered by the Church of England made it
dangerous to practice the Baptist way. He and his wife sailed across the
ocean to a new land with new people to evangelize. His faith encouraged him
to make the sacrifice and to endure intimidating circumstances.
117 years later in 1831 his descendent and my
ancestor David Norton, Jr., found faith in the teachings of Joseph Smith,
who had just established the Church of the Latter Day Saints the previous
year, based on revelations he claimed to have received from the angel Moroni
in the form of golden tablets, which would become the Book of Mormon. David
believed in this new dispensation of Christianity with its new scripture and
community of Latter Day Saints. His faith kept him loyal to Joseph Smith as
the Latter Day Prophet in spite of the angry mobs upset by the new community
building of the Mormons, who were living in solidarity but with what was
considered strange beliefs to their neighbors. David would move his wife and
children from Indiana to a Mormon community in Missouri, and then was forced
to uproot again because of massacre of Mormons. He followed Joseph Smith to
the Mormon settlement at Nauvoo in Illinois, where his plot of land was
neighbor to that of the Prophet and not far from the Temple built by the
Mormons. It was in Nauvoo that Joseph Smith was murdered by a mob, and David
Norton's family had to uproot and move again to a safer region. After David
was ordained High Priest by Apostle Kimball in 1847, David followed his
son's pioneering journey to Utah with Brigham Young some months later with
his wife and other children, walking and sometimes riding in a wagon train
to Utah amidst bitter storms crossing the Great Plains and the Rocky
Mountains. They would thrive in the West.
My grandfather Ralph Norton, a great grandson of
David Norton, Jr., left his family home in Arizona at age 17 to find his
future through joining a circus on tour in Phoenix. He would have nothing to
do with Mormonism, but surprised everyone in his will by stipulating he
should be buried in the Mormon rite. Not much was passed on by him about his
extended Mormon family, but being born of Mormons meant that he and his
cousins and ancestors would be recorded in a genealogical fashion to enable
a tenet of their faith of baptizing the ancestors. This has made it much
easier for me to be informed of their lives and missions and learn of the
fruits of their faith.
I was raised by a very devote Catholic mother who
still to this day is active in what she believes is the one true Church. Her
family are of German and Irish immigrants, which valued the solidarity to
survive in the new world that belonging to their church afforded them in
getting housing and jobs. She was able to persuade my Dad to convert to
Catholicism, since his father broke with the Mormon tradition and he liked
belonging to some church community. My parent's faith served to create a
stable home for my siblings and me.
I have encountered so far three different faiths in
the journey of my parents and ancestors. Each of these faiths could be
heresy to ancestors or descendants holding dear other faiths. Yet it was the
function of faith in something greater than their own life and the
circumstances they would endure that gave my ancestors the courage to
persevere in reaching their goals. The faiths of my ancestors each fueled a
mission of the creation of people of integrity forming secure loving
communities with some success. Believing that this is possible, seems to me,
is the truest portion of faith.
This is Ken Norton on the Scent Of Light. You can
contact me via Ken at KennethENorton.com and I would be glad to hear from
you. The Scent of Light episodes are archived on the web at
kennethenorton.com.
Thanks for listening.
Ken Norton earned his master's degree in Materials Science from Stanford
University as the Vietnam War was ending. During that time Ken served as the
personal assistant to a poet/sociologist Dr. William Hermanns as he prepared
his writings for publication, exposing Ken to not only the sciences but also
the humanities and comparative religion for making conscious and
conscionable choices.
Ken is a regular contributor to Radio Spotlight Magazine with his episodes
on the Scent of Light.
Ken Norton in practice of Tai Chi Chuan
2018 Photo by Elaine B. Holtz
I co-produce Women's Spaces Show with my loving partner and its host
Elaine B. Holtz. Take a visit. All the shows are archived on the website.
----
I am the Trustee and Archivist. Visit the website I built in honor of my
mentor.
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Be still and know,
We're in the flow
Of Love to grow
From seeds we sow.*
Kenneth E. Norton
* stanza from his poem Intuition's Joy
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