American Buddhist Net

As the Dalai Lama says: "The heart of all religions is one." Sonja

Wednesday, June 14, 2006
By Tim Gurrister
Standard-Examiner staff
tgurrister@standard.net

Ogden lawyer's collection pays homage to religion

OGDEN -- Local veteran lawyer Bob Phillips has turned his law office conference room into something of a shrine to religion -- all of them.

Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, images and items from all, and for good measure, statues of Confucius, references to ancient Egypt's gods, Taoism, American Indian beliefs, and more.

"It's what everybody believes in, and people ought to find out what everybody believes in, and why," said Phillips, 75, who heads his firm of five lawyers on the first floor of the Ben Lomond Hotel.

"It's not the differences we should emphasize, but what we have in common."

LINK TO ORIGINAL

The conference room is dominated by a 6-foot-wide, backlit, stained-glass "all-seeing eye of God," as Phillips likes to call it. The eye is one of the most repeated symbols among numerous religions.

Phillips works on stained glass himself and has more he plans to install and back-light in the ceiling over the conference table.

The room is jammed with artwork, artifacts, statues, books and relics, including an authentic signature of LDS Church founder Joseph Smith.

There is even a prayer rug with a compass. An 18th-century amulet that holds an ancient Hebrew prayer. Muslim prayer beads numbering one for each of the 108 names for Allah.

The Book of Mormon in eight different languages. Korans, Torahs
and Bibles.

There is also Darwin and evolution memorabilia.

The collecting, and researching, all started for Phillips during the 1950s when he was stationed in the Army in Morocco and studied Islam, the dominant faith there.

"That's where I got my first Koran," said Phillips, who has practiced law in Ogden since 1959, including a run as a judge here from 1979 to 1989 under the old circuit court system.

He can recite Scripture as well as religious history. Of the start of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism all around 600 B.C., he quips, "God was getting busy."

But he won't say which faith he claims as his own. "I'm historically LDS, if that's misleading enough for you," he said.

He finds the similarities of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christianity a celebration of religion. "Buddha's Eight-fold Path, the Hindu Abstinences and Observances, all include everything covered in the Ten Commandments."

Less comforting, he likes to point out, is the split between Jewish and Moslem faiths, despite common ancestry going back to the biblical figure Abraham.

The 50-plus years of collecting are about four-fifths local finds, he said, with many items coming in trade or as gifts from clients.

"It's increasing geometrically," he said. Some of his staff note that sometimes Phillips' wife confiscates his credit cards to try to slow down his collecting.

Which leads naturally to speculation, given how his office looks, about what his home looks like.

"Carousel horses, like you see on merry-go-rounds -- I have 240 in my basement," he answers.