Skip to main content
Religious Freedom Toolkit

Part IV | Select Quotes from Church Leaders

Category A | Frameworks

Topic 1 | Principled pluralism

Principled pluralism is a strategy for living together with our deep differences (religious and otherwise), without requiring anyone to give up their deep convictions. Principled pluralism will not require people to limit manifestations of their convictions any more than is necessary for living together peacefully and to protect the rights and freedoms of others. It provides a more sustainable strategy for addressing diversity of thought and protecting religious freedom than other governance frameworks such as multiculturalism, moralism, or other forms of pluralism, such as laïcité or Judeo-Christian secularism.

◆ ◆ ◆

President Dallin H. Oaks: Resolving differences without compromising core values

“We have always had to work through serious political conflicts, but today too many approach that task as if their preferred outcome must entirely prevail over all others, even in our pluralistic society. We need to work for a better way—a way to resolve differences without compromising core values. We need to live together in peace and mutual respect, within our defined constitutional rights.”

◆ ◆ ◆

President Dallin H. Oaks: Reinforcing common commitments to promote stable pluralistic societies  

“With the love and mutual respect taught by divine commandments, we need to find ways to learn from one another and to reinforce the common commitments that hold us together and promote stable pluralistic societies. We should walk shoulder to shoulder along the path of religious freedom for all, while still exercising that freedom to pursue our distinctive beliefs.”

◆ ◆ ◆

Elder Gerrit W. Gong: Promoting peace and healthy pluralism  

“We promote peace when all voices seeking the greater good can participate, where none is disparaged or denied, even if the inevitable disagreements of healthy pluralism persist.” [This talk also highlights “[t]he necessity of reciprocity.”]

◆ ◆ ◆

President Camille N. Johnson: Finding common ground  

“President Oaks [has] emphasized that, we must unite and find common ground for defending and promoting religious liberty. This is not a call for doctrinal compromises but rather a plea for unity and cooperation on strategy and advocacy toward our common goal of religious liberty for all. I echo President Oaks’s call for seeking common ground and raising united voices on behalf of religious liberty for all people in all places.”

◆ ◆ ◆

President Dallin H. Oaks: Living together in a community of goodwill, patience, and understanding  

“There are points of disagreement between those who insist on free exercise of religion and those who feel threatened by it. Similar disagreements exist between those who insist on nondiscrimination and those who feel that some of its results threaten their religious liberty. There are no winners in such disagreements. Whatever the outcome in one particular case, other disagreements persist, and we are all losers from the atmosphere of anger and contention. In this circumstance of contending religious rights and civil rights, all parties need to learn to live together in a community of goodwill, patience, and understanding. We need to reawaken the ‘bonds of affection’ that President Matthew Holland showed to be essential to the founding of our nation—‘broadly shared ideas of biblical love, artfully refashioned into a guiding public principle.’ We need such broadly shared ideals.

To achieve our common goals we must have mutual respect for others whose beliefs, values, and behaviors differ from our own. This does not expect that we will deny or abandon our differences but that we will learn to live with others who do not share them. It will help if we are not led or unduly influenced by the extreme voices that are heard from various contending positions. Extreme voices polarize and create resentment and fear by emphasizing what is nonnegotiable and by suggesting that the desired outcome is to disable the adversary and achieve absolute victory. Such outcomes are rarely attainable and never preferable to living together in mutual understanding and peace.”

◆ ◆ ◆

President Dallin H. Oaks: Ascendency of moral relativism  

“What has caused the current public and legal climate of mounting threats to religious freedom? I believe the cause is not legal but cultural and religious. I believe the diminished value being attached to religious freedom stems from the ascendency of moral relativism.

More and more of our citizens support the idea that all authority and all rules of behavior are man-made and can be accepted or rejected as one chooses. Each person is free to decide for himself or herself what is right and wrong. Our children face the challenge of living in an increasingly godless and amoral society.”

◆ ◆ ◆

Elder D. Todd Christofferson: First freedom  

“In summary, religious liberty has been rightly called our first freedom. It gave birth to, and is interconnected with, numerous other essential human rights. We must never forget that a state with power to deny our first freedom will inevitably have power to abridge many other freedoms. Because faith is so deeply tied to human identity, religious liberty must be an essential part of any regime that claims to respect human dignity. Indeed, religious liberty is a fundamental pillar in any constitutional order that values each person, thereby fostering a pluralism that gives everyone a place of belonging and security within our diverse societies. It also allows faith communities to serve society in a way that is true to and thus empowered by their faith. And it preserves a sacred space for individuals to pursue truth and the meaning of life.

Finally, the practice of religious freedom—by governments, societies, and individuals—is a tutorial in how to respect, protect, and even love others despite our differences. Yet in that tutorial we come to understand that we share a deeper, common humanity—a piece of divinity, I believe, that ultimately unites us as brothers and sisters—as family. I urge all of us, especially the policymakers among us, to do everything possible to respect and vigorously protect not only conscience but the full scope of religious liberty as a fundamental human right for the good of our societies.”

Previous - Topic 1 Analysis
See also Religious Freedom Library
Next - Topic 2 Summary