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Religious Freedom Toolkit

Part IV | Select Quotes from Church Leaders

Category E | Perspectives

Topic 23 | Religious freedom is a canary in the coal mine

Religious freedom is sometimes called “a canary in the coal mine,” to make the point that when religious freedom is violated, other human rights are also at risk. Coal miners often carried canaries with them in underground mines because the canaries were more sensitive to an absence of oxygen. A canary that lost consciousness or died was evidence of an unhealthy environment that posed danger to people as well. Similarly, violations of religious freedom are an early warning sign that other important rights and freedoms are also in jeopardy.

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Elder Gerrit W. Gong: Nations and societies that uphold religious freedom are more likely to enjoy a wealth of other liberties.  

“Rights, such as Freedom of Religion or Belief and Freedom of Expression, are appropriately viewed as a package. Indeed: ‘the same principle which would trample upon religious freedom rights, would trample on rights of freedom of expression, and a host of other rights that collectively makeup the core human dignity of the individual.’

Contrary to sometimes popular belief, experience shows nations and societies that uphold religious freedom rights are more likely, rather than less likely, to enjoy a wealth of other liberties.”

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Elder D. Todd Christofferson: Religious freedom is at the core of an “ecosystem” of freedom.  

“[R]eligious freedom does not exist in isolation. I also fear that many in our modern secular societies have forgotten that religious freedom undergirds and is inseparably connected to all the other freedoms we cherish. It is the core right in what might be thought of as an ‘ecosystem’ of freedom. As religious freedom goes, so go many other precious rights.”

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