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Religious Freedom Toolkit

Part IV | Select Quotes from Church Leaders

Category E | Perspectives

Topic 24 | Everyone is a religious minority

We all belong to a religious minority. Although some religions comprise a majority in one or another particular geographic area, no religion encompasses a majority of the world’s population. According to the Pew Research Center, the largest religious groups in the world are Christians (31.2%), Muslims (24.1%), and the unaffiliated (16%), followed by Hindus (15.1%), Buddhists (6.9%), and folk religionists (5.7%). Perhaps more than any other single realization, remembering that we all belong to a religious minority should help guide how we behave when we find ourselves in a majority position in some particular place and time.

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Elder Neil L. Andersen: The majority and the minority often trade places.  

“Reciprocity and empathy in society are vital because the majority and the minority often trade places. What is popular at one time becomes unpopular at another. The cultural or religious group that enjoys privilege today may lose it tomorrow. Power is not permanent. So, a religious freedom that protects the little guy is also the best security for the big guy. Safety is not in numbers; safety is in justice. Therefore, religious freedom only for some is really religious freedom for none.”

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Professor W. Cole Durham, Jr.: Too often, groups who have pleaded for tolerance while they were a persecuted minority have turned into persecutors as soon as they acquired political power.  

“Paradoxically, following the pattern set by the Master includes learning to respect the beliefs and choices made by others, even while standing firm in witnessing and teaching doctrinal truths. Indeed, following the pattern means standing for the rights and freedoms of others, even at the cost of our own lives—and surely also even at the lesser cost of inconvenience or discomfort.

This paradoxical nature of the doctrine of religious freedom needs to be emphasized and understood more deeply. Most of our doctrines are teachings that we affirm and agree to follow. In contrast, although religious freedom is basic and foundational for the system of gospel truth, it demands that we respect the views of those who adhere to other systems of belief. What is paradoxical is that our belief in religious freedom obligates us to tolerate and respect beliefs with which we disagree—though it does not require us to accept, endorse, or support them.

Part of the paradox is explained by the fact, attested by all the modern prophets, that the gospel embraces all truth. But more is involved in the doctrine of religious freedom than an admonition to accept truth wherever we find it. It is a recognition of the realities of human dignity and conscience and of the obligation to respect agency at the precious core of the human spirit. This doctrine has had great practical meaning for our leaders. Just a year before his martyrdom, Joseph Smith declared:

'The Saints can testify whether I am willing to lay down my life for my brethren. If it has been demonstrated that I have been willing to die for a “Mormon.” I am bold to declare before Heaven that I am just as ready to die in defending the rights of a Presbyterian, a Baptist, or a good man of any other denomination; for the same principle which would trample upon the rights of the Latter-day Saints would trample upon the rights of the Roman Catholics, or of any other denomination who may be unpopular and too weak to defend themselves. It is a love of liberty which inspires my soul—civil and religious liberty to the whole of the human race.'

Forgetting the paradox of religious freedom has been a cause of incalculable suffering during human history. Too often, groups who have pleaded for tolerance while they were a persecuted minority have turned into persecutors as soon as they acquired political power. Joseph Smith was very conscious of this tragic tendency toward unrighteous dominion and repudiated it. We as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints should not be guilty of insensitivity in this area. Having so often suffered from religious intolerance in the past, we should go the extra mile in assuring that others are not exposed to similar pain. What those who forget this paradox do not understand is that the mere possession of truth does not carry with it a right to impose that truth on others. God possesses all truth, yet He has left us our freedom. . . .
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Stated differently, what makes the doctrine of religious freedom paradoxical is that the right to enjoy religious freedom for ourselves carries with it a reciprocal obligation to respect the religious freedom of others. In the words of the Golden Rule, Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Or as the Lord said at the Last Supper, ‘As I have loved you, . . . love one another.’”

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Elder Gerrit W. Gong: The best way to preserve one’s own freedom is to firmly advocate that others enjoy that same freedom.  

“Both Freedom of Religion or Belief and Freedom of Expression must, of necessity, be granted to others in order to exist within and across societies. In a pluralistic society, religious as well as other viewpoints will by definition not always conform. Some individuals, groups or governments may have a tendency to restrain the freedom of belief or expression of others in order to further ones’ [sic] own viewpoints or policy objectives.

Yet perhaps the best way to preserve ones´ [sic] own freedom is to firmly advocate that others enjoy that same freedom. This is true even when religious or other viewpoints may be different than our own. Somewhat paradoxically, then, to maintain these freedoms ourselves we must defend, not the viewpoints of others, but their right to hold and express those viewpoints, even when different from our own.”

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Elder Ulisses Soares: Religious freedom is as much a duty toward others as it is a right for oneself.  

“Religious freedom is as much a duty toward others as it is a right for oneself. If you want your religious beliefs to be protected, you must protect religious beliefs that differ from your own. This paradox lies at the heart of how a diverse society works. We gain freedom by supporting the freedom of those we deem to be our adversaries. When we see that our interests are tied to the interests of everyone else, then the real work of religious freedom begins.

Various versions of this wisdom can be found in traditions around the world. Often called the Golden Rule, the idea establishes a connection between the self and the other, between my experience and your experience. We are not all so different. Confucianism, Taoism, Judaism, and Islam expressed different formulations of this same reciprocity. Perhaps most famously spoken by Jesus as ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,’ the Golden Rule has the ring of truth and applies to both personal and civic life.”

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See also Religious Freedom Library
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