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Religious Freedom Toolkit

Part IV | Select Quotes from Church Leaders

Category E | Perspectives

Topic 25 | Moving beyond sectarian disputes about religious truth

Religious freedom can help us move beyond arguments about religious truth. We can disagree about religious truth while sharing a deep commitment to religious freedom. Religious freedom does not protect religious truth from criticism or opposition; rather, it protects human beings in their right to seek, choose, embrace and follow religious truth.

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President Dallin H. Oaks: Walk shoulder to shoulder along the path of religious freedom of all, while exercising that freedom to pursue our distinctive beliefs.  

“When leaders join forces to confront religious liberty challenges, they do not need to examine doctrinal differences or identify their many common elements of belief. All that is necessary for unity is our shared conviction that God has commanded us to love one another and has granted us freedom in matters of faith. . . .
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[W]e 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 compromises but rather a plea for unity and cooperation on strategy and advocacy toward our common goal of religious liberty for all.
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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.”

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Elder D. Todd Christofferson: Religious liberty is a powerful bar against state imposition of beliefs.  

“Religious liberty enables all of us—whether religious or not—freely to pursue truth and the meaning of life, and to live accordingly. At the heart of religious liberty is the reality that faith in God cannot be coerced. Each of us must be free to find and accept faith—and even to reject it—in our own time and on our own terms. The same is true of belief in secular ideologies. Religious liberty is a powerful bar against state imposition of beliefs about God and about anything else. With its long and powerful heritage in the law, religious liberty creates a fortress of sacred freedom so the mind and heart can freely explore and embrace truth and determine how to live it. Wherever our seeking for truth ultimately leads, I urge all of us to strongly protect the freedom that makes the quest possible.”

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See also Religious Freedom Library
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