Part IV | Select Quotes from Church Leaders
Category E | Perspectives
Topic 28 | The right to be wrong
If it is to have any meaning, religious freedom must mean that we as human beings have the right to make choices concerning our own beliefs. This means we have the right to be wrong. This is true even if we are wrong in matters of conscience, including matters of religious truth, and even at the peril of our own soul.
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Elder Ulisses Soares: It is absolutely vital that we allow everyone to express their beliefs as long as they are honest, legal, and don’t do material harm.
“[S]peaking civilly is not the same thing as speaking without conviction. It is absolutely vital that we encourage a society that allows everyone to express their beliefs as long as they are honest, legal and don’t do material harm. This right exists even if the things we say come across as lacking or incorrect. Some have called this the right to be wrong. Civil discourse means a grown- up, earnest, rigorous exchange of ideas, not a diluted, vague, insincere avoidance of disagreement.”
- Ulisses Soares, Foundations and Fruits of Religious Freedom, 3rd Annual Summit for Religious Freedom, Dallas–Fort Worth Alliance for Religious Freedom (Oct. 28, 2020), https://www.religiousfreedomlibrary.org/documents/foundations-and-fruits-of-religious-freedom.
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Elder Lance B. Wickman (quoting President Dallin H. Oaks): We need not agree with another’s choices, even though we respect the right to make them.
“In explaining how we reconcile the exercise of our own agency with another person’s exercise of his or her agency, Elder Dallin H. Oaks has used the metaphor of the two-sided coin. Said he:
'Tolerance for behavior is like a two-sided coin. Tolerance or respect is on one side of the coin, but truth is always on the other. We must stand for truth, even while we practice tolerance and respect for beliefs and ideas different from our own. We should all be edified and strengthened by the Savior’s example of speaking both tolerance and truth; kindness in the communication but firmness in the truth.'
Stated differently, we need not agree with another’s choices, even though we respect his right to make them. Seeking to preserve the free exercise of our own moral agency, we must within appropriate limits respect the other fellow’s right to do likewise.”
- Lance B. Wickman, The Crucible: The Atonement, Moral Agency, and the Law, J. Reuben Clark Law Society Event (Feb. 17, 2017), https://www.religiousfreedomlibrary.org/documents/the-crucible-the-atonement-moral-agency-and-the-law (quoting Dallin H. Oaks, Truth and Tolerance, CES Devotional for Young Adults, Brigham Young University (Sept. 11, 2011)).
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President Dallin H. Oaks: The ascendancy 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.”
- Dallin H. Oaks, Preserving Religious Freedom, Chapman University School of Law (Feb. 4, 2011), https://www.religiousfreedomlibrary.org/documents/preserving-religious-freedom.