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Religious Freedom Toolkit

Part IV | Select Quotes from Church Leaders

Category B | Principles

Topic 7 | Avoiding statism

A commitment to religious freedom can help avoid statism, the belief that all rights exist only after the state enacts rights. Both the U.S. Declaration of Independence and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are grounded upon the idea that certain fundamental rights are not bestowed by the state but rather are inherent and unalienable to the human person. The state does not create these rights; instead, it enacts laws to recognize, promote, and protect fundamental rights that people already possess by virtue of their being human. One of these unalienable constitutional and human rights is the right to freedom of religion.

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Elder Neil L. Anderson: Yearning for freedom remains constant in all of us.  

“Laws may vary according to the government, culture and values of a particular country, but the yearning for freedom remains constant in all of us. Implanted in every human heart is the desire for respect, humane treatment and the space to practice beliefs alone or in a community of believers. In this way religious freedom has the force of a fundamental human right, grounded in human expectations even before laws are made.”

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Elder Quentin L. Cook: Inalienable rights bestowed by a Divine Creator  

“We can do a better job of teaching and educating our responsible friends of the essential value of religious liberty and its importance in protecting our shared values. The inalienable human rights enshrined in many constitutions are inalienable only insofar as these rights are bestowed by a Divine Creator. It is the accountability to a Divine Creator that is the foundation for assisting those in need, respecting fellow citizens and respecting and following the law. To the extent these human rights are merely the creation of Man, they are at risk of becoming alienable, or being removed by Man. To this end, religious liberty is foundational to all other human rights. It is in the best interest of anyone concerned with human rights, even atheists and non-believers, to protect religious liberty. We can and must do a better job of communicating our shared mutual interests.”

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Elder James E. Faust: God as the source of all our basic rights  

“One basic difference between [Benjamin] Franklin’s concept of a civil religion and the new secular religion is that the new secular religion rejects in large measure the basic concept of Anglo-Saxon-American jurisprudence. Our traditional jurisprudence has held that God is the source of all of our basic rights, and that the principal function of government is only to secure those rights for its citizenry. May I quote from the Declaration of Independence: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; . . . that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men.’

In contrast, the new civil religion I speak of finds its source of rights by invoking the power of the state. It seems to have little purpose, few common values for morality except self-interest.”

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Elder D. Todd Christofferson: Religious liberty creates a fortress of sacred freedom.  

“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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Elder Quentin L. Cook: Individual rights part of design of loving Creator

“Natural law or even a belief that we are accountable to God is not in fashion in much of the legal world today. But the recognition that individual rights are part of the design of a loving Creator is part of both Catholic and Latter-day Saint theology and other faiths that are represented here today. It is not government which has the disposition and power to grant these protections and rights-they are derived from our Creator. . . .
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. . . To the extent these human rights are merely the creation of Man, they are at risk of becoming alienable, or being removed by Man. To this end, religious liberty is foundational to all other human rights. It is in the best interest of anyone concerned with human rights, even atheists and non-believers, to protect religious liberty.”

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Elder D. Todd Christofferson: Essential rights are inalienable because they are gifts of God.  

“Our essential rights are inalienable because they are the gifts of God. No state could grant them. Accepting that fundamental truth lays the foundation for all other freedoms. And the first recognition of that truth—historically and morally—has come from acknowledging that the state must respect religious conscience.”

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Elder Bruce R. Hafen: Human rights existed prior to the state’s existence.  

“[T]he human rights hinted at by Langton, described by Milton and others, and included in the American Constitution’s Bill of Rights existed prior to the state’s existence. They were derived directly from God, not from the state, and the state’s role was and is to protect those prior rights.”

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See also Religious Freedom Library
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