Dad (Brett)
Mom (Erin)
Aeriana ('Wacko', 'Princess')
Zoe Jean ('Stinker', 'Cutie')
Religious Freedom
I've been reserving political commentary for my Back In Focus blog; however I figured a lot of readers of this blog would be quite interested in this.Today, Elder Dallin H. Oaks, an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, spoke to BYU-I students about the right to religious freedom in America. If your first reaction is 'eh, politics... why would I care?', then I'll point you to this quote from the beginning of his speech. "There is a battle over the meaning of that [religious] freedom. The contest is of eternal importance, and it is your generation that must understand the issues and make the efforts to prevail."
Elder Oaks touches upon Prop 8, the civil rights movement, the founding fathers, and the church throughout the world. It's very interesting and very timely.
Other quotes that really stood out to me:
"Unpopular minority religions are especially dependent upon a constitutional guarantee of free exercise of religion. We are fortunate to have such a guarantee in the United States, but many nations do not. The importance of that guarantee in the United States should make us ever diligent to defend it. And it is in need of being defended. During my lifetime I have seen a significant deterioration in the respect accorded to religion in our public life, and I believe that the vitality of religious freedom is in danger of being weakened accordingly."
"A second threat to religious freedom is from those who perceive it to be in conflict with the newly alleged “civil right” of same-gender couples to enjoy the privileges of marriage."
"Those who seek to change the foundation of marriage should not be allowed to pretend that those who defend the ancient order are trampling on civil rights."
"we must not be deterred or coerced into silence by the kinds of intimidation I have described. We must insist on our constitutional right and duty to exercise our religion, to vote our consciences on public issues and to participate in elections and debates in the public square and the halls of justice."
"As Latter-day Saints, we should never be reticent to declare and act upon the sure foundations of our faith. The call of conscience — whether religious or otherwise — requires no secular justification."
I recommend you watch this brief companion interview video, and then read Elder Oaks' speech in its entirety.
Labels: family, politics, religion
posted by Brett at
10:31 PM
5 Comments:
I couldn't agree more. This is something which I feel very strongly about. I'm impressed you feel the same way.
WOW! Thanks Brett! I needed to hear this.
Wow, very interesting!!!
hmmm - interesting -- great clip - thanks for taking the time
I just finished reading the article and giving it to Dad to read. Some very interesting comments about some very interesting topics . . .
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