• Challenges to Religious Freedom
  • Elder Dallin H. Oaks
  • Address at the Argentina Council for Foreign Relations (CARI), April 23, 2015

The involvement of nations and multinational organizations in support of religious freedom is necessary and valuable but not sufficient. The preservation of religious freedom depends upon public understanding of and support for this vital freedom. It depends upon the value the public attaches to the teachings of right and wrong in churches, synagogues, and mosques. Believers and nonbelievers must be helped to understand that it is faith in God—however defined—that translates religious teachings into the moral behavior that benefits the nation. As more and more citizens believe in God, or at least in the importance of the moral absolutes taught by religious leaders, the importance of religious freedom will be better understood and supported. Many will also be persuaded that religious leaders, who preach right and wrong, make a unique contribution to society and should therefore have special legal protection.