The
NewsroomBlog

This week, scholars from across the country gathered at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, for a two-day conference entitled “Religious Liberty in an Age of Change.”  They offered opinions and experiences in debate that exemplified serious and respectful conversation on the topic. 

A documentary on religious freedom was aired Tuesday, 18 December, on PBS. The show is called First Freedom and explores the importance of religious freedom as framed by the founders of the United States.

Religious, political and academic leaders gathered in Washington, D.C., Thursday to discuss the importance of protecting religious freedom at the American Religious Freedom Program conference.

Elder James J. Hamula joined Samoa’s head of state and leaders of other faiths last week in the first “Managing Religious and Cultural Diversity in the Pacific” conference at the National University of Samoa in Apia.

Last Thursday, Presiding Bishop of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, H. David Burton, joined 38 prominent leaders of different faiths in signing a letter advocating traditional marriage and religious freedom.

The letter, titled “Marriage and Religious Freedom: Fundamental Goods That Stand or Fall Together,” stated that “the promotion and protection of marriage — the union of one man and one woman as husband and wife — is a matter of the common good and serves the wellbeing of the couple, of children, of civil society and all people.”

Read the letter’s full contents here.

Last month the Deseret News ran an opinion piece titled, “Is religion special?” by Michael W. McConnell, a Stanford Law Professor and former judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit.

Freedom of religion has been, and still is, an essential moving force in the grand experiment of American democracy.

Earlier this month in Rome, Harvard professor Mary Ann Glendon made a bold case for religious freedom, saying it “goes to the very heart of what it means to be human.”

Religious freedom experts gathered together on the campus of Brigham Young University for the 22nd annual conference of the LDS International Society. The theme was “The Erosion of Religious Liberties: Impact on the International Church.” As a matter of basic human dignity and social good, these experts defended religious freedom against gradually encroaching erosions.

Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles addressed a group of young adults from Boston, Massachusetts, 10 June 2010.