On February 4, Dallin H. Oaks, an apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a former state Supreme Court justice spoke at Chapman University School of Law on religious freedom and it’s constitutional history and importance. The Mormon apostle focused on why the constitutional guarantee of religious freedom is important to the future of the United States and on the dangers of religious relativism.

The speech, which received a standing ovation, focused on four main points, that were summarized in this way near the end of his talk:

1. Religious teachings and religious organizations are valuable and important to our free society and therefore deserving of their special protection.
2. Religious freedom undergirds the origin and existence of this country and is the dominating civil liberty.
3. The guarantee of free exercise of religion is weakening in its effects and in public esteem.
4. This weakening is attributable to the ascendancy of moral relativism. 

Elder Oaks reminded listeners that religious freedom was a founding principle of the new nation and that religion has had a powerful and positive influence on the good changes to our nation.

The earliest documents of the country mention God and religion openly, without fear of censorship. The Declaration of Independence warned the king that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights…”  This statement suggests that the founding fathers understood that human rights are derived from God and religious sources, not the secular desires of humans. Many of these unalienable rights, which had their foundations in religious freedom, found their way into the legal system. Elder Oaks reminds us that the Constitution itself has a foundation in religion. “Its formation over 200 years ago was made possible by religious principles of human worth and dignity, and only those principles in the hearts of a majority of our diverse populations can sustain that Constitution today.

Because the Constitution is the foundation of religious freedom, Elder Oaks discussed what the Constitution says on the subject and what it means.

“The first provision in the Bill of Rights is what many believe to be its most important guarantee. It reads: ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.’

“The prohibition against ‘an establishment of religion’ was intended to separate churches and government, to forbid a national church of the kind found in Europe. In the interest of time I will say no more about the establishment of religion, but only concentrate on the First Amendment’s direction that the United states shall have ‘no law [prohibiting] the free exercise [of religion.]’ for almost a century this guarantee of religious freedom has been understood as a limitation on state as well as federal power.

“The guarantee of religious freedom is one of the supremely important founding principles in the United States Constitution, and it is reflected in the constitutions of all 50 of our states. As noted by many, the guarantee’s ‘pre-eminent place’ as the first expression in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution identifies freedom of religion as “a cornerstone of American democracy.”15 The American colonies were originally settled by people who, for the most part, came to this continent for the freedom to practice their religious faith without persecution, and their successors deliberately placed religious freedom first in the nation’s Bill of Rights.

So it is that our federal law formally declares: “The right to freedom of religion undergirds the very origin and existence of the United States.”16 So it is, I maintain, that in our nation’s founding and in our constitutional order religious freedom and its associated First Amendment freedoms of speech and press are the motivating and dominating civil liberties and civil rights.”

The history of good changes in this nation is often also a history of the efforts of religious people and churches. It is through the churches that much of the charitable work in the country is done and it is from the pulpit that many of the humanitarian changes to The United States’ practices first took hold. Without religion, many millions would be suffering as the resources for financing and volunteer service would disappear, both here and world-wide. For instance, Mormons operate LDS Charities and Humanitarian Aid to provide assistance world-wide, regardless of religion, because Jesus commanded His followers to feed the hungry, clothe the poor, and care for the sick. Mormons, like other Christians, work to emulate the Savior and so they are highly motivated to do good things for the world God made them. Christians, Jew, Muslims, and other religious people take that desire to help into other aspects of their lives, both religious and secular.

“Our nation’s inimitable private sector of charitable works originated and is still furthered most significantly by religious impulses and religious organizations. I refer to such charities as schools and higher education, hospitals, and care for the poor, where religiously motivated persons contribute personal service and financial support of great value to our citizens. Our nation’s incredible generosity in many forms of aid to other nations and their peoples are manifestations of our common religious faith that all peoples are children of God. Religious beliefs instill patterns of altruistic behavior.

Many of the great moral advances in Western society have been motivated by religious principles and moved through the public square by pulpit-preaching. The abolition of the slave trade in England and the Emancipation Proclamation in the United States are notable illustrations. These revolutionary steps were not motivated and moved by secular ethics or coalitions of persons who believed in moral relativism. They were driven primarily by individuals who had a clear vision of what was morally right and what was morally wrong. In our time, the Civil Rights movement was, of course, inspired and furthered by religious leaders.”

Elder Oaks pointed out that if religious people had been banned from the public square during those times, as people are trying to do today, the end of slavery, civil rights for racial minorities, and other critical issues might not have been achieved.

Dallin Oaks also quoted an agnostic Oxford-educated journalist, Melanie Phillips, who said, “One does not have to be a religious believer to grasp that the core values of Western Civilization are grounded in religion, and to be concerned that the erosion of religious observance therefore undermines those values and the secular ideas they reflect.”

A survey of our most basic laws demonstrates a correlation to early religious values, including many found in the Ten Commandments or even earlier. As an example, God punished Cain for killing his brother after the first murder, and murder is an unquestioned illegal act in our society under most circumstances. Many of the values taught in the Bible and preached on Saturday or Sunday are also coded into our laws. In the earliest days of our country laws were based on religious values and many of those laws have survived.

Elder Oaks discussed the government’s role in eroding religious freedom over time, pointing out that these efforts were often leveled at smaller religions with less influence and power to fight back. He accepted that there must occasionally be restrictions on religious freedom, primarily in the case of danger to health or security of others. He argued, however, that in most cases, religious freedom should be a priority over other types of freedoms, and suggests its separate mention and prominent placement in the Bill of Rights demonstrates original intent by the Founding Fathers to secure that freedom above other freedoms.

Elder Oaks suggests the cause of the campaign to end or reduce religious freedom stems from the growing tradition of moral relativism. He told listeners that people are increasingly deciding that all morality, authority, and rules should be man-made and can be changed to meet the current fashions of the time. Many even believe every person should be able to create his or her own morality without consequence. Nothing, according to some is absolute or true.

Elder Oaks quoted Rabbi Harold Kushner:

“As I see it, there are two possibilities. Either you affirm the existence of a God who stands for morality and makes moral demands of us, who built a law of truthfulness into His world even as He built in a law of gravity…Or else you give everyone the right to decide what is good and what is evil by his or her own lights, balancing the voice of one’s conscience against the voice of temptation and need…”

He also referred listeners to Timothy Keller, a popular pastor, author and speaker, and the founder of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City:

“Though we have all been taught that all moral values are relative to individuals and cultures, we can’t live like that. In actual practice we inevitably treat some principles as absolute standards by which we judge the behavior of those who don’t share our values…People who laugh at the claim that there is a transcendent moral order do not think that racial genocide is just impractical or self-defeating, but that it is wrong….”

Elder Oaks called for an end to moral relativism and for religious groups and people of character to work together to protect morality. He suggested this didn’t require the groups to accept each other’s doctrines or even to care in what ways the doctrines are the same or different. It requires only unity in the belief that there are permanent standards of right and wrong and that those standards are set by God, not man.

“I am not proposing a resurrection of the so-called “moral majority,” which was identified with a particular religious group and a particular political party. Nor am I proposing an alliance or identification with any current political movement, tea party or other. I speak for a broader principle, non-partisan and, in its own focused objective, ecumenical. I speak for what Cardinal Francis George described in his address at Brigham Young University just a year ago. His title was “Catholics and Latter-day Saints: Partners in the Defense of Religious Freedom.” He proposed

“that Catholics and Mormons stand with one another and with other defenders of conscience, and that we can and should stand as one in the defense of religious liberty.  In the coming years, interreligious coalitions formed to defend the rights of conscience for individuals and for religious institutions should become a vital bulwark against the tide of forces at work in our government and society to reduce religion to a purely private reality. At stake is whether or not the religious voice will maintain its right to be heard in the public square.”

We join in that call for religious coalitions to protect religious freedom.”

Read the complete speech on religious freedom and the constitution.

The Tabernacle, home of the famous Mormon Tabernacle Choir, was host to a Constitution Day celebration on 17 September 2010. The keynote speaker was Elder Dallin H. Oaks, an apostle for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. However, he was speaking that day not as a religious leader but as an expert on constitutional law. Elder Oaks helped to revise the Illinois state constitution, worked as a law professor, and served as a state supreme court justice prior to becoming a Mormon apostle.

Elder Oaks addressed the world-wide importance of the Constitution of the United States, which has been used as a model for constitutions world-wide. He pointed out that when we weaken our own constitution, we also weaken the foundations of other nations as well, for this reason.

He cautioned listeners not to use the constitution as a weapon to end debate, but as a tool to begin it. “A public policy or a proposed law that is unwise is not necessarily unconstitutional. Even if it is a stupid proposal, it is not necessarily unconstitutional. A constitution gives the people and their elected leaders the opportunity to make many decisions that are unwise or even reckless. When that happens — when the government or one of its officials engages in some kind of action that we consider to be wrong — we should engage in vigorous public debate about it. But we should not use up a constitution by attempting to strike down every ill-conceived act of government or to discredit every unwise official. A constitution is the ultimate weapon, and we preserve that weapon best by using it sparingly and carefully. If we call some action unconstitutional, we should be prepared to explain what provision or principle of a constitution it violates. In this way, a constitution can be used to stimulate discussion and to seek unity” (Fundamentals of Our Constitutions” – Elder Dallin H. Oaks)

Elder Oaks outlined four fundamentals that made the constitution so effective and demonstrated why it was critical to our nation’s well-being to protect those fundamentals:

1. Popular Sovereignty: He states that “the people are the source of government power. While this gives the people great power, it also inherently creates great responsibility. “Instead of blaming their troubles on a king, on a cabal of military leaders, or on some distant group of wise men, citizens who are sovereign must share a measure of the burdens and responsibilities of governing.” The challenge of a popular sovereignty was that while it had to protect the interests of the people in the long run, it also had to prevent the constitution from being damaged in the short run when people got excited over something and demanded poorly thought out changes that were based on momentary fads or outbursts of emotion. This was done by requiring very large majorities to make changes to the constitution.
2. Division of Powers in a Federal System: Dallin H. Oaks discussed the importance of having some aspects of law be delegated to the states and others to the federal government. He talked about the need to protect that important balance. “…let us not forget that if the decisions of federal courts can override the actions of state lawmakers on this subject, we have suffered a significant constitutional reallocation of lawmaking power from the lawmaking branch to the judicial branch and from the states to the federal government.”
3. The Bill of Rights: This critical aspect of the Constitution was described as an essential part of our government. Elder Oaks focused in on freedom of religion, which he demonstrated came to us because some of the earliest settlers were escaping religious persecution. He reminded listeners that it was sometimes necessary to place limits on this right, such as when a religion required murder or theft, and therefore the Supreme Court has had an ongoing struggle to define what a religion can and cannot do and what others can mandate about a religion. “As would be expected, many of the battles over the extent of religious freedom have involved government efforts to impose upon the practices of small groups like Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons. Recent experiences suggest adding Muslims to the category of threatened religious minorities. 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 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.”
4. Separation of Powers: The concept of separating the powers of government was the result of long and fierce battles between the founding fathers. It provides protection for citizens from any branch of government taking over the country. Each branch—executive, legislative, and judicial, is held in check by other branches. It is very easy for this balance of power to be unsettled and so it must be fiercely guarded. “If the idea of checks and balances is to work properly, each branch of government must preserve its independence from the others. Moreover, the powers of each of these three branches must be exercised in a good faith effort to serve the interests of the public, rather than to dominate the others or to enhance the personal position of a particular official. Politics, revenge or personal gain must never be the primary driving force in the application of checks and balances.”
5. The Judicial Branch’s Role in Separation of Powers: Coming from a judicial background, Elder Oaks then focused in on the role of the judicial branch. He discussed the complex and subtle line between protecting judicial independence and preventing judicial activism. He explained that judicial independence was crucial to the balance of power and must be protected. We must never get so frustrated with the courts that we try to pass laws that would make the judges servants to private or party interests. However, judges then have a responsible to do only that which they’re assigned to do—make sure the constitution is upheld, regardless of their personal preferences. “Only judges can make judicial restraint a reality. The rarest kind of power in our troubled world is a power recognized but unexercised. Yet that is what the people have a right to expect from the judicial branch, which must define the limits of all government branches, including its own. I maintain that the same branch of government that has defined the power and forged the tools of judicial activism should decline to exercise them.”

Elder Oaks concluded his talk by listing five responsibilities toward the constitution every citizen must take. It is not enough to define what the government must do. We have to take responsibility as well. These responsibilities are to understand the constitution in order to recognize what needs protecting, support the law, practice civic virtue (including voting and serving on juries), maintain civility in public discourse and to promote patriotism.

Read the entire talk:

Fundamentals of Our Constitutions

Elder Dallin H. Oaks, member of the Quorum of the Twelve apostles, spoke at Harvard Law School on 26 February 2010. This speech was part of the annual Mormonism 101 series. In the talk, Elder Oaks addressed a number of basic

principles of Mormonism, explaining that a survey showed few people really knew anything at all about Mormons, and what they did know was wrong or misunderstood.

“My object is to illuminate several premises and ways of thinking that are at the root of some misunderstandings about our doctrine and practice.

We Mormons know that our doctrines and values are not widely understood by those not of our faith.  This was demonstrated by Gary Lawrence’s nationwide study published in his recent book, How Americans View Mormonism.  Three-quarters of those surveyed associated our Church with high moral standards, but about half thought we were secretive and mysterious and had “weird beliefs.”[1] When asked to select various words they thought described Mormons in general, 87% checked “strong family values,” 78% checked “honest,” and 45% checked “blind followers.”[2]

When Lawrence’s interviewers asked, “To the best of your understanding, what is the main claim of Mormonism?” only 14% could describe anything close to the idea of restoration or reestablishment of the original Christian faith. Similarly, when another national survey asked respondents what one word best described their impression of the Mormon religion, not one person suggested the words or ideas of original or restoration Christianity.[3] “

Elder Oaks focused on three aspects of Mormonism in his discourse:

1.    The nature of God, including the role of the three members of the Godhead, and the corollary truth that there are moral absolutes.

2.    The purpose of life.

3.    The three-fold sources of truth about man and the universe:  science, the scriptures, and continuing revelation, and how we can know them.

These three principles form the foundations of Mormonism and the explanation for why Mormons believe what they believe. However, they are also frequently misunderstood or misrepresented.

Elder Oaks explained that while most Christians believe in God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, Mormons have a somewhat different view of this Godhead. This belief is the first statement in the Articles of Faith, a document listing thirteen fundamental principles of Mormonism. Mormonism teaches that God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are three distinct beings, unified in testimony, purpose, and values.

“We maintain that these three members of the Godhead are three separate and distinct beings, and that God the Father is not a spirit but a glorified Being with a tangible body, as is his resurrected Son, Jesus Christ.  Though separate in identity, they are one in purpose.  We maintain that Jesus referred to this relationship when he prayed to His Father that His disciples would be “one” even as Jesus and his Father were one (see John 17:11)—united in purpose, but not in identity.”

Elder Oaks explained that Mormons believe Jesus Christ is the only Begotten Son of God, that He created the earth, that He is our teacher, and that through Him, we can be saved.

“Because of His resurrection all who have ever lived will be raised from the dead.  He is the Savior whose atoning sacrifice opens the door for us to be forgiven of our personal sins so that we can be cleansed to return to the presence of God our Eternal Father.  This is the central message of the prophets of all ages.  Joseph Smith stated this great truth in our third Article of Faith:  “We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.”

As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we testify with the Book of Mormon prophet-king Benjamin that “there shall be no other name given nor any other way nor means whereby salvation can come unto the children of men, only in and through the name of Christ, the Lord Omnipotent” (Mosiah 3:17).”

The second principle Elder Oaks introduced was that of the purpose of life, something most people worry about. For Mormons, the purpose of life is rooted in what happened before we were born. Mormons teach we lived with God prior to our births, as spirits, and that we agreed to come here to gain bodies and to be tested. Through the atonement and obedience to the commandments God and Jesus patiently taught, we can return to God’s presence someday.

Another purpose of life on earth is to gain a family. Mormons teach that family is not something created just for life on earth, to end in divorce at the end of life. Rather, the reason God made our feelings of love for our families so powerful was because He never intended for us to force that love out of our hearts when we arrive in Heaven, a place we will be happier than we ever imagined. To be truly happy, most of us need our families, and God planned that we could earn the right to have them with us for eternity. That provides a family-centeredness that is made more powerful by knowing it is forever.

Elder Oaks said, “My faithful widowed mother had no confusion about the eternal nature of the family relationship.  She always honored the position of our faithful deceased father.  She made him a presence in our home.  She spoke of the eternal duration of their temple marriage and of our destiny to be together as a family in the next life.  She often reminded us of what our father would like us to do so we could qualify for the Savior’s promise that we could be a family forever.  She never referred to herself as a widow, and it never occurred to me that she was.  To me, as a boy growing up, she wasn’t a widow.  She had a husband and we had a father.  He was just away for a while.”

Mormons teach that marriage and family are essential to God’s eternal plan. He planned for us to have families and taught the pattern for family life, a traditional family consisting of a mother, a father, and children.

Elder Oaks quoted the speaker of the previous year, who pointed out that congregations are assigned geographically. Mormons do not decide which congregation they wish to attend. This causes them to be diverse, racially, economically, and in other ways, including age. A middle-aged couple might find themselves in a congregation with many young college students. A wealthy member might be assigned to an inner-city congregation. As Mormons move or boundaries change, they learn to interact with and respect people of all ages, economic standings, races, and other ways of being different.

Mormons are also assigned church work, often placing them in positions with people very different from themselves. An organizational president might be just twenty-three years old, with counselors serving under her who are twice her age. They learn to respect the younger woman’s leadership, and the young president learns to respect the experience and wisdom of the older women. Today’s leader might be tomorrow’s nursery assistant. People aren’t promoted, but simply assigned to a variety of positions in a lifetime, some requiring them to lead and other positions requiring them to follow.

One unique aspect of Mormonism, addressed in the final principle of Elder Oak’s talk, is that of sources of truth. While Mormons accept many sources as a place to find truth—including science—they recognize some things can never be proven in a laboratory.

“We seek after knowledge, but we do so in a special way because we believe there are two dimensions of knowledge, material and spiritual.  We seek knowledge in the material dimension by scientific inquiry and in the spiritual dimension by revelation.”

Elder Oaks explained that Mormons believe in revelation. Throughout the Bible, we learn that God communicated with His children through prophets. Today, Mormons proclaim that prophecy has returned to earth, just as it often did in Biblical times after episodes of apostasy. A prophet heads the church and receives revelation from God to guide the church and the people.

However, individual people also have the right to receive revelation, not for the entire church, but for their own sphere of responsibility. A person can always turn to God to know whether or not the Church is true and the prophet speaks the words of God. Prospective members are counseled to avoid blind obedience and to instead pray and ask God whether or not what they’ve learned is true. After baptism, they are always free to again turn to God for confirmation of anything they aren’t sure of.

“Personal revelation—sometimes called “inspiration”—comes in many forms.  Most often it is by words or thoughts communicated to the mind, by sudden enlightenment, or by positive or negative feelings about proposed courses of action.  Usually it comes in response to earnest and prayerful seeking.  “Ask, and it shall be given you;” Jesus taught, “seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Matt. 7:7).  It comes when we keep the commandments of God and thus qualify for the companionship and communication of the Holy Spirit.”

This personal revelation is the reason Mormonism continues to grow and to produce a membership with unshakable faith. If a person takes advantage of God’s promises, really working to know the truth, and being patient, they develop an unshakable testimony in time.

Read the entire talk: Fundamental Premises of Our Faith.

Personal Response by Karen Trifiletti

You can know the truth for yourself. It is possible. It is more than possible. We were born to know our purpose and to live for it.

While there is a crisis of knowing in our day, truth is in fact knowable, and we have an inborn capacity to know and recognize the truth. That knowledge is discernible, and it is real and absolute. All knowledge is not, as many claim in our day, just a social construct or a relative idea, equal to every other. Truth matters. Truth exists. So you are on the right path if you desire in your mind and heart to know it. It comes to us through the voice of the Spirit, God’s voice to us, His children.

As we desire to know what is true, to find God, or learn about Him, we search for that knowledge by reading, thinking, pondering what we can find that pertains to that truth. We are enlightened in the process through the light of Jesus Christ, which brings understanding to us. We can recognize that burst of light as we connect ideas and thoughts in a way that exceeds our own ability and as we see that we feel and know has come to us from an outside source of revelation in a language we understand and that penetrates us in an unmistakably clear way. As we act on whatever we learn, we are guided further to greater light.

Ways to Find God & Know Truth

How to Pray: God Answers Prayers

If we desire to know if something is true, we can simply go to God in prayer, after having studied out the matter in our mind. We can kneel and talk candidly with our Father about our desire to know, the tentative conclusion we’ve formed about what we’ve read and studied, and then ask Him to confirm or refute the truthfulness of that matter. The Lord himself has outlined the pattern for us in Doctrine and Covenants, modern revelation given to us through the prophet Joseph Smith. In that book of scripture, the Lord indicates that after we have gone to Him in prayerful conversation, He will answer us. If what we are asking is correct, He will cause our “bosom to burn,” that is, He will give us a feeling of rightness within, a feeling that is recognizable and that grows as we continue to think on the response we’ve been given. If, on the other hand, what we are asking is incorrect, the Lord indicates that we will feel a “stupor of thought” which causes us to forget or not be able to dwell on the original conclusion we presented without confusion or lack of clarity. We can know in our mind and in our heart—through both witnesses—that an idea or course of action is true or false, right or wrong (Doctrine and Covenants 9:7-9).

I testify to you that this is the pattern of the Lord. As I’ve applied this in my life, I’ve felt His guiding hand directing me in work, home, and service. We don’t have to worry about our inability to hear Him as much as our willingness to hear the Lord’s promptings and answers. He can reveal His will to us. He knows perfectly well how to reach us. If we ask Him to make it clear to us, if we humbly acknowledge that we are new to the process, He will respond generously. For he has said, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not” (James 1: 5).

Elder Dallin H. Oaks, apostle of the Lord, spoke specifically about knowing the truth or gaining a personal testimony in his recent address at the 178^th General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (See below).

Additional Resources:

Dallin H. Oaks, General Conference broadcast transcript, forthcoming, April, 2008 at www.lds.org.