Highlight: An Introduction to Religious Freedom

“A free society committed to religious freedom and freedom of conscience means that all its members are vigilant in protecting the freedoms of each other. Maintaining this most basic of human freedoms and the harmony it brings is imperative for us all.” So concludes a recent article published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS). The article titled “An Introduction to Religious Freedom” is a “broad introduction for a forthcoming series of articles on religious freedom”. I look forward to reading the series.

Judging by the related links accompanying this article in the LDS Newsroom, educational emphasis on religious freedom is a current priority of the LDS church:

• “Apostle Says Religious Freedom is Being Threatened” – 13 Oct 2009
  
  
• "Religious Values in the Public Square" - 15 Dec 2010
  
  
• “Apostle Emphasizes the Importance of Religious Freedom to Society” – 4 Feb 2011
  
  
• “Selected Beliefs and Statements on Religious Freedom of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints” – 4 Feb 2011
  
  
• “The Case of Religious Freedom” – 25 May 2011
  
  
• “Religion and Freedom” – 1 Jul 2011
  
  
• “Elder Quinton L. Cook Delivers Speech on morality and Religious Freedom” – 16 Dec 2011

“An Introduction to Religious Freedom” first establishes that freedom of religion “is not simply the freedom to worship or to believe the way one chooses...neither is it just for religious people”, but rather it “is the human right to think, act upon and express what one deeply believes, according to the dictates of his or her moral conscience”. The article further states that religious freedom is “the preeminent freedom in the U.S. Bill of Rights... the first among other essential liberties ...often referred to as the 'first freedom'. It is characterized this way because it enables and protects other human freedoms, like freedom of speech. Indeed, the culture of liberty and peaceful democracy in the United States in large part emerged from its firm respect for religious freedom".

After a brief discussion on “Religious freedom and society” and “Mormons and religious freedom”, the article gets to heart of why this topic deserves the recent emphasis given it by the LDS church:

“Challenges to religious freedom are emerging from many sources. Emerging advocacy for gay rights threatens to abridge religious freedom in a number of ways. Changes in health care threaten the rights of those who hold certain moral convictions about human life. These and other developments are producing conflict and beginning to impose on religious organizations and people of conscience. They are threatening, for instance, to restrict how religious organizations can manage their employment and their property. They are bringing about the coercion of religiously-affiliated universities, schools and social-service entities. They are also resulting in reprimands to individuals who act in line with their principles — from health practitioners and other professionals to parents. In these and in many other circumstances, we see how religious freedom and freedom of conscience are being subtly but steadily eroded. And of equal concern, the legal provisions emerging to safeguard these freedoms are often shallow — protecting these liberties only in the narrowest sense. In many aspects of public life, religious freedom and freedom of conscience are being drawn into conflicts that may suppress them".

The article's conclusion leads off: “Religious freedom, or “freedom of conscience,” has long been the bedrock of democracy. Long buried and taken for granted, it is now an elevated concern. There is need for Americans ... to become reacquainted with this freedom and recommitted to it".

Amen.

Don’t assume someone else will preserve your “first freedom”. It will surely die the death of a thousand cuts if patriots fail to stay on top of current issues, identify where and how liberty is under assault, and unite together in its defense.

An Educated and Moral Citizenry Needed to Preserve Liberty

I first saw this picture on the Drudge Report. It shows what the Washington Mall looked like after the crowds attending President Obama’s inauguration departed. (What happened to the Woodsy the Owl campaign to “help keep America looking good” anyway?) Dumbfounded, I was saddened to see this evidence that increasingly more of our citizens do not live by the Golden Rule, expecting others to serve them and clean up their messes. Am I making too much out of this? Does this not really indicate anything about the basic values held by those capital litterbugs? I'll let you be the judge.

I use this introduction to tee up some of my favorite quotes from wise men who expounded on the links between public morality, education, and the preservation of liberty:

“No people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffused and Virtue is preserved. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauched in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders.” – Samuel Adams in a letter to James Warren, November 4, 1775

Bad men cannot make good citizens. It is when a people forget God that tyrants forge their chains. A vitiated state of morals, a corrupted public conscience, is incompatible with freedom. No free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue; and by a frequent recurrence to fundamental principles. – Patrick Henry

“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice ? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

“It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to every species of free government. Who that is a sincere friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric?

“Promote then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.” – George Washington in his farewell address.

“Too many Americans have lost sight of the truth that God is our source of freedom—the Lawgiver—and that personal righteousness is the most important essential to preserving our freedom. So, I say with all the energy of my soul that unless we as citizens of this nation forsake our sins, political and otherwise, and return to the fundamental principles of Christianity and of constitutional government, we will lose our political liberties, our free institutions, and will stand in jeopardy before God.” – Ezra Taft Benson, October 1979

"We are involved in an intense battle. It is a battle between right and wrong, between truth and error, between the design of the Almighty on the one hand and that of Lucifer on the other. For that reason, we desperately need moral men and women who stand on principle, to be involved in the political process. Otherwise, we abdicate power to those whose designs are almost entirely selfish." – Gordon B. Hinckley in "Stand a little Taller", pg. 15, July 2001

SOCIALISM: The Core of the Health Care Debate

Being stationed overseas sometimes makes it challenging to keep abreast of the latest political and social debates and developments back home. I spent some time this Labor Day weekend catching up on the health care debate in congress. It appears that the proponents of nationalized health care are on the ropes, so patriots need to maintain the momentum and defeat their cause. There are many well meaning citizens in our country that support nationalized health care because no one has yet laid bare the real issues and exposed the fallacies in the health care debate. Nationalized health care is not charitable, is calculated to increase dependency on government, and significantly erodes the freedom established by our Founding Fathers, furthering our nation’s decline towards the absolute despotism of a socialist government.

The prophet Ether wrote, “…when ye shall see these things come among you …awake to a sense of your awful situation, for it cometh to pass that whoso buildeth it up seeketh to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries; and it bringeth to pass the destruction of all people, for it is built up by the devil, who is the father of all lies;" (Ether 8:24-25).

The big fallacy, I mean lie, perpetrated in the health care debate is that since it is good to take care of the poor and needy, a public health care system must be good. This is the same argument used in the War in Heaven – Satan’s position was that he could bring to pass a great good if no one had free agency and he forced them to keep the commandments. Satan spoke of lofty goals, but power and control were his real goals.

Nationalized health care is about force and control – granting more power to the government to forcibly take the fruit of one person’s labor, and control it’s disposition. This is not charity. Jesus commands men to follow his example and be charitable, but allows them the freedom to choose.

Watch the following clip and think about the main points that Milton Friedman attempts to teach Phil Donahue’s audience:



Clip Summary:

There is a difference between greed and self interest.

Socialism has failed to deliver on its promise to eliminate poverty to every nation who embraced it.

More people rise out of poverty when societies are free and citizens rely on their own industry instead of government doles.

There are no “angels” in our government we should trust any more control or power to than our constitution grants them.

The prophet Ether warned that, “… whatsoever nation shall uphold such secret combinations, to get power and gain, until they shall spread over the nation, behold, they shall be destroyed;” (Ether 8:22).

Some of our citizens support the idea of nationalized health care because they haven’t adequately considered the Christian implications of forced charity. Others do so because they want power and gain – power over someone else’s money for their gain. Many ignore the commonsense realities of the law of the harvest and desire to get something for nothing, or more for less. Many that are currently on the government dole desire to stay on it, and not earn their own way. Many politicians want to increase their political power by making the citizenry increasingly more reliant on government solutions and increasingly less reliant on themselves. Most disturbing to me are the many that desire to divorce their aging parents with their health care problems and force society to pay for them. This in turn creates many who realize that they have not provided for their own future healthcare needs, cannot rely on their own offspring to tend to them in their waning years, and therefore desire that government forcibly take money from others in society to pay for what they and their thankless children cannot or will not.

Patriots should ensure that the debate on nationalized health care is centered on our national decline towards the despotism of socialism. The core of the issue has always been about greed, lusting for control over the fruit of another's labor; in a word, socialism. Wherever this greed exists, we should expose it and not allow someone to camouflage it with altruistic platitudes.