The Human Dimension of Religious Freedom

The purpose of a society is to assist us in fulfilling the measure of our creation. The goal of religious freedom is the flowering of the God-given human potential in all of us.

Neil L. Andersen
Sixth Annual Conference of the African Consortium for Law and Religion Studies (ACLARS) – May 20, 2018
Religious Freedom & Business Religion in the Public Sphere

I feel honored to address this important gathering which includes so many distinguished thinkers in academia, government, and religion. It is a privilege for me to be here with you today as we begin this conference. As someone who represents a global faith community, I see firsthand the extensive benefits of religion in the lives of individuals and societies. So I thank you for dedicating the next few days to a topic of such fundamental value.

With so many brilliant minds assembled here, the legal discipline will be on full display. But let us always remember the human dimension of law. This duality is expressed in the title of the conference. Law gives order, sets boundaries, establishes norms, teaches and incentivizes proper conduct. It is recorded in books and endlessly interpreted to solve current problems. Law is the frame that shapes our actions. But flourishing is an organic term. It focuses on living things and gives life to the dead letter. It shares a root with the word “flower” and means blossoming, bloom, and ornamentation. Flourishing is about health and beauty. Plants and animals grow according to the design of their nature. And when the environment cooperates, organisms flourish. But the natural world is fragile and prone to decay. It needs caretakers.

Human beings are complex spiritual creatures, not mechanical subjects of law. We flourish under the right societal circumstances. Law must be accompanied by a culture of nurture, trust, and gentleness. Flourishing involves vigor, energy, vitality, and inspiration, but not the heavy-handedness of governments or social majorities. The purpose of a society is to assist us in fulfilling the measure of our creation. The goal of religious freedom is the flowering of the God-given human potential in all of us. My religion teaches that our human potential is greater than we can imagine and that God wants us to discover ourselves and blossom into who we can become, individually and as communities. But this spiritual flourishing requires legal flourishing. The two need each other.


The Connection between Freedom and Religion

Religious freedom is the soil that makes the flower of civilization possible. It frees up room for people to live life, do good works, explore meaning and purpose, raise families according to one’s beliefs, serve their communities, and share hearts with neighbors. The human good is inextricably linked to a spiritual good. We all, in one way or another, strive for freedom of the soul.

First, let’s define it. Religious freedom is a fundamental human right that protects the conscience of all people. It allows us to think, express and act upon what we deeply believe. Religious freedom safeguards the right of all people to hold their own religious beliefs and express them openly without fear of persecution or being denied equal rights of citizenship. It ensures that people can freely choose or change their religion, teach their faith to their children, receive and disseminate religious information, gather with others to worship and participate in the ceremonies and practices of their faith. It protects individuals from discrimination in employment, housing and other basic services, and prevents people from being denied the right to have a business, occupation or professional license based on their religion.

Laws may vary according to the government, culture and values of a particular country, but the yearning for freedom remains constant in all of us. Implanted in every human heart is the desire for respect, humane treatment and the space to practice beliefs alone or in a community of believers. In this way religious freedom has the force of a fundamental human right, grounded in human expectations even before laws are made.

For billions of believers around the world, religion is what defines us. It’s what gives us meaning and brings us joy. It sustains us when times are difficult. Full human flourishing is unlikely without religion. While in many Western societies people point to a declining role for religion — as more and more people identify themselves as unaffiliated or “spiritual but not religious” — that doesn’t hold true for most of the world. In fact, according to a recent study in Demographic Research, social scientists were wrong to predict the demise of religion. The study and a related Pew Research Center report show that people who identify as religiously unaffiliated will drop to just 13 percent of the world’s population in 2050.1


The Social and Spiritual Ecosystem

In what kind of environment does religious freedom flourish?

Political scientist Samuel Huntington said that of all the elements that define civilizations, “the most important usually is religion.”2 So it’s no surprise that religious differences have sometimes contributed to conflicts around the world. But the solution is to let differences flourish, not to stifle them. Studies show that protecting the varieties of religious practice and expression correlates strongly with greater civil and political liberties, greater press and economic freedoms, fewer armed conflicts, better health outcomes, higher levels of income, better education for women and higher overall human development.3

Minds as different as the French Enlightenment thinker Voltaire and the English Catholic thinker Thomas More both believed that civic and religious peace in a pluralistic society is more likely if all religious parties tolerate each other instead of trying to dominate over one another. Voltaire put it memorably: “If there were only one religion … there would be danger of despotism, if there were two, they would cut each other’s throats, but there are thirty, and they live in peace and happiness.”4

Countries with more religious freedom have more peace. And countries with less religious freedom have less peace. 5 But peace is more than the absence of conflict. Peace is the habit of engaging differences, the practice of negotiating disagreements between neighbors. It’s a culture of fairmindedness. And religious freedom provides the framework that helps us negotiate conflicts in society. This freedom reduces fear in society and communicates that people will be safe in their fundamental beliefs.

Professor Nilay Saiya explains why this is important: “Religious freedom encourages peaceful religious forms of activity by creating space for religious groups to practice their faith freely, bring their religiously-informed ideas to the public square, make positive contributions to society, and engage in debate through open channels of discourse, thus allowing diverse perspectives to be heard and depriving extremists the ability to win the battle for hearts and minds by default.”6

These principles benefit everyone, not just the powerful. Religious freedom protects individuals and groups in society who are weak, vulnerable, outnumbered or unpopular. It checks the power of authoritarian regimes and counters the prejudices and excesses of social majorities. Religious freedom creates an atmosphere where refugees and migrants feel more welcome to integrate and contribute to society. Acting on their beliefs, religious communities are in a good position to help the stranger.

Reciprocity and empathy in society are vital because the majority and the minority often trade places. What is popular at one time becomes unpopular at another. The cultural or religious group that enjoys privilege today may lose it tomorrow. Power is not permanent. So, a religious freedom that protects the little guy is also the best security for the big guy. Safety is not in numbers; safety is in justice. Therefore, religious freedom only for some is really religious freedom for none.7

Religious freedom is a universal human right available to everyone. According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, every person, regardless of religion, race, gender or nationality, possesses rights simply by being human. They include the right to life, liberty, security, equal protection of the law and the freedom of thought, speech and religion. But this bundle of interconnected rights would unravel without the moral meaning and human obligations that religion creates. In order to work, human rights require human responsibilities and obligations toward one another in our communities.

Human society has an unavoidable moral dimension. The pursuit of truth, the desire for meaning and the search for transcendence belong to no particular church, culture, political party, or country. These, rather, are the common aspirations of all human beings. We all occupy the same public space and want the same right to voice our beliefs. Religious freedom should protect all who care about matters of ultimate concern and promote the common good.8

Our freedoms do not stand in isolation from one another, but work together in the public square. The free exercise of religion has more meaning when people are allowed to freely associate with whom they please. And freedom of speech only makes sense when the beliefs behind that speech are also protected. We fail when people dare not speak their minds or practice their faith because of intolerance or intimidation. Society is a delicate ecosystem that requires a partnership between just laws and caring hearts.9

In this way, religious freedom builds social trust, fosters civility, ennobles public dialogue, and puts us in a mindset to understand our neighbors.


Religion Helps Families Flourish

In the next few minutes, I would like to provide data points about how religion helps human beings flourish. Let’s start with the family.10 The health of society always starts at the bottom. And everything grows up from the root of family relationships. It is on this foundation that communities receive their strength and vitality.

Numerous international studies have shown that valuing and regularly practicing religion is “associated with greater marital stability, higher levels of marital satisfaction, and an increased likelihood that an individual will be inclined to marry.” 11 Sociological studies and literature reviews going back over half a century indicate that religious attendance is the single most important predictor of marital stability. 12 In this way, we see that a religious congregation, which often serves as a social anchor in local communities, cooperates with the family unit and they both reinforce the purpose and strength of the other.

Of course every marriage is complex and has its own story and dynamic, but research has shown that couples who acknowledge a divine purpose in their marriage are more likely to collaborate, to have greater marital adjustment, and to perceive more benefits from marriage.13 They are also less likely to use aggression or to come to a stalemate in their disagreements,14 and the rates of domestic violence among religious couples are lower than those of non-religious couples.15

Among couples whose marriages lasted 30 years or more, a significant number reported that their faith was a source of moral guidance in times of conflict, that their faith helped them to deal with relationship difficulties, and that their faith encouraged them to maintain their commitment to their marriages.16

Children are safer and thrive better in families led by a religious mother and father whose faith inspires them to make personal sacrifices for the strength and happiness of their marriage and children. Children raised in religious homes are less likely to experience anxiety, loneliness, low self-esteem, and sadness.17 Religious practice correlates with reduced rates of youth depression18 and suicide.19

Highly religious adults are more engaged with family, more likely to volunteer, and are happier overall.20 Parents who attend religious services are more likely to enjoy strong, healthy relationships with their children,21 and the greater a child’s religious involvement, the greater their emotional closeness to their parents will be.22


Religion Helps Communities Flourish

Religious individuals and communities are uniquely situated to help solve problems in society. Churches are behind a lot of the homeless shelters, soup kitchens, hospitals, schools, youth programs, disaster relief, humanitarian aid and countless other efforts that benefit society. Simply put, religion builds social capital. The rich resources, humane virtues, local generosity and human connections that religion fosters can accomplish things that other organizations cannot. Churches seek the common good by invigorating communities through local associations of support.

Religion has a tendency to nudge people out of their comfort zones and think of others. In fact, this is the key to happiness in life. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks said it beautifully: “Many, perhaps all, of the world’s great religions teach their adherents the importance of making sacrifices for the sake of others, through charity, hospitality, visiting the sick, helping the needy, giving comfort to those in crisis, bringing moments of moral beauty into what might otherwise be harsh and lonely lives.”23

People are more likely to reach out to their fellow human beings when they feel free to draw upon their belief system. Religious people contribute to society because of their obligation to God and conscience, not out of privilege, superiority or reward. The mettle of religious conviction is tested by how we respond to suffering. Human beings have a natural impulse to help those in need. And whether the problem is poverty, hunger or disease, people of faith feel a particular call to serve.24 The “secret ingredient” to charitable giving among the religious, says one scholar, is “the social networks formed within religious congregations.”25 One study shows that people of faith are 40 percent more likely than nonreligious people to give money to charities and more than twice as likely to volunteer their service to community organizations.26

It has been shown that highly religious people are more likely to volunteer not only for religious causes but also for secular ones.27 And religious people are three times more likely than the secular to contribute to charities and to volunteer each month.28

Charity is not a monopoly of the religious, but people who are situated in congregations have resources and social habits that make charity easier. More than 90% of those who attend weekly worship services donate to charity, and nearly 70% of them volunteer for charitable causes.29

Such service helps reduce the financial burdens on governments because it is generally provided without charge. Religious aid that would otherwise have to be carried out by government agencies includes refugee assistance, child and foster care services, job training and other employment-related services, counseling and mental health support, literacy and mentoring programs, crime and substance abuse prevention, legal representation, assistance to victims and families of criminal offenders, and services for the homeless.30

Our world needs all the help it can get. And it doesn’t matter who gives more; the humanitarian enterprise is not a competition. Natural disasters, war, environmental degradation and lack of education have always been a part of the human experience. In such circumstances, people cannot take care of their own needs. Governments, nonprofit organizations, corporations, charities and philanthropists make an immense contribution. But they can’t do it all. In many places, religious organizations are already integrated in local communities and provide ready-to-go communication structures and delivery mechanisms. What they may lack in size and funding they make up for in human capital and relationships.31


Religion Helps Nations Flourish

Religion is the ground on which nations and cultures are built. We inherit religion as a reservoir from which all society can draw. The language of law and politics retains a moral grammar. Our understanding of rights and duties borrows from religious ideals. Our most cherished holidays and collective celebrations carry religious meaning. Behind many of our community pledges stand the devotions of a congregation. Though religion has no monopoly on morality, it does condition our common environment and shape our notions of right and wrong.32 Reflecting on what they called “the lessons of history,” scholars Will and Ariel Durant asserted, “There is no significant example in history, before our time, of a society successfully maintaining moral life without the aid of religion.”33

Religious presence has a cultivating effect on human interactions. Multiple studies show that religion fosters trust, which is a necessary ingredient for social cohesion and economic growth.34 Trust between individuals and organizations affects a nation’s economic performance. A leading economist at the World Bank explained: “At the micro level, social ties and interpersonal trust can reduce transaction costs, enforce contracts, and facilitate credit at the level of individual investors. At the macro level, social cohesion underlying trust may strengthen democratic governance, improve the efficiency and honesty of public administration, and improve the quality of economic policies.”35

Italian social scientists have identified a direct link between religious belief and trust: “We find that on average religion is associated positively with attitudes that are conducive to free markets and better institutions. Religious people trust others more, trust the government and the legal system more, are less willing to break the law, and are more likely to believe that the markets’ outcomes are fair.”36

Respected American sociologists Robert Putnam and David Campbell explain the trust factor for people of faith: “Perhaps because they spend time with trustworthy people, or perhaps because their faith encourages them to look on the brighter side of things, religious people themselves are more trusting of just about everybody than are secular people.”37

As one writer has noted: “Being able to trust people might seem like a pleasant luxury, but economists are starting to believe that it’s rather more important than that. Trust is about more than whether you can leave your house unlocked; it is responsible for the difference between the richest countries and the poorest.”38


Religious Freedom on the Global Scene

As the theme of this conference recognizes, strong religious values are essential to creating healthy societies. And because religion is important, protecting the freedom to practice religion is important. This freedom helps governments to better serve their people and societies to more fully flourish.

Of course, religious freedom is not absolute. Today and throughout history some people have done terrible things in the name of religion — terrorism, racial violence, murder, theft, abuse. The law rightfully prohibits such activities and puts safeguards in place to prevent them. Religious freedom does not include the right to be violent, endanger public safety or health, steal or damage property or prey upon the weak.

Fortunately, such abuses are an exception to the generally decent behavior or religious people and groups, most of whom desire only the freedom to live out their beliefs in dignity and peace. Legal limits on religious exercise should be imposed only when necessary to protect truly vital interest.

Religion is beneficial to society when it’s freely chosen — neither restricted nor coerced. That’s why nurturing religious freedom is so important. A groundbreaking study39 released in 2014 by researchers at Georgetown University and Brigham Young University looked at GDP growth for 173 countries in 2011, controlling for two dozen different financial, social, and regulatory influences, and found that the presence of religious freedom in a country is one of only three factors significantly associated with global economic growth.40

What this study found is that freedom of religion or belief is good for business. It contributes to better economic and business outcomes. Additional analysis41 by Brian Grim, one of the authors of the study who also serves as chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Role of Faith, cites a number of ways in which religious freedom does this. I’ll mention three in particular:

First, the presence of religious freedom is associated with lower levels of corruption. Corruption has a corrosive effect on society, weakening public trust in leaders and institutions and impoverishing entire economies. The absence of corruption, on the other hand, is often cited as one of the key ingredients necessary for sustainable economic development. But a comparison of data available through the Pew Research Center finds that eight of the ten countries listed as most corrupt in the world are also the countries identified by Pew as having high or very high governmental restrictions on religious freedom.

Second, Grim points to a growing body of research clearly demonstrating that the existence of religious freedom in society fosters peace. Mostly that’s because the protection of religious freedom helps reduce incidents of religion-related violence and conflict. And in societies where religious freedom is not respected and protected, the result is often sadly the opposite — there’s an increase in violence and more frequent conflicts disrupting the everyday economic activities essential for business to flourish. As Grim points out, “Religious hostilities and restrictions create climates that can drive away local and foreign investment, undermine sustainable development, and disrupt huge sectors of economies.”

Third, religious freedom encourages broader freedoms. Significant empirical evidence points to a strong correlation between the presence of religious freedom and other freedoms, along with a variety of positive social and economic outcomes ranging from better health care to higher incomes for women. Religious freedom, freedom of the press, freedom of association, and freedom of speech tend to “rise or fall together.”

Where religious freedom is respected and protected, society overall is more stable, safer and more prosperous.


Conclusion

My fellow travelers in the cause of peace, stability, and freedom, let human flourishing be the vision we take back to our communities and promote in each of our own capacities. It is the destination and the journey of life, something we strive to practice and something we aim to teach. In this effort, may we remember both the guiding frame of the law and the delicate ways of the heart. After all, the governments, political bodies, nations, societies, and religions of this big world all have their root in the complex beauty and aspiration for freedom in the individual. It is my belief that we can all work together and be friends in a common vision of flourishing.

Thank you.

  1. “The future size of religiously affiliated and unaffiliated populations,” Demographic Research, V. 32 Article 27, Conrad Hackett, Marcin Stonawski, Michaela Potancokova, Brian J. Grim, Vegard, Skirbeckk (April 2015).

  2. Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (1996), 42.

  3. See Brian J. Grim, Roger Finke, The Price of Freedom Denied (2011), 206.

  4. See Brian J. Grim, Roger Finke, The Price of Freedom Denied (2011), 3.

  5. “Five Key Questions Answered on the Link Between Peace and Religion,” Institute for Economics and Peace in conjunction with the Religious Freedom and Business Foundation, 17–18.

  6. Nilay Saiya, “Does Religious Liberty Encourage or Curb Faith-Based Terrorism?” Religious Freedom Institute, July 12, 2016.

  7. See “A Bridge Between the Strong and the Weak,” MormonNewsroom.org, Feb. 15, 2017

  8. See “Where Religious and Secular Meet,” MormonNewsroom.org, July 5, 2017.

  9. See “Civil Society: Faith in the Public Square,” MormonNewsroom.org, June 8, 2016.

  10. The data and language of this section regarding family are drawn from an address given by Elder D. Todd Christofferson entitled “The Good that Religion Does,” given on August 14, 2017 in Pune, India.

  11. See Patrick F. Fagan, “Why Religion Matters Even More: The Impact of Religious Practice on Social Stability,” Backgrounder, Dec. 18, 2006, 1, 13.

  12. See David B. Larson, Susan S. Larson, and John Gartner, “Families, Relationships and Health,” Behavior and Medicine (1990), 135.

  13. See Andrew J. Weaver, Judith A. Samford, Virginia J. Morgan, David B. Larson, Harold G. Koenig, and Kevin J. Flannelly, “A Systematic Review of Research on Religion in Six Primary Marriage and Family Journals: 1995– 1999,” American Journal of Family Therapy (2002), 293.

  14. See Weaver, Samford, Morgan, Larson, Koenig, and Flannelly, “A Systematic Review of Research on Religion in Six Primary Marriage and Family Journals: 1995–1999,” 293.

  15. See Christopher G. Ellison and Kristin L. Anderson, “Religious Involvement and Domestic Violence Among U.S. Couples,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, vol. 40 (2001), 269.

  16. See Linda C. Robinson, “Marital Strengths in Enduring Marriages,” Family Relations, vol. 42 (1993), 38.

  17. See Byron R. Johnson, Ralph Brett Tompkins, and Derek Webb, “Objective Hope—Assessing the Effectiveness of Faith-Based Organizations: A Systematic Review of the Literature,” Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, Center for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society
    (2002), http://www.manhattaninstitute.org/pdf/crrucs_objective_hope.pdf.

  18. See Loyd S. Wright, Christopher J. Frost, and Stephen J. Wisecarver, “Church Attendance, Meaningfulness of Religion, and Depressive Symptomatology Among Adolescents,” Journal of Youth & Adolescence, vol. 22 (1993), 559.

  19. See Johnson, Tompkins, and Webb, “Objective Hope—Assessing the Effectiveness of Faith-Based Organizations.”

  20. See “Religion in Everyday Life,” Pew Research Center, April 12, 2016.

  21. See Lisa D. Pearce and William G. Axinn, “The Impact of Family Religious Life on the Quality of Mother–Child Relations,” American Sociological Review, vol. 63 (Dec. 1998), 810.

  22. See William S. Aquilino, “Two Views of One Relationship: Comparing Parents’ and Young Adult Children’s Reports of the Quality of Intergenerational Relations,” Journal of Marriage and Family, vol. 61 (Nov. 1999), 858.

  23. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, “Role of Religion in Society in the United Kingdom,” www.rabbisacks.org, Nov. 22, 2012.

  24. See “The Humanitarian Impulse,” MormonNewsroom, Jan. 21, 2015.

  25. David E. Campbell, “It’s Social Ties — Not Religion — That Makes the Faithful Give to Charity,” Time, Nov. 26, 2013.

  26. See Arthur C. Brooks, “Compassion, Religion, and Politics,” The Public Interest, Sept. 22, 2004, 57, 59.

  27. Robert D. Putnam and David E. Campbell, American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us (2012), 13.

  28. See Brooks, “Compassion, Religion, and Politics,” 61.

  29. See Arthur C. Brooks, “Religious Faith and Charitable Giving,” Policy Review, Oct. 2003, http://www.hoover.org/research/religious-faith-and-charitable-giving; see also Putnam and Campbell, American Grace.

  30. See 81 Fed. Reg. 64 (April 4, 2016). This data was drawn from an address given by Elder D. Todd Christofferson entitled “The Good that Religion Does,” given on August 14, 2017 in Pune, India.

  31. See “The Humanitarian Impulse,” MormonNewsroom, Jan. 21, 2015.

  32. See “Why Religion Matters: The Salt of Society,” MormonNewsroom, April 24, 2014.

  33. Will and Ariel Durant, The Lessons of History (1996), 51.

  34. See, for example, Luigi Guiso, Paola Sapienza, and Luigi Zingales, “People’s Opium? Religion and Economic Attitudes,” Journal of Monetary Economics, vol. 50 (2003), 225; Robert D. Putnam and David E. Campbell, American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us (2012), 460–61.

  35. Stephen Knack, Trust, Associational Life and Economic Performance, HRDC-OECD International Symposium on the Contribution of Investment in Human and Social Capital to Sustained Economic Growth and Well-Being, http://www.oecd.org/innovation/research/1825662.pdf.

  36. Guiso, Sapienza, and Zingales, “People’s Opium?” 227.

  37. Putnam and Campbell, American Grace, 460–61. This data was drawn from an address given by Elder D. Todd Christofferson entitled “The Good that Religion Does,” given on August 14, 2017 in Pune, India.

  38. Tim Harford, “The Economics of Trust,’ Forbes, July 21, 2010.

  39. “Is Religious Freedom Good for Business? A Conceptual and Empirical Analysis,” Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion, Brian J. Grim, Georgetown University Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs; Greg Clark and Robert Edward Snyder, Brigham Young University International Center for Law and Religion Studies; 2014.

  40. The other two factors were monetary policy and a previous five-year history of GDP growth.

  41. “Seven Reasons Why Religious Freedom is Good for Business,” Brian Grim, Religious Freedom and Business Foundation, May 2014