"After two centuries, every nation in the world except six have adopted written constitutions, and the United States Constitution was the model for all of them... Consequently, if we abandon or weaken its fundamental principle, we betray our own national ideals and we also weaken our global neighbors."
Perhaps in the struggle to defend religious liberty for our churches and for all Americans, our greatest weapon is neither the voting booth nor the legal brief but the prayers that we and our worshipping communities lift up to Almighty God week after week on behalf of our nation.
"Religious freedom has always been at risk. It was repression of religious belief and practice that drove the Pilgrim fathers and other dissenters to the shores of this continent. Even today, leaders in all too many nations use state power to repress religious believers."
In this heartfelt address, Elder Quentin L. Cook expresses profound gratitude for the legal community, weaving personal anecdotes and familial influences into reflections on the value of legal education. Emphasizing the importance of religious freedom, he calls on lawyers to actively engage in public discourse, advocating for righteous principles while upholding their faith.
Part of “redemption’s mystery” is our paradoxical—and yet ultimately not paradoxical—obligation to respect and love and protect the rights of others not of our faith.
It is clear that the Lord is preparing the earth for His second coming. May we appreciate the day in which we live.
What may appear to be limits on academic freedom derived from the religious nature of the institution actually provide additional freedoms. It is imperative that we not mimic the research and teaching choices of our colleagues at other universities without first using the measuring rod of the gospel.
From a talk given 19 July 1992 at a Pioneer Day fireside at Weber State University, Ogden, Utah.
The establishment of religious liberty was not easy. The struggle to separate church and state by eliminating mandatory support of state religions was longer and more intense in New England than in any other section of the United States
The combined doctrine of God’s foreknowledge and of foreordination is one of the doctrinal roads least traveled by, yet these clearly underline how very long and how perfectly God has loved us and known us with our individual needs and capacities.