Religious Free Exercise

Going Forward with Religious Freedom & Nondiscrimination

“We should accept the reality that we are fellow citizens who need each other."

JRCLS National Meeting

All that is necessary for unity in a helpful coalition is a common belief that there is a right and wrong in human behavior that has been established by a Supreme Being.  All who believe that should unite to preserve and strengthen the freedom to advocate and practice our separate religious beliefs, whatever they are. 

Religious Freedom in a Pluralistic Society

“This point of course contradicts the contention that religion is mostly a matter of history without significance in modern times, or, more ominously, that religion is irrational and discriminatory and therefore should be diminished in both public expression and influence. Far from relics of the past, religious principles and religious believers are a vital present and future force everywhere.”

Religious Freedom and the Habits of the Heart

That makes the present moment an even more appropriate time to remember and to clarify the kind of religion that has given the entire Western world its core sense of human freedom—not just religious freedom, but all political and personal freedom. That civilized sense of religion is so essential to our history, to our constitutional theory, and to the sustaining of successful democracy that we must never let it be confused with radically evil movements that brazenly carry religious flags today.

Challenges to Religious Freedom

"[The protection of conscience] helps people from a wide spectrum of beliefs feel assured that their deepest concerns and values are respected and protected."

Preserving Religious Freedom

"It is imperative that those of us who believe in God and in the reality of right and wrong unite more effectively to protect our religious freedom to preach and practice our faith in God."

Watchmen on the Tower, Religious Freedom in a Secular Age