Religious Freedom: The right to Believe and to Act Upon Your Beliefs

 It seems that religious freedom is under attack these days. Our American history is short, but not long ago their were those who came from far accross the sea to settle on this continent in hopes to be free from religious persecution. The thing about religious freedom is that it is broad in scope. It protects the right to believe or not to believe the way one's conscience dictates. It is not only the ability to believe that is protected, but the ability to act and direct one's life according to one's belief. It requires civility and tolerance from all citizens. It requires an attitude to let one live according to beliefs that may not be your own.

I found a series of six short articles that outline a discussion on different aspects of religious freedom. It seems in our day and age that though we have a world of information at our fingertips, we are ignorant of our past. It is important to know how our great nation came to be and why it was born in the first.

Below are a few exerts from the series which I would encourage you to read. Knowledge is power after all.


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* “Conflict and debate are vital to democracy. Yet if controversies about religion and politics are to reflect the highest wisdom of the First Amendment and advance the best interests of the disputants and the nation, then how we debate, and not only what we debate, is critical.” — The Williamsburg Charter[1]

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*  "Such protection [of Religious Freedom] is the responsibility of all citizens who value their freedom and recognize that one’s own freedoms are only as secure as those of others."

 "The Rest of Religious Freedom
But while these private and inward activities are vital parts of religious freedom, they do not encompass the whole of it. Religious freedom is actually much broader and deeper than this description suggests. More fundamentally, religious freedom — akin to “freedom of conscience” — is the human right to think and believe and also to express and act upon what one deeply believes according to the dictates of his or her moral conscience. This freedom applies to those who adhere to religious beliefs and those who do not.
The full picture of religious freedom reveals a deep liberty that goes much further than the right to believe as one chooses and that extends well beyond the right to private devotion in one’s place of worship or home. Indeed, religious freedom is not merely interior and private, to be enjoyed internally in our minds and in the privacy of personal life. It also incorporates the right to act according to one’s moral beliefs and convictions. And more than the freedom to worship privately, it is the right to to live one’s faith freely and in public.
Beliefs lead to actions, and freedom to believe, without the ability to act on that belief within the bounds of law, is no freedom at all. Most will agree that moral and religious beliefs don’t mean much if they don’t influence the way we live. In other words, we expect religious beliefs to influence the way that people behave, how they raise families and how they treat others. And indeed, religious freedom protects the right of individuals to act in line with their religious beliefs and moral convictions. Religious freedom does not merely enable us to contemplate our convictions; it enables us to execute them.
Because of this, religion cannot be confined to the sphere of private life. Certainly religious freedom protects the rights of individuals to observe their religion within the walls of private spaces. But religious and moral speech is also protected in the free air of the public domain. Whether in the town hall, in the newspaper column, on the Internet or elsewhere in the public sphere, people with moral convictions are entitled by their religious freedom to share those convictions, to reason and persuade, and to advocate their vision for society.
Research suggests, in fact, that religious people in the United States contribute to, enrich and improve society. They tend to demonstrate a disproportionate level of social virtues like neighborliness, generosity, service and civic engagement. Hence it is not only required by religious freedom for religious people and their voices to be welcome in the public sphere; it strengthens the civic fabric of society.[2]"

An introduction to Religious Freedom, Find part one here: 
What Religious Freedom Means, Find part 2 here: 
Why We Need Religious Freedom, Find part three here:
Why Religious Freedom Matters to Mormons, Find part four here:
 How Religion is Vital to Society, Find part five here:  
What Religious Freedom Requires of US, Find part 6 here:

I hope you find it all as interesting as I did.