Deep Like the Pacific

Elder Dallin H. Oaks gave a speech on the state of religious freedoms in the United States.

http://beta-newsroom.lds.org/article/elder-oaks-religious-freedom-Chapman-University

It's deep. And very insightful.

I like it.

Here's a quote:

“All of this shows an alarming trajectory of events pointing toward constraining the freedom of religious speech by forcing it to give way to the ‘rights’ of those offended by such speech.” -Dallin H. Oaks

Here's another:

" I took sad notice of the fact that the United States Supreme Court had diminished the significance of free exercise by expanding the definition of religion to include what the Court called “religions" not based on belief in God. I wrote:

“The problem with a definition of religion that includes almost everything is that the practical effect of inclusion comes to mean almost nothing. Free exercise protections become diluted as their scope becomes more diffuse. When religion has no more right to free exercise than irreligion or any other secular philosophy, the whole newly expanded category of ‘religion’ is likely to diminish in significance.”¹⁹

Unfortunately, the tide of thought and precedent seems contrary to this position. While I have no concern with expanding comparable protections to non-religious belief systems, as is done in international norms that protect freedom of religion or belief,²⁰ I object to doing so by re-interpreting the First Amendment guarantee of free exercise of religion." --Dallin H. Oaks