All Are ‘Children of a Loving God,’ Elder Gerard Says in Religious Freedom Webinar

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By Trent Toone, Church News

One of the doctrinal foundations of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also reflects why the faith believes religious liberty is so important.

“We literally believe that all of us are children of a loving God,” said Elder Jack N. Gerard, a General Authority Seventy. “Therefore, we should be mutually respectful of each other, our views or opinions, regardless of our religious faith, regardless even of our political ideologies, or ethnicity, or where we have come from or what our life experience may be. We believe that all humankind are equal, because in the eyes of God, we are equal, regardless of those origins or those identities.”

Elder Gerard, who serves as second counselor in the Church’s Europe Central Area presidency, made the statement as the keynote speaker in a December 4 webinar that commemorated the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948.

The webinar also featured remarks by Nazila Ghanea, United Nations special rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, and Andrea Benzo, Italian government’s special envoy for freedom of religion or belief and interfaith dialogue. Their messages highlighted the significance of Article 18, which upholds the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, and their thoughts on the future of religious freedom.

Elder Gerard’s Message

In his remarks, Elder Gerard outlined three “doctrinal foundations” of the Church that also teach religious freedom, with the first being that all are children of a loving God.

“From our faith perspective, He desires only the best for us,” Elder Gerard said. “As we work together, as we learn to be more understanding, to get along better, to have a civil society or culture, if you will, with its great diversity, yet to enjoy one with another, to bring peace, safety and comfort to all humankind.”

The second doctrine Elder Gerard shared was “moral agency.”

“We believe part of our Heavenly Father’s great plan is that we have the right to choose,” he said. “This principle of moral agency requires us and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to be mutually respectful of people who have very different views, very different than our own. We believe it is important for us to work hard to defend their ability to make those choices. ... We believe it’s important that we protect this freedom, the freedom of religion, the freedom of conscience, the freedom of human dignity, because it then allows people that right to choose.”

Elder Gerard’s third doctrine centered on the Savior’s two great commandments — to love God and love others.

“We believe that underlying doctrine also comprises our need to be mutually respectful,” he said. “As we truly learn to love our neighbor, regardless of their choice, regardless of their view, we can learn to support and love each other in our decisions about faith, religion and ideology, and we believe it allows us to live in a very diverse community, a diverse society, but to be very inclusive in our diversity.”

Elder Gerard referenced the Church’s 11th Article of Faith, which states, “We claim the privilege of worshipping Almighty God, according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men and women the same privilege. Let them worship how, where, or what they may.”

“We believe it is our responsibility and our duty to protect the freedom of religion, the freedom of conscience,” he said. “We will always be a partner in this endeavor, to all of you have different faiths and different backgrounds and different civil societies, whatever it may be, you can count on us as a reliable partner well into the future.”

Elder Gerard continued: “We still have challenges ... but we can make a difference. We can model better society, we can model kindness, we can model true love for each other that will help benefit all and bring us closer to understanding better tolerance, freedom of conscience and freedom of religion.”

‘We Should All Be Mindful’

In her remarks, Ghanea, a University of Oxford professor of international human rights law, spoke of growing up in Qatar, where many of her family and friends faced various levels of discrimination.

“We should all be mindful of how much the world has suffered to get to this stage of wanting, at least having the framework for upholding this realm of conscience for everybody, irrespective of any distinctions or discriminate,” she said.

Ghanea shared a Freedom of Religion or Belief “Facilitator’s Toolkit” as a resource to help people learn more about promoting religious liberty.

More Discussions Needed

Benzo, a diplomat from Italy, spoke about the need to engage more in discussions about religious freedom with religious communities at the top and grassroots levels on a regular basis.

“Our priority is to protect and promote freedom of religion and belief,” he said. “We need to detect all these challenges and be able to respond to all of them in an effective way.”