Elder Dushku says how religious freedom strengthens Zion

The latter-day gathering of Israel has been a heavenly charge because the early days of the Church, said Elder Alexander Dushku, a General Authority Seventy. This gathering to Zion, still emphasized by today’s prophets and apostles, requires unprecedented efforts. 

“It would require unprecedented faith, unprecedented organization and unprecedented resources,” he told legal professionals on the 2024 J. Reuben Clark Law Society Annual Fireside on Jan. 19.

And vital to this gathering is “a sturdy, generous, consistent, well-defended religious freedom.”

Elder Dushku — who received a Juris Doctor degree from BYU’s J. Reuben Clark Law School in 1993 — has represented the Church of Jesus Christ on matters of non secular freedom for nearly 30 years. He spoke to listeners within the Church Office Building’s foremost floor auditorium concerning the responsibilities of Latter-day Saints to accumulate Zion by embracing and advocating for religious freedom.

“I bear witness of the fantastic way forward for latter-day covenant Israel and of the Church and kingdom of God. … May we each do all we will to uphold the sacred liberties that allow us to hasten this great work and make that glorious future a reality.”

Finding ‘our highest and best selves’ through the Lord

Today’s culture, said Elder Dushku, “is becoming more hostile toward institutions generally and toward religious institutions specifically.” For example, the General Social Survey found that the proportion of individuals within the United States who lack religious affiliation rose from 9% in 1993 to 29% in 2021.

“Since Western culture now sees the belief of individuality as life’s primary purpose, the fashionable moral imperative is to liberate the self from virtually any constraint,” Elder Dushku said. “Thus, anything that appears to suppress or limit the expression of individuality constitutes, under this manner of considering, an injustice.”

Many people today accordingly may even see organized religion as unnecessary and as a substitute seek to define themselves and the aim of life aside from faith and family. In other words, “every man walketh in his own way, and after the image of his own god, whose image is within the likeness of the world” (Doctrine and Covenants 1:16).

“By contrast,” said Elder Dushku, “Jesus Christ invites us to follow Him and thereby find our highest and best selves through Him. And so the Lord gave us commandments and covenants, precepts and principles, prophets and pastors, to assist define us as a peculiar people — as His people — and to guide us back into His everlasting presence.”

3 vital zones of non secular freedom

Elder Dushku said that Latter-day Saints need to grasp and advocate for 3 zones of non secular freedom:

1. The freedom “to imagine, live and express our faith in our private and family spaces.”
2. The freedom “to specific our faith and live the gospel openly as equal residents.”
3. The freedom “to collect — to be of 1 heart and one mind and dwell together in righteousness, because the Lord said of Zion” (see Moses 7:18).

“We have talents, expertise, opinions and experiences to share,” he said. “We have the reality of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, and we live in societies that desperately need it.”

Why Latter-day Saints need Zion

Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said in 2020: “If the faithful should not gathering, eventually they may begin to scatter. And because gathering lies on the very heart of faith, the suitable to collect lies on the very heart of non secular freedom.”

One of the best tasks of defending religious freedom, added Elder Dushku, is subsequently to make sure Saints have sufficient freedom to determine Zion. They gather together and grow to be a Zion people, inviting all people of goodwill to hitch.

“Zion is a refuge from the storm of faithlessness,” Elder Dushku said. “It is a shelter from the spiritual and moral chaos of our time. It is a spot and an area where we will gather, unite and be who we’re — where the truths we cherish, the standards we live, the practices and patterns that outline our lives, and the very gospel language we speak are natural and well understood.”

Building up Zion just isn’t only a hope or far-off possibility, he said. “It is crucial to our very survival.” And with a purpose to construct up Zion, Latter-day Saints have to uphold religious freedom.

7 legal doctrines that uphold religious freedom

Latter-day Saints can reinvigorate and advocate for religious freedom by upholding seven critical legal doctrines, said Elder Dushku to his audience of legal professionals. These legal doctrines are:

1. The rule of law.
2. The principle of nondiscrimination and equality before the law.
3. The free exercise of faith.
4. The freedom of speech.
5. The rights of fogeys to direct the upbringing of their children.
6. The right of non secular communities to prepare.
7. The autonomy of non secular organizations to manipulate their internal affairs without outside interference.

People of religion, he said, will be advocates for a sturdy religious liberty by defending the rule of law and showing the world the value of faith. “At a time of widespread skepticism concerning the value of religion and churches, we will open our mouths and our laptops and bear witness to the immeasurable good religion does. We will be ‘example[s] of the believers’” (1 Timothy 4:12).