Church Joins Other Religious Leaders in Signing Letter on Marriage and Religious Freedom

Contributed By By Heather Whittle Wrigley

  • 18 January 2012

An open letter signed by dozens of religious leaders, including Bishop H. David Burton, Presiding Bishop of the Church, calls for the defense of the definition of marriage as the union between one man and one woman as husband and wife.

“We join together to affirm that marriage in its true definition must be protected for its own sake and for the good of society.” —Open letter on marriage and religious freedom

Bishop H. David Burton, Presiding Bishop of the Church, joined more than three dozen other religious leaders in signing an open letter promoting marriage and religious freedom.

“The promotion and protection of marriage—the union of one man and one woman as husband and wife—is a matter of the common good and serves the wellbeing of the couple, of children, of civil society and all people,” the letter begins. It continues, “We join together to affirm that marriage in its true definition must be protected for its own sake and for the good of society.”

Calling marriage and religious freedom “fundamental goods that stand or fall together,” the letter goes on to encourage people to protect the traditional definition of marriage and to support laws that uphold that definition. Read the full text of the letter.

The Church recently published “An Introduction to Religious Freedom,” which states that “freedom—the power to live as one would choose—is one of the great sources of human dignity.”

It is not merely the freedom to worship or to believe the way one chooses, the article states.

“While religious freedom encompasses the liberty of religious belief and devotion, it also extends well beyond that, incorporating the freedom to act—to speak freely in public, to live according to one’s moral principles, and to advocate one’s own moral vision for society,” it reads. “The breadth of religious freedom and its relationship with freedom of conscience helps explain why religious freedom is important for everyone, not just for people of faith.”

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