Religious Liberty

– Religious freedom is the ability to act on the convictions of your faith.

– All people have the right to free speech and the free exercise of religion.

– No one should be harassed or threatened by the government for exercising their rights of free speech and religious freedom in public.

– Everyone should be treated with dignity and respect by all levels of government, and lawmakers should dispense justice with impartiality, equity, and integrity. While people will disagree very strongly with each other at times, respecting differences allows for civil discourse and healthy dialogue in a diverse society.

– Everyone should be free to associate with others around shared values and beliefs and to form organizations, businesses, and other groups. Those associations should be free to advance their missions and to expect their members to share the association’s values, beliefs, and mission to ensure a rich, robust marketplace of ideas.

– Churches should have the freedom to operate in accordance with their beliefs, without facing discrimination from local, state, or federal governments.

– When churches stand together, freedom is protected, fellow churches are empowered, and more people hear God’s word.

We agree with the Manhattan Declaration, which states:

“No one should be compelled to embrace any religion against his will, nor should persons of faith be forbidden to worship God according to the dictates of conscience or to express freely and publicly their deeply held religious convictions. What is true for individuals applies to religious communities as well.”

“We believe in law and in the rule of law. We recognize the duty to comply with laws
whether we happen to like them or not, unless the laws are gravely unjust or require those subject to them to do something unjust or otherwise immoral.”