Hi, this is John Delin welcome to Mormon Stories. The following is a presentation delivered by Elder Dalin H. Oaks of the Church of Jesus Christ of Letterday Saints on February 9th, 2016 at Johns Hopkins University at their School of Advanced International Studies.

The topic was the free exercise of religion in our time and the description is the following. Freedom of religion is a fundamental human right, yet in many seen and unseen ways its validity is challenged at the margins every day.

Elder Oaks will speak about the importance of maintaining and protecting religious liberty in the international sphere after his remarks he will field questions in an audience Q&A.

This presentation was provided to me by Andrew Evans who attended this presentation and finally as far as we know this recording was made in accordance with the laws of the District of Columbia.

We hope you enjoy. Thanks for listening and thanks for your support of Mormon Stories.

I need to get adjusted to the height of this podium. You get to be my age question of how far away the manuscript is to be properly read is the major consideration.

I'm just getting used to that. They know from Michael's introduction I'm a leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Letterday Saints known by many as Mormons.

We have no officially trained clergy. Our world leaders have called from various occupations to spend the rest of their lives as ordained ministers.

Consequently, it's not unusual that I as a former lawyer and law professor and judge and my world leader in my religion.

My lifelong advocacy of religious freedom is grounded in my religious faith. I serve you best by giving a brief explanation of my faith in my church so you will understand the position from which I speak.

I've been called as one of the twelve apostles as my of my church. I have a lifelong duty to teach and testify of Lord Jesus Christ and His divinity and His teachings.

You need to the doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Letterday Saints is our knowledge that God continues to call prophets to teach us and help us apply His commandments in our current circumstances.

Speaking through a prophet nearly 200 years ago, God said that He inspired the Constitution of the United States, quote, for the rights and protection of all flesh, end quote.

Consequently, we maintain that what is now the oldest operating Constitution in the world contains heaven inspired principles relevant to the exercise of a just that stable government power anywhere in the world.

Mormons don't take that divine revelation as an endorsement of all laws enacted under the United States Constitution or of the sometimes inappropriate action of the United States government and His standards.

Rather, we consider that prophetic statement to be an endorsement of the fundamental principles of the Constitution.

The foremost among those principles is the so-called first freedom that government should not endorse or establish a particular religion and should also guarantee the free exercise of religion by all of its citizens.

Consequently, we grateful acknowledge that at a time when 77% of the world's inhabitants live in countries with high or very high restrictions on religious freedom, the Western hemisphere leads the way along with countries in Western Europe in providing effective protections for this cherished right.

Every March today will focus primarily on religious freedom. However, at the outset, I affirm the importance of religion itself in world affairs until recently the study of international relations has usually filtered out the role of religion.

This has become increasingly difficult to ignore religion in global security, conflict resolution, development, humanitarian relief, the environment, or other areas of concern.

84% of the world's population identifies with a particular religion and even among those who do not many hold a religious belief, the global south is highly religious overall, as is the Middle East and much of Asia.

For all of these reasons, understanding religion and religious freedom is essential to understanding world affairs.

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