[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 18916-18918]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           RELIGIOUS LIBERTY

  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, last week families across the Nation 
gathered in gratitude to celebrate Thanksgiving--the holiday we 
commemorate in remembrance of our Pilgrim ancestors. With humble 
appreciation, we venerate the sacrifice of America's early settlers. We 
remember their fortitude in leaving family and home to colonize a new 
wilderness. Facing disease, starvation, and even death, these brave men 
and women endured tremendous hardships to secure the blessings of 
religious liberty.
  Freedom of religion--so precious and so prized by our Pilgrim 
forebears--is the legacy we enjoy as a result of their sacrifice. 
Today, I wish to honor the Pilgrims' legacy by speaking once again on 
the topic of religious liberty. Over the past several weeks, I have 
addressed this subject at length. In so doing, I have explained the 
critical importance of religious freedom and its centrality to our 
Nation's founding. I have also debunked the erroneous notion that 
religious liberty is primarily a private matter that has little place 
in the public domain. More recently, I have detailed the many ways 
freedom of conscience is under attack--both at home and abroad.
  You might wonder why I devote so much time and attention to this 
vital subject. After all, this is the seventh in a series of speeches I 
have given on the topic of religious liberty. When there are myriad 
other issues facing our country, why do I feel so compelled to speak 
out about religious freedom? Because, Mr. President, no other freedom 
is so essential to human flourishing and to the future of our Nation. 
Indeed, religion is not only beneficial to society but also 
indispensable to democracy.
  I begin by discussing the most tangible benefits religion brings to 
society. History provides many examples. Indeed, many of our Nation's 
most significant moral and political achievements are grounded in 
religious teachings and influences.
  First, consider the role of religion in the formation of our most 
basic rights. America's Framers were well versed in both religion and 
philosophy, and in drafting our Founding documents, they drew 
inspiration from both sources.
  Take for example, the unalienable rights identified in the 
Declaration of Independence: life, liberty and the pursuit of 
happiness. These rights are a synthesis of both religious and 
philosophic teachings. The rights themselves stem from the theories of 
the philosopher John Locke, but the concept of inalienability--the idea 
that these rights are inviolable because they are ``endowed [to men] by 
their Creator''--is religious in nature.
  By invoking the divine and linking our rights to a moral authority 
that lies above and beyond the state, America's Founders insulated our 
freedoms from government abuse. Philosophy helped articulate our 
fundamental rights, but religion made them unassailable. Thanks to the 
moral grounding provided by religion, we exercise these rights free of 
state control.
  In addition to undergirding the establishment of our God-given 
rights, religion directly benefitted American society by catalyzing the 
two greatest social movements in our Nation's history: abolition and 
civil rights.
  Abolition traces its roots to the Second Great Awakening, when 
preachers such as Charles Grandison Finney and Lyman Beecher rose to 
prominence with their revivalist teachings on social justice and 
equality. Many of the earliest pro-abolition organizations coalesced 
around Christian evangelical communities in the North. Emancipation was 
a religious cause first and a political movement second.
  Most abolitionists were deeply religious themselves, including two of 
the movement's most vocal leaders, William Lloyd Garrison and John 
Greenleaf Whittier. The Christian doctrine of moral equality was 
especially crucial in generating the grassroots support that eventually 
made emancipation possible.
  Religion was equally influential in guiding the civil rights 
movement. We speak today of Dr. Martin Luther King, but we sometimes 
forget that before he was a doctor he was a reverend. In 1967, the year 
before his death, Reverend King proclaimed:

       Before I was a civil rights leader, I was a preacher of the 
     Gospel. This was my first calling and it still remains my 
     greatest commitment. . . . [A]ll that I do in civil rights I 
     do because I consider it a part of my ministry.

  Reverend King recruited other religious leaders to his cause when he 
convened a meeting of more than 60 black

[[Page 18917]]

ministers in what would eventually become the Southern Christian 
Leadership Conference. This coalition of evangelical leaders was 
instrumental in organizing both the Birmingham campaign and the March 
on Washington. For these ministers and many other men and women who 
participated in the civil rights movement, religion provided the 
initial impetus for their advocacy.
  Today, religion continues to benefit society by contributing to our 
Nation's robust philanthropic sector. The importance of charity and 
helping the poor is nearly universal across all faiths. Every year, 
religious organizations throughout the United States feed the hungry, 
clothe the naked, give shelter to the homeless, and care for the sick 
and afflicted.
  Without these religious groups, our government welfare system would 
be overwhelmed.
  Charitable organizations are irreplaceable because they often step in 
where the state cannot. Consider some of the largest, most well-
respected religious charities in operation today, such as the Salvation 
Army, Catholic Charities, World Vision, or LDS Humanitarian Services. 
These organizations are motivated by more than a mere humanitarian 
impulse; they are driven by a sense of duty both to God and to man. 
Every year, they lift millions from despair, offering not only material 
assistance but also spiritual direction to help individuals lead more 
prosperous lives. This is a critical service that no government program 
could ever provide.
  It is clear that religion has benefitted our society in several 
meaningful ways. First, as a result of religious teachings, we have 
unfettered claim to the natural rights delineated in our Nation's 
founding documents. Second, thanks to religious leaders from John 
Rankin to Martin Luther King, we freely exercise civil rights today 
that were once denied millions of Americans. Third, by virtue of 
religious teaching on charity, we have a humanitarian sector that is 
unparalleled in its ability to respond to crisis, bless the poor, and 
lift the needy.
  But my purpose in speaking today is not merely to recite a list of 
blessings brought about by religious liberty. Religion is not simply 
beneficial to society; it is an indispensable feature of any free 
government. Without religion, liberty itself would be in danger and 
democracy would devolve into despotism.
  The nexus between religion and democracy involves the relationship 
between morality and freedom. Freedom is a double-edged sword; it can 
be used for good or for evil. Statesmen may use freedom to defend 
justice, but tyrants can abuse it for their own corrupt ends. Morality 
is necessary to ensure that individuals exercise their freedom 
responsibly.
  Religion provides free individuals with the moral education necessary 
to exercise freedom responsibly. It instills the very virtues that lead 
to an engaged citizenry, including a concern for others, the ability to 
discern between right and wrong, and the capacity to look beyond the 
mere pursuit of present pleasures to the good of society.
  President George Washington identified the link between morality and 
religion. According to Washington, ``Reason and experience both forbid 
us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of 
religious principle.'' For Washington, morality presupposed religion, 
and both virtues cultivated a healthy society. Perhaps this why he said 
that ``[o]f all the dispositions and habits which lead to political 
prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.'' That 
was George Washington.
  John Adams was of the same mind. He argued that without religion and 
morality, our government could not stand because, ``[a]varice, 
ambition, revenge and gallantry would break the strongest cords of our 
Constitution, as a whale goes through a net''; hence, his most famous 
observation that the Constitution ``was made only for a moral and 
religious people.''
  For Washington, Adams, and many others who helped to establish our 
constitutional system of self-government, religion, morality, freedom, 
and democracy are necessarily interlinked. Without the moral 
sensibilities that religion that can provide, freedom is all too easily 
corrupted, endangering the very foundation of democracy.
  Our Founding Fathers were not alone in calling attention to the 
inextricable connection between religion and a healthy democracy. The 
renowned political philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville offered his own 
analysis on the subject. After spending several months observing 
American Government and society, Tocqueville wrote his famed 
``Democracy in America'' in an attempt to explain American political 
culture to his French counterparts. When Tocqueville published his work 
in the early 19th century, the United States was a burgeoning democracy 
and unique as one of the only countries in the world that guaranteed 
religious liberties to its citizens.
  At this intersection of democracy and religion, Tocqueville made his 
most compelling observations. Like Washington and Adams, Tocqueville 
believed that religion was essential to the success of the American 
political experiment. Without the moral strictures of religion, the 
Nation's democracy would collapse on itself. In Tocqueville's own 
words:

       Despotism may be able to do without faith, but freedom 
     cannot. . . . How could society escape destruction if, when 
     political ties are relaxed, moral ties are not tightened? And 
     what can be done with a people master of itself if it is not 
     subject to God?

  In other words, Tocqueville asked how the experiment of self-
government could succeed if individuals refused to submit to any moral 
authority beyond themselves. By posing this question, Tocqueville 
argued that democracy needs religion and morality to ensure that 
citizens exercise their freedom responsibly. Democracy needs religion 
to help refine the people's moral responsibility and instill the 
virtues of good citizenship that make democracy possible in the first 
place.
  Tocqueville also taught that democracy needs religion to temper the 
materialistic impulses of a free-market society. By setting our hopes 
and desires beyond imminent, temporal concerns and turning our hearts 
instead toward those in need, religion engenders charitable behavior 
and saves democracy from its own excesses.
  In Tocqueville's view, the free exercise of religion is not just a 
condition of liberal society; it is a precondition for a healthy 
democracy. Without religion and the moral instruction it provides, 
freedom falters, and democracy all too easily dissolves into tyranny.
  In this regard, religion is not merely a boon to democracy, but a 
bulwark against despotism. Laws alone are incapable of instilling order 
and regulating moral behavior across society. As LDS Apostle Dallin H. 
Oaks has observed, ``Our society is not held together just by law and 
its enforcement, but most importantly by voluntary obedience to the 
unenforceable and by widespread adherence to unwritten norms of right . 
. . behavior.''
  Of course, religion and a basic sense of morality help induce such 
voluntary obedience to the unenforceable that Elder Oaks describes. 
George Washington conceded that individuals may find morality without 
religion, but political society needs the spiritual grounding that only 
religion can provide. In this regard, religion complements law in 
cultivating a moral citizenry.
  Both law and religion are necessary to engender good citizenship. As 
the influence of religion diminishes, governments must enact more laws 
to fill the void to maintain a moral citizenry. So the consequences of 
less religious activity are not greater human freedom but greater state 
control.
  Religion, then, acts as a check on state power. It cultivates 
morality so governments don't have to through the cold, impersonal 
machinery of law.
  By acting as a shield against state overreach, religion is a friend 
to both democracy and freedom. Expanding religious freedom empowers 
democracy, but limiting religious freedom weakens our democratic 
institutions. In the most extreme case, eliminating religious freedom 
altogether results in tyranny and human suffering on a massive scale.

[[Page 18918]]

  Consider the catastrophic state of affairs in countries that have 
explicitly outlawed religion. The Soviet Union, Communist China under 
Mao, the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, and North Korea are prominent 
examples. In each of these countries, leaders committed unspeakable 
atrocities to enforce their own godless morality. In the absence of 
faith, there was no religious horizon to keep political ambitions 
within limits. Unencumbered by the moral restraint of religion, 
dictators systematically killed millions of their own people to 
establish their own secular vision of Heaven on Earth. These 
illustrations of totalitarianism, torture, and genocide demonstrate 
that a society without religion is a society without freedom.
  I raise these grievous examples to reiterate my initial point: 
Religion is central to human prosperity. Society needs religion to keep 
political ambitions in check, and democracy needs religion to maintain 
morality so that freedom can flourish.
  I had the privilege of serving for 2 years in three States--Ohio, 
Indiana, and Michigan--as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ 
of Latter-day Saints. We served without pay, without compensation. I 
lived on $55 to $65 a month, and I traveled all over those three 
States, helping other missionaries be able to teach the Gospel of Jesus 
Christ. I am glad I had the freedom to be able to serve that mission in 
three States in this beautiful, wonderful country, where religious 
freedom is a revered right and a heralded concept.
  Those 2 years were the most important years of my life because they 
led to a wonderful marriage with Elaine, 6 children, 23 grandchildren, 
and 16 great-grandchildren, and those are all I know about at this 
time. I have to say that they led to a better life in every way, even 
though my life has been hard.
  I was raised in Pittsburgh, PA. My father was a building tradesman. 
Sometimes there wasn't work. We lost our home shortly after my birth. 
It was a little band-box frame home in Homestead Park, PA. My dad 
borrowed $100 to purchase an acre and then tore down a burned-out 
building to build us a home that was black on three sides, and the 
fourth side had a Meadow Gold Dairy sign that he had apparently torn 
down and put up just exactly the way it was. We didn't have indoor 
facilities.
  It was an acre of ground, and we raised quite a bit of our food. We 
actually raised chickens. I was in charge of the chickens, taking care 
of the chicken coop, feeding them, cleaning up after them, collecting 
the eggs every day, selling the eggs, and delivering the eggs, from 6 
years old on. I am glad I had that experience.
  I am glad that my family went to church and was religious. The Mormon 
Church at that time in Pittsburgh was very small, but the people were 
all patriotic and loved America. Why did they? Many of them were from 
other countries. They loved America because they were free. I didn't 
know any better, but I knew I was free, and that was important--not 
just to me but to my parents and to many others as well.
  Elaine and I are so grateful that we have been able to raise our six 
children, all of whom are married now, all of whom have children, and 
many of whom have our great-grandchildren.
  The thing that tied us together more than anything else was religion 
in this freest of all nations. I am so grateful for this country. I am 
so grateful for the freedoms that we all take for granted. I am so 
grateful for my parents, who were just humble people, neither of whom 
had received any education beyond the eighth grade, but both were 
brilliant in his or her own way. The thing they taught us was religion 
and doing good to our fellow men and women.
  I am so grateful for this great country. I am so grateful for all of 
the many blessings we have from religious freedom, and I don't want to 
see us lose that in the realm of political correctness.
  In closing, I urge all of my colleagues to consider the state of 
religious liberty in the United States today. Only by strengthening 
this fundamental freedom can we secure the future of our own democracy 
and keep the rest of our freedoms alive and viable.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. COATS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cruz). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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