Religious Freedom Quotes - Page 2

• Muslim immigrants like himself encounter prejudice here [in U.S.] but also find political and religious freedom.

  Tom Gjelten

  Religious, Political, Encounters

  Source: www.npr.org

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• In our early struggles for liberty, religious freedom could not fail to become a primary object.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Struggle, Liberty

  Thomas Jefferson, Henry Augustine Washington (1854). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Inaugural addresses and messages. Replies to public addresses. Indian addresses. Miscellaneous: 1. Notes on Virginia; 2. Biographical sketches of distinguished men; 3. The batture of New Orleans”, p.138

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• No, you can't deny women their basic rights and pretend it's about your 'religious freedom'. If you don't like birth control, don't use it. Religious freedom doesn't mean you can force others to live by your own beliefs.

  Barack Obama

  Religious, Freedom, Women

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• Because we hold it for 'a fundamental and undeniable truth', that religion or 'the duty which we owe to our Creator' and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence.

  James Madison

  Religion, Religious Truth, Fundamentals

  James Madison (1787). “The Writings of James Madison: 1783-1787”, p.184

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• Religious freedom is often referred to as America's first freedom. Our country was founded by religious exiles and built on the belief that God has given all people certain inalienable rights. Government's role in society is to protect these rights and ensure that we are safe from religious persecution and discrimination.

  Marco Rubio

  Country, Religious, Rights

  Source: www.cnn.com

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• I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessing on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Morning, Prayer, Moving

  Constitutional Convention Address on Prayer, delivered Thursday, June 28, 1787, Philadelphia, PA

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• Ultimately, America's answer to the intolerant man is diversity, the very diversity which our heritage of religious freedom has inspired.

  Robert Kennedy

  Religious, Freedom, Men

  Robert F. Kennedy (1968). “A New Day: Robert F. Kennedy”

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• I never will, by any word or act, bow to the shrine of intolerance or admit a right of inquiry into the religious opinions of others.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Tolerance, Inquiry

  Thomas Jefferson (1943). “Thomas Jefferson: selections from his writings edited, with an introduction”

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• We have solved, by fair experiment, the great and interesting question whether freedom of religion is compatible with order in government and obedience to the laws. And we have experienced the quiet as well as the comfort which results from leaving every one to profess freely and openly those principles of religion which are the inductions of his own reason and the serious convictions of his own inquiries.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Order, Law

  Thomas Jefferson (1854). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and Private : Published by the Order of the Joint Committee of Congress on the Library, from the Original Manuscripts, Deposited in the Department of State”, p.139

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• Erecting the 'wall of separation between church and state'... is absolutely essential in a free society.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Wall, Religion

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• No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Father, Men

  Thomas Jefferson, Richard Holland Johnston, Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association of the United States “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson”

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• That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and therefore all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of the conscience; and it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity towards each other.

  Patrick Henry

  Christian, 4th Of July, Exercise

  Virginia Bill of Rights article 16 (1776)

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• Civil liberty can be established on no foundation of human reason which will not at the same time demonstrate the right of religious freedom.

  John Quincy Adams

  Religious, Liberty, Foundation

  John Quincy Adams (1968). “Writings of John Quincey Adams”

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• I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church.

  Thomas Paine

  Atheist, Pain, Fear

  Thomas Paine (1819). “The Theological Works of Thomas Paine”, p.4

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• We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal.

  Elizabeth Cady Stanton

  Inspiring, Women, 4th Of July

  Declaration of Sentiments, First Woman's Rights

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• To Americans religious freedom is sacred.

  John Travolta

  Religious, Sacred

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• The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Government, Political

  Thomas Jefferson (1854). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Inaugural addresses and messages. Replies to public addresses. Indian addresses. Miscellaneous: 1. Notes on Virginia; 2. Biographical sketches of distinguished men; 3. The batture of New Orleans”, p.400

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• The trailblazers in human, academic, scientific and religious freedom have always been nonconformists.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Religious, Academic, Nonconformist

  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2012). “A Gift of Love: Sermons from Strength to Love and Other Preachings”, p.35, Beacon Press

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• Despite much talk in this land about religious freedom, churches and their schools now confront grave difficulties.

  Russell Kirk

  Christian, Religious, School

  Russell Kirk (1986). “The Assault on religion: commentaries on the decline of religious liberty”, Univ Pr of Amer

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• I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth — that God governs in the affairs of men.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Life, Men, Long

  "The Political Thought of Benjamin Franklin".

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• Unless we put medical freedom into the Constitution, the time will come when medicine will organize into an undercover dictatorship to restrict the art of healing to one class of Men and deny equal privileges to others; the Constitution of the Republic should make a Special privilege for medical freedoms as well as religious freedom.

  Benjamin Rush

  Religious, Time, Art

  Misattributed to Benjamin Rush in "Total Health and Restoration: A 180-Day Journey" by Terry Dorian, p. 49, 2002.

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• For while this year it may be a Catholic against whom the finger of suspicion is pointed, in other years it has been, and may someday be again, a Jew— or a Quaker or a Unitarian or a Baptist. It was Virginia's harassment of Baptist preachers, for example, that helped lead to Jefferson's statute of religious freedom. Today I may be the victim, but tomorrow it may be you — until the whole fabric of our harmonious society is ripped at a time of great national peril.

  John F. Kennedy

  Religious, Virginia, Years

  Address to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association, delivered 12 September 1960 at the Rice Hotel in Houston, TX

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• Of course, there are dangers in religious freedom and freedom of opinion. But to deny these rights is worse than dangerous, it is absolutely fatal to liberty. The external threat to liberty should not drive us into suppressing liberty at home. Those who want the government to regulate matters of the mind and spirit are like men who are so afraid of being murdered that they commit suicide to avoid assassination.

  Harry S. Truman

  Suicide, Religious, Home

  Address at National Archives, Washington, D.C., 15 Dec. 1952

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• In at least one country where homosexual activists have won major concessions, we have even seen a church pastor threatened with prison for preaching from the pulpit that homosexual behavior is sinful. Given these trends, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints must take a stand on doctrine and principle. This is more than a social issue - ultimately it may be a test of our most basic religious freedoms to teach what we know our Father in Heaven wants us to teach.

  Dallin H. Oaks

  Country, Religious, Jesus

  Source: www.mormonnewsroom.org

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• The traditional Jeffersonian principle of religious freedom was so broadly democratic that it included the right to have no religion at all - it gave to the individual the right to worship any God he chose or no god.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Religious, Church, Principles

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