1 / 3

David Bednar, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, speaks in an online session during the 2020 BYU Religious Freedom Annual Review which was held Wednesday, June 17, 2020.

Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald

2 / 3

Alaa Murabit, United Nations High-Level Commissioner on Health Employment and Economic Growth, speaks in an online session during the 2020 BYU Religious Freedom Annual Review which was held Wednesday, June 17, 2020.

Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald

3 / 3

Alaa Murabit, United Nations High-Level Commissioner on Health Employment and Economic Growth, speaks in an online session during the 2020 BYU Religious Freedom Annual Review which was held Wednesday, June 17, 2020.

Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald

❮ ❯

David Bednar, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, described the COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters and “a most pernicious social plague of racism” as wake-up calls that remind us of the importance of religious freedom.

“We are daily reminded that we need to awaken to the perilous times that surround us, come to ourselves, and arise and turn to our Divine Father, who desires to instruct and edify us through our trials,” Bednar said in a presentation that was streamed online Wednesday morning as part of the 2020 BYU Religious Freedom Annual Review.

Alaa Murabit, United Nations High-Level Commissioner on Health Employment and Economic Growth, emphasized that faith is inherently personal and that’s why religious freedom is so important.

“Faith is something we gain strength from,” Murabit said in her review presentation. “There is this idea we have constructed that faith is somehow exclusive from every other ‘sophisticated’ conversation, that it is archaic to be talking about the power of religion. I actually think the way we move ourselves forward in a large number of the conversations we are having around the world is to look at how religion has had both a positive and a negative effect in those conversations. How can we leverage organized religion that has always sought good?”

Both Bednar and Murabit spoke on “Religion and Religious Freedom in the COVID-19 Era: Finding Community and Hope,” which is the theme of this year’s review.

Bednar examined the impact of the pandemic on both individual and societal levels. He referenced the well-known parable of the prodigal son from the New Testament and talked about how the main character in the tale had squandered all his resources when a famine came into the land and “he began to be in want.”

Bednar described how that time of trial resulted in the young man in the parable examining himself and decide to change his ways by returning home, then related that to how the current crisis can be a time of personal growth.

“Just as the famine for the prodigal son was a pivotal turning point in his life, so COVID-19 can help us to realize what we have not fully realized before,” Bednar said. “Constraints and limitations can be remarkable blessings, if we have eyes to see and ears to hear.”

While Bednar believes personal refocusing is important, he also noted that the pandemic has highlighted societal concerns.

He highlighted governmental restrictions that were made on behalf of public health yet in many cases ignored spiritual health.

“I believe it is vital for us to recognize that the sweeping governmental restrictions that were placed on religious gatherings at the outset of the COVID-19 crisis truly were extraordinary,” Bednar said. “In what seemed like an instant, most Western governments and many others simply banned communal worship. These restrictions eliminated public celebrations of Easter, Passover, Ramadan, and other holy days around the world.

“No other event in our lifetime — and perhaps no other event since the founding of this nation — has caused quite this kind of widespread disruption of religious gatherings and worship.”

He acknowledged the importance of the decisions that were made during the pandemic but criticized how religious freedom wasn’t given the same priority as other services.

“As we have just experienced, religious freedom can quickly be swept aside in the name of protecting other societal interests,” Bednar said. “Despite COVID-19 risks, North American jurisdictions declared as ‘essential’ numerous services related to alcohol, animals, marijuana and other concerns. But often religious organizations and their services were simply deemed ‘nonessential,’ even when their activities could be conducted safely.

“In the name of protecting physical health and security or advancing other social values, government often acted without regard to the importance of protecting spiritual health and security. It often seemed to forget that securing religious freedom is as vital as physical health.”

He talked about a state where Catholic priests were not allowed to perform last rites and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints weren’t allowed to perform baptisms, even if they followed safety guidelines.

Meanwhile, the same state “allowed lawyers to meet with people to administer to their legal needs, allowed doctors to meet with people to administer to their health needs, and allowed caregivers to administer food to satisfy nutritional needs.”

“While believers and their religious organizations must be good citizens in a time of crisis, never again can we allow government officials to treat the exercise of religion as simply ‘nonessential,'” Bednar said. “Never again must the fundamental right to worship God be trivialized below the ability to buy gasoline.”

While Bednar focused specifically on areas impacted by current events, Murabit spoke of religion in a broader sense.

She told of her own personal experiences, like when she was young and saw people of different faiths gathering in a hospital prayer room showing how important their beliefs were to them. She addressed how perceptions of her Muslim faith and female causes were challenged and how she came to see that religious applications of faith should be examined.

Murabit believes it is vital for people of faith to make a difference by making their voices heard.

“How can we actually amplify faith communities to speak up for what they fundamentally believe in in different parts of the world?” Murabit said. “And how can we amplify those we most often ignore in those faith-based communities, those women and those minorities? A lot of the inequalities that play out in our public life are also replicated in our own faith-communities. At the end of the day scripture — the Koran, the Torah, the Bible — is text and it takes human interpretation. We interpret based on our own experiences and sometimes those are exclusive, flawed or violent experiences.”

She said that religious freedom is deeply important to her because she wouldn’t be where she is now in all aspects of her life without her faith.

“I grew up with parents who are devout Muslims,” Murabit said. “When I would do something wrong, I would be terrified. My mom would say to me that God’s mercy is greater than his wrath. When I was particularly terrified, she would say that God’s mercy is greater than your parents’ times a hundred. God is always looking for ways to support and see the good in you. I remember how powerful that was to hear as a child. If I had a problem, I had a place to turn to. It gave me a sense of infinite possibility.”

She said people of all religions get support from their beliefs and can see that in others. What we must do, according to Murabit, is challenge those who use faith or religion to only seek power without compassion.

“I think the only people who can truly speak up to them are other people of faith,” Murabit said. “If you are a person of faith, how are you leveraging your faith to ensure equality? How are you leveraging what you know to create compassion and mercy? This is a really important time to have these honest conversations.”

The entire session and more details on the review can be found at http://religiousfreedom.byu.edu.