Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty - Secretary Clinton Emphasizes Relationship Between Free Speech, Freedom of Religion

Image via WikipediaBaptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty - Secretary Clinton Emphasizes Relationship Between Free Speech, Freedom of Religion

In her remarks introducing the State Department's annual International Religious Freedom Report, Secretary Hilary Clinton emphasized two important things: that religious freedom means more than the freedom to worship, and that it goes hand in hand with the freedom of speech.

This report reflects a broad understanding of religious freedom, one that begins with private beliefs and communal religious expression, but doesn’t end there. Religious freedom also includes the right to raise one’s children in one’s faith, to share one’s faith peacefully with others, to publish religious materials without censorship, to change one’s religion – by choice, not coercion, and to practice no religion at all. And it includes the rights of faith communities to come together in social service and public engagement in the broader society.

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Now, some people propose that to protect religious freedom, we must ban speech that is critical or offensive about religion. We do not agree. The Defamation of Religions Resolution adopted by the United Nations Human Rights Council again this year, and now pending before the General Assembly, reflects the other view. And the United States joins in all nations coming together to condemn hateful speech, but we do not support the banning of that speech. Indeed, freedom of speech and freedom of religion emanate from the same fundamental belief that communities and individuals are enriched and strengthened by a diversity of ideas, and attempts to stifle them or drive them underground, even when it is in the name and with the intention of protecting society, have the opposite effect. Societies in which freedom of religion and speech flourish are more resilient, more stable, more peaceful, and more productive.

The first point may be the administration's answer to critics who questioned the use of "freedom to worship" as a short-hand for religious liberty generally. The White House, those detractors argued, did not fully appreciate the breadth of religious freedom. That first paragraph above, however, shows a broad understanding of what it means to be a free person of faith.