Bishop Gérald Caussé, presiding bishop of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, joined with other faith leaders from a wide range of denominations in signing a letter addressed to President Barack Obama, Sen. Orrin Hatch and House Speaker Paul Ryan.
The letter, dated Oct. 7, 2016, responds to a report that was released last month by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights titled, “Peaceful Coexistence: Reconciling Non-Discrimination Principles with Civil Liberties.” The letter expresses concerns that the report wrongly “stigmatizes tens of millions of religious Americans, their communities, and their faith-based institutions, and threatens the religious freedom of all of our citizens.”
It specifically cites this passage, written by Commission Chairman Martin Castro, as one of particular concern:
“The phrases ‘religious liberty’ and ‘religious freedom’ will stand for nothing except hypocrisy so long as they remain code words for discrimination, intolerance, racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia, Christian supremacy or any form of intolerance.”
The letter responds, “We are one in demanding that no American citizen or institution be labeled by their government as bigoted because of their religious views, and dismissed from the political life of our nation for holding those views. And yet that is precisely what the Civil Rights Commission report does.”
Prior to his call as presiding bishop, Bishop Caussé served as a counselor in the Presiding Bishopric, as a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy and as a stake president. In his professional career, Bishop Caussé, who is originally from France, worked in the food industry before accepting the call to serve as a general authority.
Read the entire letter here.
Email: mjones@deseretdigital.com