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WASHINGTON — The speaker lineup during a 20-minute stretch at IRF Summit 2025 certainly was unusual.
First, JD Vance spoke from teleprompters for 12 minutes to nearly 2,000 people in the ballroom of the Washington Hilton near the White House. He stood behind his own specialized podium bearing the seal of the Vice President of the United States of America and declared the Trump administration will support international religious freedom.
As what appeared to be Secret Service employees swiftly dismantled the podium, large screens around the ballroom broadcast live video of actor Rainn Wilson, who gained fame playing Dwight Schrute for laughs on “The Office.” Wilson spoke for seven minutes from New York City, where he is appearing on Broadway.
“What a strange and profound honor to be following the vice president of the United States in any kind of talk,” Wilson said.
So, how do you follow both the veep and a famous comedian?
That job fell to Brett Scharffs, a stylish BYU law professor who has helped lawmakers around the world add religious freedoms to national constitutions in many countries.
Scharffs needed just three minutes to outline a new framework for thinking and talking about religious liberty. His point was that countries and cultures committed to religious freedom should actively promote certain virtues as the seedbed for those rights to grow and flourish.
“Or to put it another way,” he said, “if Heraclitus was right, that character is destiny — what kind of character, both individual and social, would we strive to develop if we want to be people, and to live in places, that value religious freedom?”
He broke down his list of 13 of the most important virtues of religious freedom into three categories — habits of the head, habits of the heart and habits of the hand to be cultivated personally and in others, including children.
Habits of the head
Those who care about religious liberty will seek to develop people who:
- Are curious.
- Are open-minded.
- Seek for truth.
- Stand for truth.
- Are tolerant of others.
Habits of the heart
These seven virtues value reverence, awe and wonder, Scharffs said. He added, “Where better to learn these virtues than Sunday School, the synagogue, the mosque.”
- Faith, hope and charity.
- Humility, kindness, respect and love.
Habits of the hand
Finally, those who want to protect religious freedom rights will seek to develop and spread a specific kind of desire:
- To lift the downtrodden, to be of service to those in need, to reach out to the vulnerable and the broken.
“So in all of our talking about rights ... let us not forget to speak about the virtues of religious freedom,” Scharffs said.
“We want to live in cultures that cultivate people who will value religious freedom, not just as a right, but as deeply ingrained traits of character, habits of the head, heart and hand, indeed, virtues of our very soul.”
My Recent Stories
What a TV star says we can learn from members of his persecuted faith (Feb. 11)
BYU applications jump 15% since 2023 (Feb. 7)
‘Dignity is a universal birthright,’ Elder Soares says at religious freedom summit (Feb. 5)
About the church
The renovated Toronto Ontario Temple is open for public tours through March 8. Free reservations are available at TorontoTemple.ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
Relief Society General President Camille N. Johnson said at the Provo MTC that missionaries can “mind the gap” through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Young Women General President Emily Belle Freeman visited Japan for five days and spoke at a national devotional. She is also visiting Micronesia.
BYU religious education professor and Wheatley Institute fellow Jenet Erickson delivered the BYU-Idaho devotional and said, “Heaven is not so much a place. It is a quality of relationship,” in a talk titled “Designed for Love and Connection. Designed for Family.” She said, “We are deeply relational beings, designed not for independence, but for radical dependence and connection. We are designed for family.”
The 13th Relief Society General President, Mary Ellen Wood Smoot, died at age 91.
What I’m reading
While I was a BYU student after serving a mission in Frankfurt, Germany, I learned and became fascinated by the story of Helmuth Hübener, a faithful Latter-day Saint boy who resisted Hitler’s rule and was executed by the Nazis. Now two German cities are honoring his life. Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf said Hübener “will always serve as a reminder and an invitation to follow the teachings of Christ.”
The Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl with four Latter-day Saint coaches and players: offensive coordinator Kellen Moore, backup quarterback Tanner McKee, injured wide receiver and kick returner Britain Covey and practice squad offensive lineman Laekin Vakalahi. They beat the Kansas City Chiefs, who had at least three Latter-day Saints: head coach Andy Reid, assistant coach Porter Ellett and backup offensive lineman Kingsley Suamataia.
Kellen Moore was named the new head coach of the New Orleans Saints after the Super Bowl. So, yes, now a Latter-day Saint is coaching the Saints.
Of course, the end of football means the start of baseball. Good news on that front, TV ratings for baseball show it is a resurgent sport.
I loved this story about Brian Billick, a former BYU player who won a Super Bowl as a head coach and is part of the LaVell Edwards coaching tree.
The Deseret New spoke with Ross Douthat about why everyone should be religious.
Democrat and Republican presidents have backed the idea of ending the production of the American penny for a long time. President Trump said he’s instructed the Treasury Department to stop. Did you know that the Treasury has discontinued the following coins in U.S. history, per NBC News:
- The half-cent coin in 1857.
- The trime, a 3-cent coin, in 1873.
- The gold dollar coin in 1889. (It was different than the one now in circulation.)
Behind the Scenes
