The Rev. Bob Roberts threw an unexpected question at a Latter-day Saint leader Tuesday night during a panel discussion at the Global Faith Forum in Washington, D.C.
Pastor Bob — that’s all he or anyone else ever calls him — has so embraced working with Muslims and other faiths that he has suffered attacks from fellow Christians who believe he goes too far, one panelist noted.
The panel was the pastor in his playbook, bringing together a Buddhist, a Muslim, a Jew, a Protestant and a leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Elder Marcus B. Nash of the Quorum of the Seventy.
As they talked together on the stage of the Washington Hilton’s ballroom, the Rev. Roberts asked a deep question with no advance warning in front of a crowd of hundreds of international faith leaders.
“Elder Nash,” he said, “what do you think Jesus meant when he said, ‘Love your enemy?’”
The pastor called it the most radical thing Jesus ever said.
“Do you ever think about that verse?” he asked Elder Nash.
“I have,” said Elder Nash, a member of the Presidency of the Seventy, the third-highest body in the church. He assists the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in supervising the areas of the church across the world.
“What do you think he meant when he said that?” the Rev. Roberts asked.
Elder Nash paused briefly to gather his thoughts. He was on church assignment, like Elder Ulisses Soares of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles last year, to speak at both the International Religious Freedom Summit and the Global Faith Forum in Washington, D.C.
The church joined other sponsors in providing financial support for both events.
Then Elder Nash shared what he characterized as a homespun statement often attributed to the U.S. president who navigated the Civil War.
“Abraham Lincoln was once asked,” he said, “‘Why do you make friends with your enemies? You should be destroying them.’ His reply was, ‘Well, when I make them my friends, am I not destroying the enemy?’”
The response drew applause.
Elder Nash said that if someone treats him as if he is their enemy, “It’s my choice whether he will be my enemy.” Lashing back only demonizes the person, he said, “and that usually lacks intellectual and spiritual and moral power.”
He said he seeks to build some kind of a bridge so that, while they can still differ, he can be respectful.
“He learns as he feels respected to differ with respect as well,” Elder Nash said. “All of a sudden, we’re disagreeing but without being disagreeable. We can even reach across the lines and be friends, though we may not agree on everything.”
“That’s great,” the Rev. Roberts said. “It helps a whole lot.”
Earlier, the moderator noted that Elder Nash has lived as a religious minority. (He served a mission in El Salvador as a young man and was president of the church’s Africa West Area.)
Again with no preparation, Pastor Bob asked how Elder Nash has responded when somebody says something negative about his faith.
“My prayer is that I can see people as God sees them,” Elder Nash said. “They’re his children. ... If I invest enough in seeing them as they really are — it takes some prayer and effort — then I can understand.
“When they feel understood, they typically start to try to understand as well, and then we can bridge the gap.”
Elder Nash was joined by Elder Eric Baxter, an Area Seventy and religious freedom attorney, at IRF Summit 2026.
“There’s a mountain of evidence that shows the power of religious freedom in building families, communities and nations,” Elder Nash said to more than 1,000 faith leaders during a church-sponsored lunch at the summit.
The summit was a master class in the ways religious freedom is in peril in many places around the world. Nearly 80% of people live in countries with high levels of restrictions on religion, experts reported.
“To the degree religious freedom is embraced, it will bless the peoples of the Earth and their nations,” Elder Nash said.
He said Latter-day Saint leadership wants the world to be a place of peace and human dignity where all people can flourish.
“Religious freedom is our first, last and always best hope of cultivating good and worthy principles in the minds and souls of the people,” he said, “so that we learn to act together, to learn to differ without demonizing, disagree without being disagreeable — to work with others with opposing views to forge common ground instead of seeking to dominate.”
He also quoted Joseph Smith’s letter from Liberty Jail, when he wrote that influence is earned and maintained by persuasion, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, genuine love and kindness.
“That’s how relationships are formed and influence is made,” he said.
Elder Baxter spoke Monday, soon after the Rev. Paula White-Cain, the White House Faith Office special adviser to President Donald Trump.
Elder Baxter warned against allowing religion to become politics. For religious freedom to thrive, he said, vibrant faith must come first.
“The virtues of faith are unsurpassed in their power to both inspire the advocate and persuade the law giver. Religious bodies and advocates committed to religious freedom must not neglect to promote with equal fervor such primary religious obligations as pondering God’s word, praying and meditating and worshipping in community,” he said.
Those acts of faith inspire humility, invoke love and invite service. They also express that all human beings are children of the same God who inherently deserve dignity and respect, he said.
Elder Baxter also said believers need the light of each other’s faiths.
“In my private capacity as a religious liberty lawyer, my faith has been strengthened by the devotion of Sikhs and Jews, Muslims and Christians, Hindus and Zoroastrians, and I’ve seen how religious liberty, for one, protects religious liberty for all,” he said.
He also referred to Joseph Smith, who declared he was just as ready to die defending the rights of another denomination as his own, “for he knew that the same law that trampled any other believer would trample the Latter-day Saint as well.”
The Rev. Roberts is also the founder of the Multi-Faith Neighbors Network and the senior pastor at Northwood Church in Keller, Texas.
Elder Nash said the pastor is an example of one who learned to listen, who respected those that people thought should be his enemy and found good in all of them.
The other panelists were:
- His Eminence Shyalpa Rinpoche, a Buddhist who is founding the Universal Peace Sanctuary.
- His Excellency, Ibrahim Al-Naimi, undersecretary of Qatar’s Ministry of Education and Higher Education.
- Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, president of Zaytuna College.
- Miroslav Volf, director of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture.
- Diana Aviv, CEO of Partnership for American Democracy.
Elder Nash also talked about the two great commandments during the panel discussion.
“If I really love God, I will see my neighbor has God’s image,” he said. “Rather than try to put my image on him, I can see God’s image in him.
“It seems that if I love God, I will learn to love my neighbor, even if he thinks he’s my enemy.”
