A former Utah Supreme Court justice, President Dallin H. Oaks will address listeners across the nation from the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., on the eve of Constitution Day.
The prophet and leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will speak as part of an event titled “Faith, Freedom and the Common Good.” His remarks at the National Cathedral will center on faith, religious liberty and the United States Constitution.
Listeners will gather at the historic cathedral for the event on Wednesday, Sept. 16 at 6 p.m. EDT.
Others across the United States and around the world are invited to join the event — presented by the Washington National Cathedral and BYU’s Wheatley Institute — via this livestream link. In-person passes for the event have reached capacity.
President Oaks has spoken extensively about religious freedom, the Constitution and the role of faith in civic life throughout his roughly 42-year ministry as a leader of the Church of Jesus Christ.
A former law professor at the University of Chicago and law clerk in the United States Supreme Court, he has previously been invited to address audiences across the country and abroad. Here are five quotes from his past teachings.
1. Faith is interlinked with the nation’s origin
“Only those principles (of right and wrong) in the hearts of a majority of our diverse population can sustain that Constitution today. I submit that religious values and political realities are so interlinked in the origin and perpetuation of this nation that we cannot lose the influence of religion in our public life without seriously jeopardizing our freedoms.”
— Deseret News magazine essay adapted from 2011 address at Chapman University, July/August 2026 issue
2. A unique responsibility
“Our belief in divine inspiration gives Latter-day Saints a unique responsibility to uphold and defend the United States Constitution and principles of constitutionalism wherever we live. We should trust in the Lord and be positive about this nation’s future. … We must pray for the Lord to guide and bless all nations and their leaders. … We should learn and advocate the inspired principles of the Constitution. We should seek out and support wise and good persons who will support those principles in their public actions. We should be knowledgeable citizens who are active in making our influence felt in civic affairs.”
— “Defending Our Divinely Inspired Constitution,” April 2021 general conference
3. Replace fears with respect
“We must not allow fears about losing our own freedoms make us insensitive to others’ claims for theirs. Let us unite with those who advocate nondiscrimination to seek a culture and laws that respect the rights of all to the equal protection of the law and the right to the free exercise of religion.”
— Address at the University of Virginia, Nov. 12, 2021
4. The key to living peaceably
“Conflicting claims are best resolved by seeking to understand the experiences and concerns of others, and by good faith negotiations. None of this requires any compromise of our core religious principles, but rather a careful examination of what is really essential to our free exercise of religion, in contrast to what other believers consider really essential to their beliefs. In this way we learn to live peacefully with some laws we dislike and with some persons whose values differ from our own.”
— Address at the Notre Dame Religious Liberty Summit in Rome, Italy, July 20, 2022
5. True religious liberty
“The most effective representation of religious liberty is a representation that stands up for people of faith or no faith, because even people of no faith have a great interest in what can be done by religions and believing people who speak up for freedom generally, which we try to encourage.”
— Church News podcast, July 4, 2023