Orrin Hatch: “I rise today to speak once again on the topic of religious liberty. This is the fifth in a series of addresses I have…”

“I rise today to speak once again on the topic of religious liberty. This is the fifth in a series of addresses I have given on this vitally important subject. In my previous remarks, I have discussed why religious liberty matters, why it is important, and why it deserves special protection from government interference. I have also detailed the history of religious liberty in the United States in order to show that the desire for religious freedom was central to our Nation's founding and to the very idea of America. From the beginning, religious liberty has been a preeminent value in American life. Government accommodates religion--not the other way around. Lastly, in my previous remarks, I have sought to explain how religion has always had a robust public role in our society and to rebut the wrongheaded, ahistorical view that religion is a purely private matter that should be kept out of the public domain. Today I turn to the status of religious liberty in contemporary American life. My argument is straightforward. In ways that are both surprising and unprecedented, religious liberty is under attack here in the United States. I speak not merely of attacks on particular practices but also of attacks on the very idea of religious liberty itself--on the idea that there should be room in society for believers to live and to worship in ways that differ from prevailing orthodoxy.…”