President Oaks Says the Constitution Demands More Than Freedom

A week before President Dallin H. Oaks spoke at Washington National Cathedral, we asked what might happen when a prophet carried familiar teachings about faith, freedom and the Constitution into a national conversation. Wednesday evening, he provided an answer: The Constitution does more than protect a divided people’s freedoms; it requires them to work together.

President Oaks, President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, became the first Church President to address an audience at the cathedral, according to Church Newsroom. His keynote centered on coalition building, negotiation and the difficult work of preserving fundamental rights in a pluralistic society.

“The Constitution requires us to deal constantly with people who disagree with us,” President Oaks said. “It compels a divided people to build coalitions that allow them to act together for the common good.”

The event, “Faith, Freedom and the Common Good,” formed part of Washington National Cathedral’s “A Better Way” series. Cathedral dean the Very Rev. Randolph Marshall Hollerith opened the program by describing the building as a place “at the intersection of the sacred and the civic” and calling for “a better way to disagree with each other.”

Peacemakers by Necessity

President Oaks began with the experience of early Latter-day Saints, who survived expulsion from Missouri under an extermination order and later fled beyond the borders of the United States. When pioneers reached the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, Church President Brigham Young initially served as their only governing authority and later became the Utah Territory’s first governor.

That arrangement changed in 1858 when the president of the United States appointed a new governor who was not a member of the Church. The transition required the Saints to learn to live under both religious and civil authority.

President Oaks then turned to the religious rejection Latter-day Saints have faced more recently, including claims that they are not Christians. That history, he explained, required Church members to find ways to preserve their faith while living peacefully with those who did not share it.

“You might say we have become peacemakers and advocates of freedom and unity by necessity,” he said. “We have learned to forge those compromises on policy necessary to achieve the freedom and unity to live at peace with those with whom we disagree on religious faith.”

Those compromises did not require the Church to surrender its defining beliefs. President Oaks said Latter-day Saints simultaneously preserved the freedom needed to continue their “most important doctrines and practices.”

Rights That Sometimes Collide

Drawing on 70 years of studying the Constitution, President Oaks cited his experience as a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, a law professor, a Utah Supreme Court justice and an Apostle of Jesus Christ. “In these remarks I do not speak for any political party or pressure group,” he said. “I speak for the United States Constitution.”

His government service and religious leadership have shown him the tension believers sometimes experience between duties to God and duties to country. He also acknowledged another form of distress that has become clearer to him over time.

“More recently, I have come to understand better the distress of other minorities who feel that some of us are invoking constitutional rights like free exercise of religion and freedom of speech to deny or challenge their own core beliefs and their basic constitutional rights,” he said. That concern led President Oaks to address the limits surrounding the exercise of constitutionally protected freedoms.

Although the First Amendment guarantees the right to practice religious beliefs, he said government may sometimes restrict actions based on those beliefs to protect public health, safety and welfare. Genuine conflicts between constitutional rights require legal balancing and political negotiation that preserve all essential rights as fully as possible.

“We need to work for a better way forward—a way to resolve differences without compromising core values,” President Oaks said. “We should seek fairness for all.”

President Oaks also cautioned citizens against seeking complete victory for every position they hold. Quoting Princeton University professor Robert P. George, he reminded listeners that those who disagree deeply over justice and the common good “are not our enemies.”

What Makes the Constitution Inspired

President Oaks reaffirmed the Constitution’s special importance to Latter-day Saints, who accept a revelation identifying it as divinely inspired. He clarified that this belief applies to its underlying principles rather than every word in the document.

The first principle he identified was popular sovereignty, or the understanding that government receives its power from its citizens. He then named the division of authority between the federal government and the states and the separation of power among the executive, legislative and judicial branches.

The fourth principle encompasses individual rights and explicit limits on government authority, including the protections contained in the Bill of Rights. The fifth establishes that the nation must be governed by law rather than by individuals.

“Our loyalty is based on the Constitution and its principles and processes, not to particular office-holders,” President Oaks said. That principle asks citizens to obey laws they dislike while using constitutional means to improve them.

The Constitution and the nation’s original understanding of it were not perfect, he acknowledged. Voting rights for women, the abolition of slavery and laws securing freedom for those who had been enslaved or disadvantaged required consequential changes over the country’s first two centuries.

Resolving such divisions required participation from political, cultural, civic and religious groups. President Oaks connected that long constitutional process with the continued need for citizens to understand experiences and concerns different from their own.

Why Courts Cannot Resolve Everything

President Oaks drew a direct connection between constitutional government and the teachings of Jesus Christ. He cited the Savior’s declaration, “Blessed are the peacemakers,” along with the Apostle Paul’s counsel to pursue peace and live peaceably with others whenever possible.

“‘Compels’ is a strong word, but it is exactly what the Constitution does,” President Oaks said. “It puts what we now call ‘peacemaking’ at the heart of the Constitution’s process for achieving freedom and unity, and fairness for all.”

Americans often turn to litigation when conflicts involve their most fundamental beliefs, but courts can decide only the particular cases placed before them. President Oaks said that limitation can leave the judiciary poorly equipped to create broad and comprehensive policy when two significant values collide.

“Notwithstanding my years of working with judicial opinions, on some issues I prefer the less contentious route of legislative law-making,” he said. Legislative negotiations can consider a wider range of interests and produce accommodations unavailable through a court ruling.

President Oaks cited Harvard Law School professor and later dean Martha Minow, who wrote that “accommodation and negotiation can identify practical solutions where abstract principles sometimes cannot.” Minow also linked negotiated problem-solving with the preservation of American pluralism and constitutional protections for minority groups.

Those processes require time for participants to determine which concerns are truly nonnegotiable. President Oaks said both sides are best served by mutual respect, shared understanding, good-faith negotiation and respect for the rule of law.

The Utah Compromise

President Oaks illustrated that approach through the Utah Compromise, which emerged from conflict over religious freedom and protection against discrimination in housing and employment. The Church and nondiscrimination advocates entered negotiations even though cooperation between the opposing groups had previously appeared impossible.

Both sides began to understand the other’s priorities and identify which protections mattered most. Their work with the Utah Legislature led to a 2015 amendment to the state’s antidiscrimination law.

The legislation established significant protections against discrimination in employment and housing while protecting religious freedom in sensitive areas of Church employment and student housing. Neither side received everything it sought, but each secured protections that President Oaks said could not have been achieved without the balancing possible through the legislative process.

Troy Williams, then executive director of Equality Utah, described what the negotiations accomplished. “Neither side compromised our values, but rather, we discovered new ways forward that respected each other and forged areas of common ground,” he said in the quotation President Oaks shared.

President Oaks encouraged Americans to approach major conflicts as opportunities to listen and learn about both the issue and those on the other side. That approach can draw upon shared moral instincts even when fundamental differences prevent a complete resolution.

“It produces peacemakers, even in those instances when competing core values may preclude ultimate conciliation,” he said. Peace, in this framework, does not depend on reaching full agreement.

Peacemaking Beyond Politics

President Oaks extended the principle from government negotiations to the Church’s helping hands volunteers, whose yellow shirts often appear during disaster cleanup and other humanitarian projects. Their service creates personal relationships that institutional declarations alone cannot produce.

“When our volunteers bring help, people in distress do not ask for their beliefs,” he said. “Likewise, the volunteers help everyone, not just fellow believers.”

In moments of crisis, shared needs involving safety, family and hope take priority over ideological or religious differences. “What is important is giving help and getting help, people-to-people,” President Oaks said.

He applied the same principle to ministers helping troubled marriages, individuals resolving personal disputes and young people choosing service and kindness over self-gratification. Those who reduce suffering or promote understanding between different groups also participate in the work of peace.

“People of goodwill, compassion, and a desire to understand and help one another are at the core of peacemaking and fairness for all in the constitutional process of achieving freedom and unity, as difficult and slow as it is,” President Oaks said. The work requires understanding the deepest commitments on both sides before attempting to develop a solution.

A Prayer for a Divided Nation

President Oaks concluded by placing his constitutional argument within a Christian understanding of human worth. “Knowing that we are all children of God gives us a divine vision of the worth of all others and the will and ability to rise above prejudice and racism,” he said.

His experiences in different parts of the country have taught him that Americans can obey the law, seek to improve it and love those they consider adversaries. He attributed the ability to perform that difficult work to Jesus Christ, who commanded His followers to love and promised to help them obey.

Standing in what the cathedral calls “the house of prayer for all,” President Oaks closed his address with this prayer: “I pray to our Heavenly Father for His blessings upon us that we will all seek to be peacemakers,” he said.

What are your thoughts about President Oaks’ address? Share with us in the comments below!

Holly Wallace

Holly Wallace is a writer and storyteller drawn to meaningful questions and overlooked details. Her work explores Latter-day Saint life and culture through faithful inquiry, inviting readers to pause, consider, and engage more deeply with what matters most.