Why President Oaks’ Washington National Cathedral Address Is Worth Watching

A note to readers: This article combines reported details with thoughtful analysis of the event and its broader context. Some observations reflect the author’s perspective.

On the eve of Constitution Day, President Dallin H. Oaks will enter Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. to speak about faith, religious liberty and the Constitution. Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have heard him address these subjects before, but the setting and audience give this particular appearance an added dimension.

The September 16 event, titled “Faith, Freedom and the Common Good,” will examine the relationship between religious faith and American democracy. According to a Church Newsroom release, the cathedral and the Wheatley Institute at Brigham Young University will present the free program at 6 p.m. EDT, with a livestream available for those who cannot attend in person.

Why This Invitation Matters

Washington National Cathedral describes itself as a “house of prayer for all people” conceived to serve as a “great church for national purposes.” Rooted in the Episcopal Church, it occupies an unusual role as both a place of worship and a gathering place when the country turns to religious voices for reflection, mourning and moral guidance.

That national role has placed the cathedral at the center of consequential moments in American life. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his final Sunday sermon from its pulpit four days before his assassination, and the cathedral later hosted the national prayer service following September 11 and state funerals for five U.S. presidents.

The cathedral now carries that role into ongoing public conversations through its College of Faith & Culture, the gateway for its public programs. Launched in 2022, the college seeks to bring people from different backgrounds together, cultivate spiritual growth and restore a measure of grace and generosity to the nation’s civic life.

The college places the September 16 event featuring President Oaks within its “A Better Way” initiative, which asks people to look beyond partisan labels and political beliefs. Rather than making agreement the standard, the initiative urges people to treat one another with “humility, decency and generosity of spirit.”

That framework helps explain why President Oaks is a particularly fitting choice and gives Latter-day Saints a glimpse of how he is perceived beyond the Church of Jesus Christ. By inviting him into this conversation, the event organizers suggest that his teachings have something to offer the nation as a whole.

Religion and the Common Good

President Oaks outlined one likely foundation for his address in a July 4 essay featured in Deseret Magazine. He argued that the First Amendment doesn’t simply protect churches from government interference. It preserves religious influence that benefits society as a whole.

He pointed to religiously motivated schools, hospitals, humanitarian work and care for the poor as examples of that influence. President Oaks also connected religious belief with honesty, integrity and voluntary obedience to moral standards that government cannot enforce.

“Our society is not held together just by law and its enforcement, but most importantly by voluntary obedience to the unenforceable and by widespread adherence to unwritten norms of right or righteous behavior,” he wrote. His argument places part of the responsibility for sustaining constitutional government in the everyday character and conduct of its citizens.

In other words, defending the Constitution involves more than supporting particular policies or candidates. Rather, it requires the cultivation of moral qualities that encourage people to use freedom righteously.

President Oaks’ essay further connected religious conviction with reform in the public square. He cited the abolition of the slave trade in England, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Civil Rights Movement as examples of religious principles motivating people to confront entrenched wrongs.

Conviction Without Contention

The event’s emphasis on common ground also aligns with President Oaks’ repeated counsel about political and cultural disagreement. In his April 2026 general conference address, he invited listeners to “follow Christ by forgoing contention and by using the language and methods of peacemakers.”

President Oaks has never presented unity as complete agreement or asked believers to surrender their values. Instead, he has taught that people should defend their distinctive beliefs while working beside others to protect religious freedom and “fairness for all.”

That balance has become increasingly difficult in a political culture that often treats compromise as weakness and opponents as enemies.

When Politics Becomes a Moral Shortcut

President Oaks has also resisted efforts to fit discipleship neatly within any political party. His teachings acknowledge that every party, platform and candidate combines positions that both align and conflict with a given voter’s priorities and principles.

During the Church’s May 31 lesson on the Constitution and religious freedom, members reviewed his counsel to seek inspiration when weighing those competing concerns. He has urged Latter-day Saints to remain independent enough to frequently reconsider party support or candidate choices rather than allow lifelong political affiliation to settle every moral question in advance.

That instruction does not direct Church members toward one preferred party or demand identical voting decisions. It asks them to place gospel principles first and allow those principles—not partisan identity—to shape their judgment.

President Oaks has also warned Church members against measuring another person’s faithfulness by political affiliation or voting choices. That counsel leaves space for sincere disagreement while challenging the assumption that one side holds all the virtue and the other deserves only suspicion.

Freedom for People Who Believe Differently

President Oaks’ defense of religious liberty extends beyond protecting Latter-day Saints or Christians. He has taught that believers should “walk shoulder to shoulder along the path of religious freedom for all while still exercising that freedom to pursue our distinctive beliefs.”

The words “for all” give the principle its depth. Religious liberty asks people to protect the conscience of neighbors whose beliefs and choices differ from their own, not merely those whose practices feel familiar.

That understanding shaped the Church’s nationwide fifth-Sunday lesson earlier this year. According to Church Newsroom, more than 14,600 United States congregations discussed the Constitution, moral agency and the responsibility to defend the religious rights of people from different faiths.

President D. Todd Christofferson, Second Counselor in the First Presidency, and Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught that constitutional protections helped create the conditions necessary for the Restoration. They also emphasized that the principles protecting agency and freedom hold relevance for all of God’s children.

A Message to Hear With an Open Mind

The nation’s 250th anniversary offers a natural reason to revisit these conversations, but President Oaks is more than a legal scholar honoring a historical moment. We sustain him as a prophet whose ministry, in his own words, reaches “all the children of God on the face of the earth.”

That changes how this address deserves to be heard. Its significance lies not only in what President Oaks says about faith and democracy, but in the fact that a prophet is carrying these concerns before an audience far beyond the Church.

For Latter-day Saints, September 16 offers a rare opportunity to hear how prophetic counsel enters a national conversation. We should listen not as spectators wondering what the country needs to hear, but as disciples prepared to receive the message ourselves.

What do you hope President Oaks addresses in his remarks? Share your thoughts 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.