ORANGE, Calif. — Christians should work together more than they do to protect the ideals of faith, family and religious freedom in American society, a senior LDS Church leader told an interfaith group Thursday night.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles made extensive arguments for the importance of those ideals, saying they are at risk in the 21st century. He said it is becoming popular to minimize religious faith in a way "unprecedented" in American culture.

"To counter these trends, every citizen should insist on his or her constitutional right to exercise one’s belief and to voice one’s conscience on issues not only in the privacy of the home or the sanctity of the pulpit but also in the public square, in the ballot box and in the halls of justice," he said.

"These are the rights of all citizens, including people, leaders and organizations who have religious beliefs. Such a group of people, leaders and organizations seem to me a perfect cluster for interfaith influence and interfaith activity.

"They must not be disenfranchised... ."

Interfaith effort

Elder Holland spoke at the 10th anniversary of Chapman University's Fish Interfaith Center in Orange, Calif.. He was the keynote speaker at the center's dedicatory event in 2005, when he said The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had contributed "a modest amount" to helped launch the center.

Interfaith unity on behalf of faith, family and religious freedom can be potent, Elder Holland said in Thursday night's talk, according to a transcript of his prepared remarks. It was a call for Latter-day Saints, members of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) — which operates Chapman University — and all believers to unite.

"We all are who we are, and doctrinally all of us believe what we believe," he said. "But so much of what we all hold dear in our faith, whatever it is, we hold in common, and it is so good, so broad, and so potentially powerful in addressing the ills of society or the ills of individual people that we ought in the fellowship of such brotherhood and sisterhood work together more than we do."

Doing so does not compromise personal of institutional commitments to differing doctrines, he added.

"Indeed the longer I live the more convinced I am that as Christians, Jews, Muslims, people of faith, we play into the devil's hand to let lesser differences obscure chances for greater unity, to let animosity canker our inherent, divine brotherhood and sisterhood, to let sectarian tradition destroy our collective desire to go about 'doing good.'"

Thursday night's talk came a month after Elder Holland and other church leaders reemphasized the church's official support for laws protecting LGBT people from discrimination in housing and hiring if those laws are balanced with protections for religious freedom.

At the same time, church leaders described some of their own interfaith efforts on behalf of religious liberty.

Faith and family

Elder Holland said society is making increasingly sophisticated arguments against special legal protections for religious liberty.

That is why Christian interfaith efforts "must be ever more effective in making the persuasive case for why both religious belief and institutional identity are more relevant than ever and deserve continued consideration and privilege within our society."

He said religion calls people to care for others and their communities in unique ways and quoted arguments by New York Times columnist David Brooks and Michael McConnell, director of the Stanford Constitutional Law Center, for why religious beliefs and institutions benefit people, communities and society.

Brooks wrote: "The religions that grow, succor and motivate people to perform heroic acts of service are usually theologically rigorous, arduous in practice and definite in their convictions about what is True and False."

McConnell said all Americans should resist arguments that "churches are just another charity, faith is just another ideology and worship is just another weekend activity."

Instead, religion is important because it is "an institution, a worldview, a set of personal loyalties and a locus of community, an aspect of identity and a connection to the transcendent. Other parts of human life may serve one or more of these functions, but none other serves them all."

Elder Holland also cited George Washington and John Adams about what they called the "indispensable" nature of religion and morality to American democracy.

He called the family the backbone of stable democracies.

"So rather than redefining marriage and family as we see increasing numbers around us trying to do," he added, "our age ought to be reinforcing and exalting that which has been the backbone of civilization since the dawn of it."

He referenced new statistics that show there are 40 million abortions per year worldwide and that 41 percent of all U.S. births are to unmarried women.

"We should be declaring boldly that inherent in the very act of creation is, for both parents, a life-long commitment to and responsibility for the child they created. No one can with impunity terminate that life, neglect that care, nor shirk that responsibility."

Elder Holland said interfaith efforts could make the world a better place, expressing hope for the future.

"I believe the young people at universities like Chapman and my alma mater, Brigham Young, and scores of other institutions, are among the finest and best-trained believers we've ever had to defend, to advocate and to plead for the great faith, the strong families and the religious freedom for which, and upon which, the future of a Christian society is dedicated."

Email: twalch@deseretnews.com