What Religions Have in Common

What religions have in common
Is far more important than how they vary
On this mission we're now called on
To maintain the religious freedoms we carry

So valuable is religious teaching
To our free society today
We must remind all of how far reaching
We are in charitable service and aid

Let us review history and highlight a few
Of our accomplishments on the public square
The Emancipation Proclamation and civil rights too
Were inspired and furthered through religious care

The practice of integrity and honesty rest
Ultimately on our ideas of right and wrong
While law enforcement is limited at best
The influence of religion is long

From the origin of the Constitution
We've defined human worth and dignity
We are a necessary institution
For preserving our nations prosperity

For almost a century
We've limited political power as we should
As we are the cornerstone of democracy
Rallying people for doing what is good

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Our Founding Fathers deliberately
Placed religious freedom first in the Bill of Rights
So wanting to maintain the guarantee
Of a nation under God's guiding light

Elder Dallin H. Oaks speech at Chapman University School of Law

The Constitution Should Not be Misconstrued

The Constitution should not be used
As a weapon to end debate
Especially when proposals abuse
The guarantees given to each state

For who is closer to the people
Who've sovereignty to embrace
Than the local government, pure and simple
Righting the issues that they face

And above all, may religious freedom reign
To promote righteousness and civic virtue
That faith in America not wain
For the good that it can do

Let us each express gratitude
To God for life and liberty
Then lest our laws be misconstrued
Let us work to balance them properly

“Fundamentals of Our Constitutions” - Elder Dallin H. Oaks

Utah’s Constitution Day Celebration

Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Utah

The Divinely Inspired Constitution

We have an inspired constitution
What exactly does that mean to me?
Through the law and through obedience
I can enjoy life and liberty

How did the quest for freedom begin?
What led these men to struggle within?
How many of them each other knew
Did they speak from where their yearnings grew?

For checks and balances more seasoned
Our founding fathers met and reasoned
As common cause became their goal
It united them with purpose whole

A miracle did unite this group
Though they could not pay for their own troupe
With borrowed money and with debt
They had much work that they must do yet

A bill of rights, soverenity
How to treat each man with dignity
How to maintain the rights of all flesh
Yet politically combine and mesh

Dallin H. Oaks, Utah Supreme Court Justice from 1980 to 1984
Ensign, Feb 1992, 68
“The Divinely Inspired Constitution, ”