Visiting Scholars Urge All to Respect the Consciences of Others

In a series of lectures held 2-20 May, two visiting scholars travelled to various cities in Australia and New Zealand speaking on themes of religious toleration and freedom of conscience.

Neville Rochow SC, adjunct professor at Sydney’s University of Notre Dame and an adjunct associate professor at the University of Adelaide, together with Fred E. Woods, PhD, professor of religion at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, USA, spoke at a series of events in universities, parliaments and other venues.

“The purpose for which we have come,” Professor Woods said this week, “is to discuss freedom of religion and freedom of conscience.” 

“Not just tolerating the other person but validating them, respecting them regardless of their religiosity. We have a need to appreciate and defend our differences.”

Professor Rochow told his audiences, which comprised faith leaders, legislators, academics and other guests: “No conscience should be favoured over another.”

Both speakers emphasized the need to find common ground where matters of difference may arise. “I think we need to take a fresh look at our laws that regulate discrimination and hate speech so they are fairly calibrated,” Professor Rochow said.

Professor Woods cited the Hawaiian settlement of Kalaupapa as an example of tolerance and mutual respect.  In its early years, Kalaupapa was a community of leprosy patients and care givers.

“Here we find a community not only tolerating one another but really trying to build the other,” he said.  “They have spent decades of loving each other, supporting each other, even building each other’s places of worship.”

In summarizing his two week experience, Professor Rochow said, “The response has been warm and I feel the ideas have resonated with people.  They consider them to be very important.  We are especially heartened by the response of legislators…showing themselves to be dedicated individuals who care about issues of conscience.”

Elder S. Gifford Nielsen of the Pacific Area Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — who attended a luncheon with Members of Parliament and other guests in Wellington at which Professors Rochow and Woods spoke — said the messages being discussed were very important.

“We need to work with governmental, faith and other community leaders to teach that freedom of conscience and freedom of religion are absolutely essential. These basic rights affect every aspect of our lives and must be protected by law,” he said.

Watch a short video featuring Professors Woods and Rochow discussing religious toleration and freedom of conscience.