On October 9th, RFI and allied organizations held a forum in Berlin, Germany titled “Religious Freedom and Tolerance for Tradition: The Challenge for the Pluralistic West.” It took place on the margins of the Berlin Ministerial of the International Religious Freedom or Belief Alliance (IRFBA), a coalition of 43 states committed to advancing freedom of religion worldwide. The purpose of the RFI event was to highlight — and offer a way to counter — the intolerance faced by religious believers who adhere to traditional teachings on marriage, family, and human nature.

Organized under the leadership of RFI Senior Fellow for Europe Todd Huizinga, with the participation of RFI President David Trimble and RFI Senior Fellow Eugene Yapp, the forum was a key example of RFI’s work in advancing religious freedom globally. Because social and legal restrictions on people of traditional faith are increasing worldwide, RFI brought together a multinational coalition of religious freedom experts from the United States, Mexico, Europe, Asia, and Africa to help chart a path forward.

In his remarks, Huizinga announced that a new declaration affirming religious freedom for all — including those who hold to the enduring moral teachings of their faiths — will be submitted to IRFBA for consideration. The declaration provides the opportunity for the IRFBA member states to announce their support for the freedom of religion of those who espouse traditional religious teachings on marriage, family, and human nature. Huizinga said, “We trust that the IRFBA member states will readily sign it, publish it, and work toward its practical implementation in everyday life.”

Because the declaration reaffirms a commitment to the fundamental rights of all people, Huizinga said, “We believe this statement could have a real effect not only in safeguarding religious freedom for all, but also in promoting mutual understanding and healing the deep divisions in our pluralistic societies.”  

RFI has always stressed the importance of religious freedom for fostering peace and stability in society. Focusing on today’s polarizing divisions between people of faith and secularists in the United States and Europe, RFI President David Trimble paraphrased some key thoughts of Ryan Anderson, President of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. “In order to re-learn how to live together,” Trimble said, “we must start by distinguishing between discrimination and disagreement.” Trimble continued:

While anti-gay and anti-transgender bigotry exists and should be condemned, support for marriage as the union of husband and wife —whether or not it is based on religious faith — is not anti-gay. In the same way, the conviction that sex, i.e., maleness and femaleness, is a biological reality is not anti-transgender….In protecting the interests of particular groups in society, we need to safeguard the fundamental rights of everyone. Nondiscrimination law should not impose a ‘new sexual orthodoxy’ on our societies. It should be a shield to protect people, and not a sword to stigmatize people of faith, encourage anti-religious bigotry, and deny liberty to traditional Muslims, Jews, Christians, and other believers.

The forum has received international media coverage. Thus far, press articles have appeared in English, German, and Italian.

The European Conservative, probably the top pan-European journal of news and conservative commentary, highlighted the serious threats to religious freedom that now exist in the democratic West, and the speakers’ proposals on how the West could better uphold religious freedom in balance with other social values.

Tichys Einblick, a German journal of conservative commentary, called attention to the problem of Western intolerance toward religion and the necessity of religion as a foundation of Western civilization. It also reported on the comments of the speakers from the Global South, such as RFI’s Eugene Yapp, who described the importance of religion in traditional societies, and how the West is using its cultural influence and leveraging its aid money to pressure the developing world to follow its secularist ideology. This included the Senegalese Minister of Justice, Ousmane Diagne, who emphasized, as a Muslim voice from Africa, the necessity of religion, and the diversity of religious expression, in fostering social stability.

The Catholic News Agency (Germany) and EWTN News (Vatican City) emphasized the importance of the declaration on religious freedom for all as a means to protect fundamental freedoms amid growing intolerance toward religion in the West.

Reflecting on the international solidarity for religious freedom that this event demonstrated, Trimble said, “The time has come to defend traditional religious believers whose freedom of religion is threatened, even in Western democracies, by the increasingly militant secularism of governments, media, academia, and the corporate world.”