{"id":13027,"date":"2020-03-31T08:23:42","date_gmt":"2020-03-31T13:23:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/?p=13027"},"modified":"2020-03-31T08:23:48","modified_gmt":"2020-03-31T13:23:48","slug":"covid-19-and-the-sacred-right-of-conscience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/covid-19-and-the-sacred-right-of-conscience","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19 and the Sacred Right of Conscience"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>As COVID-19 continues to ravage\nnations and take lives, religious leaders are calling for worldwide prayer. Israel\u2019s\nChief Rabbi David Lau urged Jews everywhere to join in a half-day fast on March\n25 as \u201ca petition looking to Divine Mercy,\u201d hoping that \u201cthe good Lord will\nlisten to our prayers and\u2026 save in His great mercy his people Israel and all\nthe children of the world who need it.\u201d Meanwhile, Pope Francis invited all Catholics\nand other Christians to join him in prayer on March 27 as he delivered his\n\u201cUrbi et Orbi\u201d (to the city and the world) blessing, normally given only at\nChristmas and Easter, in front of an empty St. Peter\u2019s Square. \u201cWe were caught\noff-guard by an unexpected, turbulent storm,\u201d the Pope declared, and \u201chave\nrealized that we are on the same boat,\u2026 all of us called to row together, each of us\nin need of comforting the other.\u201d And President Russell M. Nelson of the Church\nof Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints called upon members and \u201cour many friends\u201d\nto join in a worldwide fast on March 29 \u201cto pray for relief from the physical,\nemotional and economic effects of this global pandemic\u2026. Let us unite our faith\nto plead for physical, spiritual, and other healing throughout the entire\nworld.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This unprecedentedly vast and\nunited exercise of conscience comes just as the world is about to mark the International\nDay of Conscience on April 5, commemorating the timeless truth enshrined in articles\n1 and 18 of the <a href=\"https:\/\/un.org\/en\/universal-declaration-human-rights\/index.html\">Universal Declaration of\nHuman Rights<\/a>:\n\u201cAll human beings are born free and equal in dignity and\nrights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one\nanother in a spirit of brotherhood\u2026. Everyone has the right to freedom of\nthought, conscience and religion.\u201d So paramount is this right of conscience that\nit is one of the few rights that cannot, according to article 4 of the <a href=\"https:\/\/ohchr.org\/en\/professionalinterest\/pages\/ccpr.aspx\">International Covenant on\nCivil and Political Rights<\/a>, be derogated even \u201cin time of public emergency\nwhich threatens the life of the nation and the existence of which is officially\nproclaimed.\u201d Indeed, it is the exercise of this very right whereby people\neverywhere are now calling upon the Creator for relief from this public\nemergency which threatens the life of nations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tragically, however, it is\nthis same right of conscience that is in the crosshairs of the misleadingly\nlabeled \u201crights\u201d campaign of the LGBTQ movement, which seeks to vilify and shut\ndown any opposing views, even\u2014and especially\u2014when they are sincere expressions\nof religious faith. The sober warning by Justice Samuel Alito in his dissenting\nopinion in the <em>Obergefell<\/em>\ndecision (imposing gay \u201cmarriage\u201d in America)\u2014that it would be \u201cexploited by\nthose who are determined to stamp out every vestige of dissent\u201d\u2014is a wake-up\ncall to defend the right of conscience. Infringement of that right is always\ndangerous, and never more so than in times of crisis such as the present. We at\nthe International Organization for the Family join with all who exercise their\nright of conscience in praying for a speedy end to the COVID-19 pandemic, even\nas we continue to defend that sacred right of all humanity. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We at the International Organization for the Family join with all who exercise their right of conscience in praying for a speedy end to the COVID-19 pandemic, even as we continue to defend that sacred right of all humanity. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":13056,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":"We at the International Organization for the Family join with all who exercise their right of conscience in praying for a speedy end to the COVID-19 pandemic, even as we continue to defend that sacred right of all humanity. ","format":"standard","video":"","gallery":"","source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override":[{"single_blog_custom":"","sidebar":"","second_sidebar":"","share_position":"","share_float_style":"","post_date_format":"","post_date_format_custom":"","post_reading_time_wpm":"","zoom_button_out_step":"1","zoom_button_in_step":"1","number_popup_post":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"","single_post_gallery_size":""}],"trending_post_position":"","trending_post_label":""},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"510"},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[804,510,805],"tags":[2538,1587],"class_list":["post-13027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-family","category-foreground","tag-conscience","tag-covid-19"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.9 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>COVID-19 and the Sacred Right of Conscience - IFN<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/covid-19-and-the-sacred-right-of-conscience\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"COVID-19 and the Sacred Right of Conscience\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We at the International Organization for the Family join with all who exercise their right of conscience in praying for a speedy end to the COVID-19 pandemic, even as we continue to defend that sacred right of all humanity.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/covid-19-and-the-sacred-right-of-conscience\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"IFN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/iFamNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-03-31T13:23:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-03-31T13:23:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/urbi-et-orbi-1.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"E. Douglas Clark\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@iFamNewsEN\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@iFamNewsEN\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"E. Douglas Clark\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"COVID-19 and the Sacred Right of Conscience - IFN","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/covid-19-and-the-sacred-right-of-conscience","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"COVID-19 and the Sacred Right of Conscience","og_description":"We at the International Organization for the Family join with all who exercise their right of conscience in praying for a speedy end to the COVID-19 pandemic, even as we continue to defend that sacred right of all humanity.","og_url":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/covid-19-and-the-sacred-right-of-conscience","og_site_name":"IFN","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/iFamNews","article_published_time":"2020-03-31T13:23:42+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-03-31T13:23:48+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":675,"url":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/urbi-et-orbi-1.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"E. Douglas Clark","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@iFamNewsEN","twitter_site":"@iFamNewsEN","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"E. Douglas Clark","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/covid-19-and-the-sacred-right-of-conscience#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/covid-19-and-the-sacred-right-of-conscience"},"author":{"name":"E. Douglas Clark","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/004a3a3e14cfb4420066c3d177785019"},"headline":"COVID-19 and the Sacred Right of Conscience","datePublished":"2020-03-31T13:23:42+00:00","dateModified":"2020-03-31T13:23:48+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/covid-19-and-the-sacred-right-of-conscience"},"wordCount":534,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/covid-19-and-the-sacred-right-of-conscience#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/urbi-et-orbi-1.jpeg","keywords":["Conscience","CoViD-19"],"articleSection":["Breaking News","Family","Foreground"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/covid-19-and-the-sacred-right-of-conscience#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/covid-19-and-the-sacred-right-of-conscience","url":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/covid-19-and-the-sacred-right-of-conscience","name":"COVID-19 and the Sacred Right of Conscience - IFN","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/covid-19-and-the-sacred-right-of-conscience#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/covid-19-and-the-sacred-right-of-conscience#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/urbi-et-orbi-1.jpeg","datePublished":"2020-03-31T13:23:42+00:00","dateModified":"2020-03-31T13:23:48+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/covid-19-and-the-sacred-right-of-conscience#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/covid-19-and-the-sacred-right-of-conscience"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/covid-19-and-the-sacred-right-of-conscience#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/urbi-et-orbi-1.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/urbi-et-orbi-1.jpeg","width":1200,"height":675},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/covid-19-and-the-sacred-right-of-conscience#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Familia","item":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/es\/categoria\/familia"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"COVID-19 and the Sacred Right of Conscience"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/","name":"IFN","description":"International Family News Network","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#organization","name":"iFamNews","url":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Share-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Share-logo.png","width":200,"height":200,"caption":"iFamNews"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/iFamNews","https:\/\/x.com\/iFamNewsEN"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/004a3a3e14cfb4420066c3d177785019","name":"E. Douglas Clark","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4f01991614cc9086457280e0279d7da9c1c6dd2774eca1bf16e9e24005c6feb0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4f01991614cc9086457280e0279d7da9c1c6dd2774eca1bf16e9e24005c6feb0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"E. Douglas Clark"},"description":"E. Douglas Clark is an attorney and Director of UN and International Policy at the International Organization for the Family. For two decades Doug has been on the forefront of defending the family at the United Nations as a lobbyist and strategist, leading teams and consulting with policymakers in New York and around the world. His writings include the World Family Declaration and articles in The Natural Family: An International Journal of Research and Policy and Ave Maria International Law Journal. After earning MBA and JD degrees from Brigham Young University, he practiced banking law and served as director of content of the original Law.com.","url":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/author\/dclarkifamnews-com"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13027"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13027\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13062,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13027\/revisions\/13062"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}