How Do We Magnify the Power of Sisterhood?

The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday concerns freedom of religion for women. President Camille N. Johnson, Relief Society general president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, spoke today at the 2024 BYU Religious Freedom Annual Review in Provo, Utah, and share some of the remarks that she gave in March 2024 to the European Union Parliament before International Women’s Day.

Tad Walch covers religion for The Deseret News with a focus on The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. According to his article, Johnson believes that women must have religious liberty for the world to have global peace. 

“As women, we exist in an often-unspoken global sisterhood,” she said. “The tides and season of our biology and the universality of the way we bear and nurture humanity connect us wordlessly across cultural divides, language barriers and political chasms. They create a common experience when no other obvious bridges exist. Because of the connectedness of women and of humanity’s highest aspirations, I submit that the religious freedom of women is a key component to global peace.”

Johnson understands that this is a “bold claim.” However, it “comes from her lived experience as the head of one of the world’s oldest and largest women’s organizations.” There are “nearly 8 million women in more than 30,000 congregations worldwide” with all of them being members of the Relief Society. Walch indicated that the Relief Society presidency “recently announced a new donation of $55.8 million to expand its global initiative to improve maternal and child health worldwide.” This initiative will work “with eight partners in 12 countries.”

Even though the Relief Society sisters are powerful as a whole, Johnson said that “Latter-day Saint women are equally powerful in the work they do individually and in their families, congregations and their local areas.

“I have seen how this faith-based organization inspires women to unite in providing consistent acts of service within their homes and communities,” she said.

That is why governments and others should champion religious freedom for women, President Johnson said.

“In almost all instances when society or governments restrict women from living out their rights of conscience, we can expect poorer outcomes – poorer outcomes within the home, with public health, with education and with civil society,” she said. “By extension, when religious freedom for women is protected, we can expect better outcomes in all those domains.”

The speakers at the BYU conference spoke to the theme “Becoming peacemakers through supporting religious freedom and pluralism.” Speakers included Muslims, evangelicals, Latter-day Saints, and people from other religions and faith traditions, and they discussed throughout the day “the importance of finding common ground in a polarized society.”

Johnson asked the leaders at the conference to find ways “to remove unnecessary burdens and restrictions on women” and to unify for freedom of religion and belief.

“Women’s engagement in their congregations and families and communities will create a wave of empathy and compassion. The sisterhood of women, unburdened by prejudice and oppression, can unite across boundaries through the simplest of acts.” …

“Our implicit sisterhood creates an ability to build on common ground,” she said, “which forms the basis of peace, a peace that is more than mere coexistence in the absence of war, but something much more beautiful and powerful, bringing individuality into a unified whole.” …

“Imagine with me what would happen if every woman felt empowered, within her sphere of influence, to live out the full measure of her special gifts and propensities for nurture, care, healing, teaching, leading and peacemaking,” she said.

“Women who express faith from any faith tradition or spiritual background will then undoubtedly serve those around them,” she added. “This service, especially when rendered alongside other women of faith and across cultural divides, will empower the peacemaking capacity of our global sisterhood.”

President Johnson also said freedom of religion and belief provides assurance to women “that they can live conscientious moral lives with mutual supportive fellow believers while affording that same dignity to their neighbors.”

Her term as Relief Society general president has afforded her the opportunity to travel around the world and see first hand what women can do when allowed “to express their fullest selves and connect with others through our joint sisterhood.”

“I have seen women elevate one another in the midst of poverty,” she said. “I have seen women care for, feed and nurture children who are not their own. And I have seen women stand to protect others from the ravages of war. When it lives up to its highest aspirations, our sisterhood provides the practical means of fulfilling Jesus Christ’s admonition to love our neighbors and our friends just as ourselves, thereby providing the conditions for lasting peace and human flourishing.

Johnson gave examples of how Latter-day Saint women with religious freedom have worked with other women to provide care – helping thousands of refugees in Europe, helping to feed malnourished children (first in the Philippines and then in 12 other countries). However, she believes “that the most important and impactful work of women continues to be done when we care for our own children, when we teach a friend to read, patiently address the needs of an elderly neighbor, prepare a meal for the sick or cry with a sister who was grieving.”

Just as she did in her speech to the European Union Parliament, Johnson closed her talk with a call to action. She asked everyone to stop, offer a prayer, and “think of someone whose life they can meaningfully improve with an act of compassion.” Then she asked the attendees to write it down and to act upon it. That is good advice for all of us.