Absolute Truth

First, all persons are brothers and sisters under God,
taught within their various religions to love and do
good to one another.

A second absolute truth—this living
with differences is what the gospel of Jesus Christ
teaches us we must do.

The kingdom of God is like a leaven, Jesus taught (see
Matthew 13:33). A leaven—yeast—is hidden away in the
larger mass until the whole is leavened, which means
raised by its influence. Our Savior also taught that His
followers will have tribulation in the world, that their
numbers and dominions will be small (see 1 Nephi
14:12), and that they will be hated because they are not
of the world (see John 17:14). But that is our role. We
are called to live with other children of God who do not
share our faith or our values and who do not have the
covenant obligations we have assumed. So it was that,
at the conclusion of His ministry, Jesus prayed to the
Father, “Not that thou shouldest take them out of the
world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil”
(John 17:15). We are to be in the world, but not of the
world.
25. Since followers of Jesus Christ are commanded to be a
leaven—not to be taken out of the world, but to remain
in it—we must seek tolerance from those who hate
us for not being of the world. As part of this, we will
sometimes need to challenge laws that would impair our
freedom to practice our faiths, doing so in reliance on
our constitutional rights to the free exercise of religion.

Our tolerance and respect for others and their beliefs
does not cause us to abandon our commitment to the
truths we understand and the covenants we have made.

That is a third absolute truth: We do not abandon the
truth and our covenants. We are cast as combatants in
the war between truth and error. There is no middle
ground. We must stand up for truth, even while we
practice tolerance and respect for beliefs and ideas
different from our own and for the people who hold
them.
32. While we must practice tolerance and respect for
others and their beliefs, including their constitutional
freedom to explain and advocate their positions, we are
not required to respect and tolerate wrong behavior.
Our duty to truth requires us to seek relief from some
behavior that is wrong.