Becket Fund Announces 2013 Canterbury Medalist: Elder Dallin H. Oaks Cardinal George, Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, Reverend Eugene F. Rivers III, Others to Highlight Dinne"

WASHINGTON, DC ─ Becket Law announced today that it will hold its eighteenth annual “Canterbury Medal Dinner” in New York on Thursday, May 16. The event will honor 2013 Canterbury Medalist Elder Dallin H. Oaks of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for his lifelong contributions to advancing religious freedom.

The event comes as religious freedom has made its way to the forefront in the minds of many Americans given the Administration’s attempts to impose an unconstitutional mandate on religiously-affiliated institutions. Becket Law has played a leading role in fighting back, filing the first lawsuits on behalf of religious organizations and family businesses representing a mix of faiths in six current lawsuits.

“We’re privileged to add Elder Oaks to the distinguished list of Canterbury Medalists, each of whom has given a lifetime to defending our religious liberty,” said William P. Mumma, Becket President. “He is an eloquent advocate for the principle that American society is stronger for a diverse and robust presence of faith in our public square.”

Elder Dallin H. Oaks has served as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since May 1984. Prior to accepting his calling, he had a distinguished career in the law. Elder Oaks clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, taught law at the University of Chicago, was in private legal practice, and served as a Justice of the Utah Supreme Court. He continues to be a highly respected public speaker, addressing topics of law, policy, and culture throughout the country.

In a 2011 speech at Chapman University School of Law on the topic of preserving religious freedom, Elder Oaks said: “I submit that religious values and political realities are so inter-linked in the origin and perpetuation of this nation that we cannot lose the influence of religion in our public life without seriously jeopardizing our freedoms.”

WHO:

Elder Dallin H. Oaks, 2013 Medalist – American attorney, jurist, author, professor, public speaker, and religious leader

Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I. – Archbishop of Chicago

Reverend Eugene F. Rivers III – Pastor, Azusa Christian Community in Boston, author, community activist, renowned worldwide speaker

Rabbi Meir Soloveichik – Director of the Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought, Yeshiva University, Associate Rabbi at the Kehilath Jeshurun Synagogue in New York

WHAT:

Becket’s 18th anniversary “Canterbury Medal Dinner”

WHEN:

Thursday, May 16, 2013
6:30 p.m. Reception
7:30 p.m. Dinner

WHERE:

The Pierre Hotel
2 East 61st Street
New York, NY 10065

Becket Law is a non-profit, public-interest legal and educational institute that protects the free expression of all faiths. Becket exists to vindicate a simple but frequently negated principle: that because the religious impulse is natural to human beings, religious expression is natural to human culture.

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