This coming Sunday, July 5, is the opportunity for all members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the United States to participate in a unified fast.
“All are invited to participate in a unified fast to express gratitude for religious liberty and to pray that it be strengthened throughout the world,” wrote Church President Dallin H. Oaks and his counselors in the First Presidency, President Henry B. Eyring and President D. Todd Christofferson in a letter dated March 12 and sent to local leaders in the U.S.
The fast is scheduled for the day after the United States’ Independence Day on July 4, which will be the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Church historian Spencer McBride said fasting is historical for this country. During the American Revolution, the Continental Congress declared a Continental Day of Fasting and Prayer in 1775 and then again every year during the war.
McBride explained Americans were asked to fast and pray for an entire day, to go to their place of worship and to hear a sermon from their clergyman about the importance of freedom and liberty and the stakes of the American Revolution.
“Our founders were really interested in making sure that we were appealing to God, in pursuing these liberties, pursuing these freedoms. And they did it then. And I think it’s fitting that our Church leaders have asked us to fast and pray in gratitude for the rights we have — but also to know how best to protect them moving forward. It’s a very fitting way to honor the 250th anniversary of the American founding,” McBride said.
With the First Presidency’s invitation, Kurt Fertig, the American Institutions Program chair at Ensign College, immediately thought of Isaiah 58:6, which reads, “Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?”
Fertig told the Church News podcast a lot of people around the world do not enjoy religious freedom — in fact, it can be difficult or even dangerous for them to freely express their religious feelings and worship.
“I think the purpose of this fast is to ask the Lord to work miracles around the world, to soften hearts, to open avenues for changes within governments where those are needed, so that people can start to feel that same ability to really practice the religion freely, whatever religion that is, and remove those bands, loose those bands,” he said.
Joseph Kerry, Communications Department chair at Ensign College, said the two aspects to the upcoming fast are important. One is to express gratitude for religious liberty, because it is a reminder this right comes from God.
“It makes sense that He wants all of his children to enjoy that freedom of religious liberty, and when we express gratitude for that, I think it strengthens our commitment to it, and also our recognition that it comes from Heavenly Father, and in terms of how do we increase it,” Kerry said.
It’s also a great responsibility to fast about it with many other individuals — there’s “tremendous strength in that,” he said.
Worldwide fasts
In the New Testament, Paul admonished in Corinth to “give yourselves to fasting and prayer” (1 Corinthians 7:5). And the Savior Himself taught that certain things go “not out but by prayer and fasting” (Matthew 17:21).
While this is a national fast directed for Latter-day Saints in the United States, the Church has called for fasts on a larger scale – worldwide fasts.
In 1985, President Spencer W. Kimball invited Church members to fast for famine victims in Ethiopia.
The fast raised $6 million. Latter-day Saints participated in a second fast in November 1985 that raised another $5 million for hunger relief.
Three decades later, President Gordon B. Hinckley called on Church members across the globe in January 2005 to fast for victims of a tsunami that struck Southeast Asia on Dec. 26, 2004. Triggered by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake, the disaster killed more than 220,000 people in a dozen nations, including Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand and India.
The fast fueled emergency response and long-term assistance in the disaster zone.
In 2020, then Church President Russell M. Nelson invited Church members and others to participate in a worldwide fast on Sunday, March 29, to plead with the Lord for “physical and spiritual healing” in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. During April 2020 general conference, he called for a second worldwide fast on Good Friday, April 10.
People of other faiths also accepted the invitation. And many people shared how they felt peace and assurance through participating.
