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Contrasting Views of Religious Liberty: Clarifying the Relationship between Responsible Government and the Freedom of Religion

It is hard to have a casual discussion on the issue of “religious liberty” because discourse on the subject is often highly charged, and rightly so. The stakes involved are weighty, and they include such fundamentally important matters as the individual's personal and immediate accountability to God, the Church's mission to preach the gospel, and responsibility to maintain purity of conscience and conduct at all levels. One's views on religious liberty also affect the way one understands relations of morality and law, of ethics and human government, and tensions that arise between the moral purposes of government and moral limitations that should restrain the state's use of coercive power. Upon examination, the term “religious liberty” includes several different foci that can, and very often do, result in contrary views regarding the concept itself. Thus, while they are debating or defending “religious liberty, ” it is easy for parties to talk past one another so completely they may find themselves agreeing or disagreeing, and supporting or opposing one another, for reasons unrelated to the actual circumstances with which they think themselves engaged. Lack of clarity at critical moments of negotiation can be embarrassing, but may even become dangerous, if mis-understanding by one party is used to manipulate acceptance of measures that should be opposed, or if blind assumptions obscure opportunities by which opposing factions might otherwise reach agreement. It is precisely because religious liberty concerns are so charged that the subject must be approached with a careful understanding of how the term is intended in a given circumstance.