Religious liberty at its core is about “live and let live.” Flourish in your own religious expression and protect others’ right to do the same — regardless of whether you agree with or even understand their religious practices.
While the idea of “live and let live” is easy enough for some time, the whole idea is quickly changing. Religious liberty legal cases used to focus on largely uncontroversial topics such as land use and prisoners’ rights, and Sabbath work issues, to cases at the core of the culture wars. In the last few years, religious liberty has become enormously controversial and highly politicized. That growing trajectory is expected to increase in 2018.
There are two strands of this new dimension. On the one hand, the politicization is based on deep disagreements on questions of sexual morality, such as abortion, contraception, gay rights, and same-sex marriage. “Conservative religious leaders condemn as grave evils what many other Americans view as fundamental human rights,” say professor Douglass Laycock, Professor of Religious Studies at University of Virginia.
On the other hand, much of the divergence on religious liberty centers on Muslims and Islam. Specifically, many outspoken advocates of religious liberty find it perfectly consistent to simultaneously deny such protection to Muslims. Their reasoning is that Islam is not a religion (it’s apparently something else — such as a “political ideology”) and therefore doesn’t even qualify for religious liberty protections. The argument is bogus and alarming, but its increasing salience in public discourse suggests that it may gain ground in 2018.
The religious conflict will eventually lead many to yearn for some authoritative voice to establish order in all the chaos. Would the Vatican be that voice?
“And all the dwell upon the earth shall worship him.” Revelation 13:8