In most circles, “religious freedom” and “religious liberty” are interchangeable, but to call them identical wouldn’t quite be right. The words liberty and freedom have different origins, and they have slightly different connotations in the context of American political and cultural history. The GOP’s shift, whether intentional or not, represents the gradual re-embrace of liberty by religious conservatives, and it’s worth taking note of.
Liberty and freedom have never meant exactly the same thing, in large part because, as noted above, they have different ancestries; liberty comes from Latin, while freedom comes from German/Old English. The two merged after the Norman Invasion, and it took 1000 years for them to approach each other in meaning.
Read Full Article »