Religious liberty is a paradox. While liberty (from Latin libertas) implies a lack of constraint, the word religious signals the opposite. The Latin root religio, from religare, means “to bind fast.” Religion, according to fourth-century Christian philosopher Lactantius, means that “we are tied to God and bound to Him [religati].”
The literal sense of religious liberty, then, is the freedom to be bound. It is a tethered liberty—liberty that implies an allegiance. At its root, it is not a freedom from constraint, but the freedom to honor higher loyalties and fulfill fundamental obligations.
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