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Attaining peace. Religious tolerance. Religious freedom. Religious hatred. Religious conflict. Religious violence. Very hot topics. Ten Commandments. Abortion access. Assisted suicide. Death penalty. Human rights. Gays in the military. Stem cells. Other topics. Religious laws. Religious news. About the meaning of the terms "religious freedom" and "religious liberty:" People, whether they be theologians, clergy, laity or secularists, often assign very different meanings to common words and phrases.
The two terms are now being increasingly defined as the freedom -- based on one's religious beliefs -- to refuse services to others, to denigrate others, to restrict the civil rights of others, etc. On this web site, we normally discuss the term religious freedom in its traditional meaning : Religious freedom means that an individual or group can: Without oppression, believe, worship and witness or practice freedom from belief, worship and witness , as they wish; Change their beliefs or their religion at any time; and Associate with others to express their beliefs.
In brief: Religious freedom used to mean freedom of belief and practice. For example: A fertility clinic may welcome any member of the public who has fertility concerns.
However, a physician hired by the clinic may refuse, on religious grounds, to assist a gay or lesbian. A pharmacist may believe, contrary to the conclusions reached by medical researchers, that morning after pills can prevent the implantation of a zygote -- a fertilized ovum -- in the lining of the uterus, thus preventing a pregnancy. She or he may further believe that this is a form of abortion. On religious grounds, the pharmacist may refuse to fill a prescription for a woman who wishes to avoid -- not terminate -- a pregnancy.
A marriage counseling group may welcome any couple with marital problems. A counselor working for the group may wish to withhold counseling fro same-sex couple -- a decision based on a claim of religious freedom to discriminate against gays, lesbians and bisexuals. Meanwhile, two main fears are increasing among some religious believers who are involved in this new meaning of religious freedom: The fear that their freedom to denigrate and oppress others will be restricted, and The fear that they and fellow believers will become regarded as bigots by the general population, in the same way that sexist and racist persons are.
Example showing the difference between the two meanings of "religious freedom:" Three religious freedom cases were among those decided by the European Court of Human Rights on JAN During , A British Airways employee, Nadia Eweida, was a check-in clerk for the airline.
She wore a crucifix at a time when British Airways banned their employees from wearing visible religious symbols. She was sent home during NOV. She sued her employer for damages and lost wages, Eweida did not succeed in the British Courts, but later appealed to the European Court and won. The court treated her case as a freedom of religious speech matter.
They ruled that the company policy "amounted to an interference with her right to manifest her religion. She refused on the basis of her conservative Christian faith. She lost her case before the European Court. Gary McFarlane was a marriage counselor who was hired to offer sex therapy to couples. He deviated from the group's policies by refusing to offer therapy to same-sex couples.
He lost his case before the European Court. In contrast, Price insisted that liberty of conscience is a natural and inalienable right that governments have a duty to respect. It is a sphere over which governments have no legitimate jurisdiction, so it is not something they can choose to tolerate or not.
The one assumes to itself the right of withholding Liberty of Conscience, and the other of granting it. This contrast between toleration and the right to freedom of religion reflected a radical development in political theory that may broadly be described as libertarian.
Although elements of this approach, such as its emphasis on natural law, had affinities with traditional political ideas some of which can be found in the philosophers of ancient Greece , an integrated libertarian theory did not begin to take shape until the early s. It arose largely in response to modern theories of absolutism, which stressed the absolute sovereignty of the state as embodied in a monarch. From this foundation there arose various theories to explain how governments acquire legitimate political power through a process of consent , whereby the rights of individuals or the power to enforce them are delegated to a ruler.
The more radical of these social contract theories as they are commonly known were political dynamite, for they insisted that all rights, including those rights claimed by a government, are ultimately the rights of individuals. This approach struck at the heart of theories of absolute sovereignty by imposing severe limitations on what a government may legitimately do. These libertarian developments in political theory were closely related to the struggle for religious freedom.
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