By Andy Hale
Religious freedom seems straightforward, with a consensus of what it means. Unfortunately, religious freedom is a hotly contest term, where people are jockeying for interpretation of what it means.
Take, for example, Baptists, who have deeply held this value for hundreds of years. For some Baptists, religious liberty pertains to their rights as Christians, reinforcing their views that America is a Christian nation. You may have heard one of our many interviews about Christian Nationalism over the last couple of years.
“For religious-freedom disputes to fuel polarization is sad, and it’s incongruous. Religious freedom is meant not to aggravate, but rather to calm, conflict among deeply held views. Like other civil liberties, it sets ground rules that allow people of differing characteristics to coexist,” noted Dr. Thomas C. Berg.
Berg, the professor of law and public policy at the University of St. Thomas School of Law, sat down for a conversation about his new book, Religious Liberty in a Polarized Age.
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Andy Hale is the creator and host of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Podcast. Hale is the Associate Executive Coordinator of CBF North Carolina. He’s also served as CBF’s Church Start Specialist, the founding pastor of Mosaic Church of Clayton, and the senior pastor of University Baptist Church of Baton Rouge. Follow on Twitter @haleandy.