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Religious Liberty For All, Not Just Christians

Religious Liberty For All, Not Just Christians

Last updated on: October 26, 2026 at 1:50 am by Henry Karlson

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Religious Liberty For All, Not Just Christians 2026-10-26T01:50:24-05:00 Henry Karlson

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Pete Hegseth has taken his Christian nationalism to the military and now wants to use the military as a force for to promote his religious beliefs, denying the religious liberty of many in the military. Photo: Gage Skidmore: Pete Hegseth speaking with attendees at the 2021 AmericaFest at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona/ Wikimedia Commons

As a strong defender and promoter of religious liberty, I have consistently been disappointed in the way many of my fellow Christians abuse the concept. They reject its proper use, which is to promote the dignity of the human person and the freedom they should have to believe and express themselves in accordance to those beliefs, so long as their actions do not hinder the common good, and turn it into a tool to promote religious supremacy, domination, and control. When I see it used in such a manner, I always find it important to indicate what is involved with religious liberty, often quoting from Dignitatis humanae to do so:

This Vatican Council declares that the human person has a right to religious freedom. This freedom means that all men are to be immune from coercion on the part of individuals or of social groups and of any human power, in such wise that no one is to be forced to act in a manner contrary to his own beliefs, whether privately or publicly, whether alone or in association with others, within due limits.[1]

Too many Christians want to use religious liberty as a way to justify doing anything they want to do. They think there should be no limits at all put on them as they exercise their faith. This is how it quickly becomes a tool for religious supremacy, especially when the same ones who act this way try to find ways to limit people of many other faiths from following their own beliefs and practices. That is, they think, in relation to themselves, religious liberty is an absolute, and they will claim they are being persecuted if they are not given such an absolute right to do anything they want, even if what they want to do has little to no real connection to their faith. This is why I always have to look at what is being said when a Christian claims they are being persecuted for their faith, because, sadly, what they call persecution is just them being told to behave.

Society has a right to promote the common good, to protect everyone in it, not just a select few; this will often mean society will have to promote a delicate balance to protect the rights of everyone. When someone thinks that means they have the freedom to impede others, and say their religion makes them do it, society also has a right to say no, just as it has a right to say no to those actions which are abusive or harmful in nature:

Furthermore, society has the right to defend itself against possible abuses committed on the pretext of freedom of religion. It is the special duty of government to provide this protection. [2]

The promotion of religious liberty, just as the promotion of freedom of speech, is vital for a free society; but if someone wants to use and abuse their freedom to go against the common good, to undermine the rights of others, then they exceed what is proper and just and can and often should be stopped. Indeed, looking at how some people use and abuse the notion of free speech should help us understand why we can’t treat it as an absolute — and I’m not just talking about the problem associated with yelling fire in a movie theater. I am talking about those who like to cause offense, those who like to be confrontational, and demand the right to be heard wherever they want to go, all the while seeking to silence anyone and everyone who they disagree with. They think they have a right to enter private spaces and speak, and if they are told they are not welcome, they complain about having their freedom of speech violated; and yet, they will be the first to remove anyone saying things they do not like from their spaces. This is exactly the problem I and many others had with Charlie Kirk; he tried to go into university settings, demanding they welcome him and his confrontational style, claiming if they did not welcome him, they were silencing his speech, while at the same time, he was having his followers attack university professors, trying to get them fired, effectively having them silenced and losing their actual right to speech. I believe if you want free speech, if you want to claim to be a free speech advocate, you must advocate it not just for yourself, but those who you dislike and oppose. Charlie Kirk certainly had a right to speak, and he could have done so at many places who welcomed him, but those who opposed him and the problems he caused also had a right to deny him access to their space, especially as he promoted actions which undermined the common good and actually caused harm to people in the spaces he wanted to speak at. Charlie Kirk, far from being an advocate for free speech, fought against its proper application and tried to change its meaning. He thought it meant that he could say whatever he want wherever he wanted to go, all the while he did all he could to silence those who held views he hated. His view was “absolute free speech for me” and “limited for you.” This is something I find common happening with religious liberty, especially from Christians; they are trying to use the same logic and tactics to transform its meaning, so that it means Christians alone have the right to religious liberty, and it is not just a conditional right, it is an absolute right for them, so that nothing they want to do can be stopped by society. This is why so many of them falsely claimed religious persecution when COVID required places of worship to be temporarily closed; they didn’t realize the due limits of religious liberty could require Christians to follow proper public safety measures.

Christians are right to say they should be allowed to believe as they want, and to teach their faith to those interested in learning what they have to say. But it doesn’t mean they can do so any way they want to. Those who think they can use coercive tactics, forcing people to listen to them and to them alone, those who think they can lie about others and their faiths as a way to convince people to become Christians (and deny the rights of non-Christians), have gone beyond what religious liberty permits. They are actively threatening civil society. Indeed, they can be said not only to transcend the limits of religious liberty, even as they have transcended the limits which must be in place to preserve authentic free speech (because defamation must never be seen as protected speech). While people should be able to speak, to teach their faith to others, they can’t exercise undue force, intimidation, or coercion when they do so, and if they do, those actions are actually hostile to religious liberty because they end up denying the religious rights of others:

Religious communities also have the right not to be hindered in their public teaching and witness to their faith, whether by the spoken or by the written word. However, in spreading religious faith and in introducing religious practices everyone ought at all times to refrain from any manner of action which might seem to carry a hint of coercion or of a kind of persuasion that would be dishonorable or unworthy, especially when dealing with poor or uneducated people. Such a manner of action would have to be considered an abuse of one’s right and a violation of the right of others. [3]

Once again, this is something I see many Christians do not seem to understand. They often confuse evangelism with proselytism, which is why they think their rights are being denied them when they are told they cannot put undue pressure on others. I see this happening in the United States, with the rise of Christian nationalism. Not only are they trying to give forms of Christianity rights which no one else has, they are use positions of power and authority to promote not only a warped version of Christianity, but one with a rather insidious, hateful ideology. While this is never good, it is worse when it is happening with the military, because that is turning the military into a violent arm of Christian nationalism. Rarely, if ever, when things go this way, are they stopped without bloodshed (caused by those who want to hold onto power). This is why I am very much opposed to Hegseth; it is quite clear what he is doing when he has Christian nationalist speakers addressing soldiers, suggesting they are, in some way, to be God’s army in the world. Sadly, the defense given to this is that Hegseth and Trump are promoting religious liberty, which is absurd, as he is denying nearly two hundred faiths from being recognized by the military, making it difficult for their faithful practice their faith and to get proper spiritual guidance.

Proselytism is wrong because it is aggressive, manipulative, and often dishonest in the way it tries to have people convert to Christianity (or to change which Christian affiliation they follow). Proselytism can be and should be stopped, but speaking to others, explaining one’s faith, without such manipulation or coercion, must not be understood as proselytism; they should be seen as protected acts of speech and religious liberty so long as those speaking show respect to their audience. While it can sometimes be a fine balance, in general, the abuse is obvious, and I find it, in the modern world, being perpetuated by those embracing some form of Christian nationalism. They seek to combine religion and politics, and to do that, they seek to hold positions of power and authority and then enforce their religious practices by rule of law. Indeed, they end up claiming their religious beliefs are being violated when they are not able to hold supremacy, and that is what they mean when their faith is being attacked; that is, they are upset they don’t have absolute control, and they believe, by right, they should have it. This is also why they view other religions with suspicion, because they assume others must be just like them; it is all about who has control, and in the process, Christian nationalists show themselves to be far what Christ wanted them to be as he spoke against such an attitude:

But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you; but whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave; even as the Son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matt. 20:25-28 RSV).

Christian leaders, be they leaders in the church, or Christians who hold positions of authority in civil society, should always lead by example, engaging loving service to others, being concerned about them and their needs instead of seeking power and control over them:

So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ as well as a partaker in the glory that is to be revealed. Tend the flock of God that is your charge, not by constraint but willingly, not for shameful gain but eagerly, not as domineering over those in your charge but being examples to the flock (1 Pt 5:1-3 RSV)

While I cannot deny Christian nationalists as being Christian, I can point out they that they don’t do what Christ told his followers to do. Christians are called to to serve others, to love others, to love their neighbors as themselves instead of seeking power and control for themselves. Christianity is to be promoted by love, not proselytism. I think that is key to the way Christians should treat religious liberty. Their concern should be for their neighbor, what they do, what they promote, should be considered in the way it impacts their neighbor; since many Christians have a hard time being empathetic, indeed, as many of them think empathy is a sin, they must be reminded that Christ told them to treat their neighbors as they would like to be treated, and so they should always consider how they would feel if they were treated the way their neighbor is being treated. Christians should be at the forefront defending the rights of Jews and Muslims alike, even as they should be defending the rights of people of all faiths, as they would like others, including Jews and Muslims, to defend them and their rights.

Thus, the right to religious liberty should not be used as an excuse to act poorly. Christians should not act like bullies. Religious liberty should not be invoked to justify proselytism; it certainly should not be used to promote religious supremacy or find excuses to ignore laws which promote the common good and defend society. Religious liberty should not be used to defend actions which unjustly cause people and their livelihoods to be put at risk, which is why I am glad Archbishop Thomas Wenski in Florida is staying strong in affirming the right of Catholic schools to expect and demand their students to be properly vaccinated, pointing out that it is not a violation of religious liberty to deny those who will not be vaccinated from attending their schools. Most, if not all, of those making religious liberty arguments against vaccination do not have any religious teachings they can point to which say they cannot be vaccinated. It is another example of people trying to use religious liberty as a vessel for their own ideological preferences and desires, all the while denying actual promotion of religious liberty as they to try to force Catholic schools to ignore Catholic principles which promote universal vaccination!

Religious liberty has responsibilities to it and it is those responsibilities which I see are often ignored by those who would like to use religious liberty as an absolute to force civil society to follow their own particular ideological views, views which often have little to nothing to do with religion. They make a mockery out of religious liberty, and in doing so, cause people to reconsider whether or not it is a good thing. This is why I am often saddened and upset in the way I see many Christians trying to use religious liberty. It is not being promoted properly. It is not being used to help everyone. They think it is a right that they, and they alone, have. And they think it can be used to ignore basic obligations they have to society, when those obligations have them do something they don’t want to do. Thanks to them, and the way they have abused the category, many presume others, when talking about religious liberty, are doing the same thing. I have seen it happen to me, which of course, is far from the case. For, I respect the common good, and with it, the rights society has to defend itself from those who would use religion to ignore their responsibility to society, or worse, to harm it. I look for the promotion of the common good, and with it the rights of people of all faiths, and no faiths, to follow their faith so long as they cause no unjust harm to others. But, I have no problem, if such harm can be shown, for people to be told they must conform (which is why, for example, I have no problem with zoning laws, or building codes, being used for places of worship, because, without them, a home-church or home-place of worship can end up not only being a great nuisance, but a threat to their neighbors).

[1] Dignitatis humanae. Vatican translation. ¶2.

[2] Dignitatis humanae. Vatican translation. ¶6.

[3] Dignitatis humanae, ¶4.

* This Is Another Post From My Personal (Informal) Reflections And Speculations Series

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