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The Difference BetweenThe Difference Between Religious Freedom andReligious Freedom and

Personal FreedomsPersonal Freedoms

SHANNON BARTHOLOMEW

The Difference Between Religious Freedom and Personal Freedoms

There is definitive difference between Religious Freedom/Liberty and Personal Freedoms. Personal Freedoms refer to particular functional abilities that human beings are created with whilst Religious Liberty refer to a governmental constitutional application that serves to create a free society to allow for the maximum flourishing of Personal Free-doms. Beginning with Personal Freedoms would be appropriate given that Religious Liberty exist to serve the operations of Personal Free-doms. The following is a diagram enlisting individuals’ eight funda-mental freedoms within their specific domains.

A Definition of Personal Freedoms Personal Freedoms are created abilities of mental and dynamic func-tions of human beings. The Private Domain category of these freedoms are private since they operate within the private confines of the mind, and the Public Domain category operates within the public sphere since they have to do with public interactions between peoples. These freedoms are functions of the human person which is distinc-tively different from the constitutional application of Religious Lib-erty. A country is only a Republic, authentically speaking if the lead-ers of country has adopted a Republican form of government; of which Religious Liberty is the most fundamental tenet.

HUMANITY’S EIGHT FUNDAMENTAL FREEDOMS

The Four Components to Religious Liberty Law There are four provisional components that consist Religious Liberty law and jurisprudence. These provisions are necessary to effectively appropriate both, a country’s free climate as well as the redress process. Those four components are as follows: 1. That fundamental human rights are inalienable and inviolable, 2. That the Right of Religious Liberty is a matter of mind and con-

science, 3. That Religion and Legislation are to remain eternally separate, and 4. That the Law must not prohibit the free and full exercise of relig-

ion. Of course any violation of persons’ rights and freedoms that occur in the name of God and Religion is punishable by law. If all of the aforementioned four components of Religious Liberty law forms part of a country’s constitution, that country has indeed fulfilled the criterion for being qualified as a legitimate Republic. Notwithstand-ing the other components of the Republican constitutional framework such as democratic elections, separation of powers, etc. Without a rights-based legal framework in place a free society cannot be created. Thus the societal free state of affairs has to be determined by constitutional law, and this free social climate is not synonymous with Personal Freedoms. However the creation of the free society serves to facilitate the unhindered pursuits of Personal Freedoms which drives the development of the Republican society to developed status. Maximizing the use of Personal Freedoms begets a flourishing that spawns all areas of national life bearing the fruits of development: indi-vidually, scientifically, institutionally, religiously, economically and eventually, nationally. French statesman Frederic Bastiat in his essay entitled The Law empha-sized the significance of the free society.

"It seems to me that this is theoretically right, for whatever the question under discussion– whether religious, philosophical, political, or economic; whether it concerns prosperity, moral-ity, equality, right, justice, progress, responsibility, coopera-tion, property, labor, trade, capital, wages, taxes, population, finance, or government– at whatever point on the scientific horizon I begin my researches, I invariably reach this one con-clusion: The solution to the problems of human relationships is to be found in liberty." The Law, par. L. 246.