What's the Use of Religious Freedom?

Abstract

This brief essay considers the question whether the Constitutional right and international human right to religious freedom is under threat, particularly in the time of COVID-19 and government-ordered restrictions on religious worship. It surveys a potential drift toward secularism in the United States by comparison with the French system of laïcité, and responds to this drift with recommendations for the robust use of religious freedom.

Keywords: religious freedom, religious liberty, laïcité, free exercise, secularism, freedom of religion or belief, covid, international religious freedom