Welcome back to the Word on Fire Show. I'm Matthew Petrusek, senior director of the Word on Fire Institute and the host of the Word on Fire Show. Thank you for joining us. Bishop Robert Barron has long defended religious freedom as a universal human right. As part of his ongoing advocacy—which includes a new book on how to confront persecution against Christians—he has recently completed serving on a presidential religious liberty commission charged with ensuring that people of all faiths can participate fully in society without fear of violence or unjust discrimination. One of the few Catholic ecclesial voices on the commission, his work addressed multiple abiding and practical questions. For example, at the conceptual level, what is religious freedom, and what role should the government play in protecting it? How can we define religious freedom in a way that prevents one religion's exercise of their freedom from infringing upon the freedom of other religions, or on those who claim no religion at all? And at the more concrete level, where, right now, are the greatest threats to religious freedom and what can we do both legislatively and individually to combat them? Here to address these and related questions, and to discuss his experience serving on the presidential commission, is Bishop Robert Barron.
Topics Covered
00:00 | Introduction
01:16 | Bishop Barron visits diocesan schools
02:26 | How Bishop Barron came to join the Religious Liberty Commission
04:03 | The makeup of the Religious Liberty Commission
05:00 | Basic structure of the meetings
07:38 | Being a Catholic bishop on the commission
09:51 | The privatization of religion
10:36 | Where does religious liberty originate?
12:36 | The public nature of religious liberty
13:51 | Why religious liberty is the first freedom
15:11 | Is religious liberty just religious license?
16:36 | The role of government in religious liberty
18:00 | Separation of church and state?
22:33 | Principal threats to religious liberty
26:26 | Testimonies shared with the Commission
27:30 | How we move forward
28:18 | The question of religious exemptions
30:53 | Religious liberty and evangelization
32:17 | Listener question: To what extent do denominations matter?
35:07 | Join the Word on Fire Institute
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