From Christianity Today online.

America’s Roman Catholic bishops just completed the “Fortnight for Freedom,” a two-week period intended to “support a great national campaign of teaching and witness for religious liberty.” As evangelical and Catholic leaders have spent the past year opposing the Obama administration’s so-called contraceptive mandate, the timing, motives, and agenda driving the “Fortnight for Freedom” have prompted widespread commentary. Rather than scrutinizing the Fortnight’s agenda, Protestants could examine deeper questions than what took place on the surface.

It’s important to consider the Fortnight’s placement on the calendar—the significance of the Fortnight’s dates, June 21 to July 4—to understand the nature of religious freedom and the relationship between what to some mixes like oil and water: the Christian tradition and American liberty.

It’s worth considering whether the church fathers and the founding fathers enjoy a deeper conceptual affinity—precisely around the meaning and foundations of religious freedom—than many people (including perhaps the bishops) have noticed.

An interesting article, and one with which I disagree on a few points, most notably that our conscience must be our ultimate arbiter of matters pertaining to church and state. Overall, it is nigh impossible to reconcile orthodox Christianity with its sworn enemy, the Enlightenment. I do agree, however, that religious beliefs should never be forced on anyone. Like any healthy relationship, our relationship with God must be entered and maintained freely.

Read it all and see what you think.