In spite of our diversity, we hold essential values in common. One does not purchase, earn, or inherit the right of freedom of religion. It is something that is owed one because one is human. It is inherent in the human condition. It seems to be our consensus that the God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time.
Religious liberty has both governmental and social aspects.
That is why religion, dealing with ultimate things, is ultimately beyond state control. We have heard much more discussion of how to engender interfaith harmony than of how to get more government support for that effort. Statutes and constitutions, however noble and proper, will not alone assure religious liberty. The grand ideals of religious liberty expressed in a constitution are no more than worthy sentiment if they do not survive intact the transition from rhetoric to practice. A country may have excellent laws directed toward the restraint of intolerance and the granting of religious liberty, but if its people are intolerant at heart, the legal restraint will be contravened and persecution will result.