I would like someone to explain to me how "religious liberty" is a God-given right.

Also, religious freedom, as understood by the Founding Fathers, applied to states. This is why Maryland was a Roman Catholic state, Virginia was an Anglican state, and so on. The current use of "religious freedom" and "religious liberty" is being applied in such a way as to make the whole nation look like Rhode Island when it was first being settled.

The modern use of the expression "religious liberty" today is built upon the illusion that apart from religion man can know the Good and so religion is accidental to a well functioning society so long as that society understands the laws of nature. However, the reality of what has happened is that without the Church, Western civilization has lost sight of the first causes of natural law and morality. This has rendered them empty or in some cases, their removal from our social consciousness altogether.

I object to rights driven language since it is the language of permission. It's obvious that Christians don't have permission to violate the Ten Commandments. In the case of abortion, it is a violation of multiple commandments, particularly the 5th Commandment. Christians may not commit murder because it is against God's Law. But, since it's God's Law, it is also universal, and in the case of the 5th Commandment it is universally known. Theologians and natural philosophers (Christian or not) claim that such laws as "Thou shalt not murder" fall into the realm of natural law as well. Therefore, man may not commit murder and it is reasonable to expect all men to know this, live by it, and suffer the consequences when it is violated. When the Church insists that natural law be upheld, she is doing a good thing since God wants order and peace to be preserved on the earth.