In this country, there are very few individuals who can rightfully call themselves “Constitutional scholars.” Sure, there are people who know a decent amount about our Constitution, but being an “expert” on a subject is a completely different thing. But wow, when it comes to politics, it seems everyone suddenly becomes an expert on the Constitution. As for myself, I’ve never pretended to be an expert on our Constitution. I’ve read over it a few times and often use basic common sense when assessing how it translates into our modern society. After all, it was written in the late-1700′s. Society is a little different now than it was then. That being said, there are some areas of the Constitution that are pretty straight forward. Our “freedom of religion” right found within the First Amendment is one of those pretty straight forward rights. Well, at least to me it is. There’s not really a whole lot to interpret: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” If our Founding Fathers had meant for “freedom of religion” to mean only Christianity, I’m pretty sure that would have been specified. But it wasn’t. In fact, the word “Christianity” is found nowhere in our Constitution. Not even once. It’s pretty simple. Government and religion are to remain separate. See, “freedom of religion” means that in your personal life you are free to practice whatever religion you’d like. As an American, if you want to be Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, or follow no religion at all – you’re free to do so! Awesome, isn’t it? Heck, like I’ve said before, you can subscribe to a new religion every single day of the week if you want. This country isn’t allowed to establish laws based on any form of an establishment of religion. Americans can practice their religion every waking moment they feel like doing so within their private homes or religious places of worship. But what you can’t do, and what conservatives constantly try to do, is force your personal religious views on other people. See, this is where conservatives don’t understand what “freedom of religion” means. What it does protect is that privately you can practice whatever religion you want. What it does not protect is a person’s attempt to force their personal religious views on others because they happen to disagree with them. In fact, by doing so, that’s actually the opposite of the freedom of religion. In fact, any law based on religious beliefs is actually a violation of the First Amendment. This isn’t rocket science. See more: Explaining “Freedom of Religion” for Those Who Seem Unable to Understand What it Means forwardprogressives/explaining-freedom-of-religion-for-those-who-seem-unable-to-understand-what-it-means/
Posted on: Sat, 19 Apr 2014 13:22:24 +0000
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