Religious Freedom

One of the main reasons that the settlers came and founded America was for religious freedom. Colonist made the long and dangerous journey for other reasons as well, but a major factor was the search for religious freedom. Coming to America alone did not solve this problem; the journey to religious freedom was just that, a journey. Everyone had a slightly different idea of what this new nation’s ‘religious freedom’ should look like and it took many years to come to a compromise.

America has been built on freedom throughout the years. Freedom to speak, freedom to choose, freedom to worship, and freedom to do just about anything you want within that of the law. America’s law has been designed to protect and preserve these freedoms. The First Amendment guarantees freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition. It assures citizens that the federal government shall not restrict freedom of worship. It specifically prohibits Congress from establishing an official, government supported church. Under The First Amendment, the federal government cannot require citizens to pay taxes to support a certain church, nor can people be prohibited from worshipping in any way they see fit. However, if a certain religion

The First Amendments Establishment clause prohibits the government from making any law “respecting an establishment of religion.” One argument regarding to The Establishment Clause is how to manipulate the government’s actions that relate to religion. (law.cornell.edu) The First Amendment also has a Free Exercise Clause. This clause protects citizen’s right to practice religion to their will. Their right is protected as long as their practice does not disturb “public morals.” (uscourts.gov)

History shows a pattern of change in relation to religious involvement of governmental affairs. As religion becomes less a part of American life, the court develops new laws to accommodate our new society. Look to the communities we live in presently and ask yourself if the American people are facing oppression of religious freedom, a freedom listed in our Constitution under the First Amendment. This spirals into an abyss of politics. Is same-sex marriage a personal matter or a public one? Is the Republican Party fair in opting to end abortion? Should a woman have contraceptive included in her health insurance plan despite the religious views of her employer? This is one of the areas in which

Although “God” is mentioned in the Constitution, this country was built upon the principle of separation of church and state. Despite this ideal, those elected into office: propose, pass, and deny laws based on their religious beliefs, completely disregarding the previously mentioned principle. The problem with that is that the country is so ethnically and culturally diverse that one religion representing an entire nation of hundreds of religions is selfish and unfair, not to mention un-American.

The Founding Fathers tried to protect citizen’s rights to religious choice and attempted to keep the government form religious interference. The purpose was not to disallow religion but to give the people a choice of whom and where to worship. Today, the views are not the same. Freedom of religion is being interpreted as freedom of religion as long as it is acceptable with everyone else. The Founding Fathers also wanted separation of church and state to protect the church from government interference. The concept has now become removal of religion from all aspects of government. The cases of Van Orden v. Perry and McCreary County v. ACLU are two prime examples, both with different results.

The government in no ways can keep people from meeting or gathering in public places to discuss their faith and beliefs. For example, every year on the third Monday, of January, the people all around come together to celebrate the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. National holiday. The people do not just march, but they carry signs, protested by expressing their viewpoints in a non-violent way. This is why I not only feel but believe that the First Amendment was written as a means of protecting the Church from the state. Protecting the people rights to serve Christ is a privilege that the government cannot come against.

The First Amendment ensures that there is separation between Church and State. However, this disjunction is not absolute. As the United States has become a more multi-cultural society, certain rituals have become problematic. Some issues were traditions that put one religion at the forefront, violating of the Establishment Clause; other issues affected peoples’ right to free expression of their religion. Many times people do not realize the Judeo-Christian bias in our culture because it is so integrated into our way of life. This country needs to recognize these biases and address them as the United States become a more diverse population.

The Canada (Attorney General) v. Big M Drug Mart (1985) case is an example of a case that could not be tolerated because it began to harm people around. The moment it harms people is when it should not be tolerated. They found that the government could not force individuals to conform to religious practices or follow certain religious beliefs (Canada v. Big M Drug Mart, 1985). Also, in the case of Canada (Attorney General) v. Edwards Books and Art (1986), we notice that the state has the duty of religious neutrality. It applies back to being tolerable with religions and having the state stay neutral between religions and society. Therefore we should be tolerating all religions and not excluding religions because one should not feel obligated to compel to certain

In the U.S Constitution the word religion has not been defined. Therefore, there can be many different religions in the U.S. The U.S government somewhat accommodates the many different religions to a certain extent. Also, there should be a separation of church and state.

First lets review the first amendment. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free

Freedom of Religion has two clauses, the first clause is called the establishment clause, it’s that the government is not allowed to establish a national religion. Such as when England, established the Church of England. The second clause is the Free Exercise clause which allows a person to practice any religion of their choice, as long as their practice does not infringe the rights of others. An example of this is in the early history of America, there were bounties placed on Mormons and at times they were chased out of cities and states. This is why religious institutions still have to follow rules by state or federal governments such as not practicing human sacrifices, forcing someone to

In the United States, religious neutrality appears throughout society as an attempt to respect majority and minority religions, which seems implausible due to the complicated relationship between religion and government. When the government makes legal decisions involving religion, the ideal of neutrality seemingly dissipates when one faith appears to garner more respect over another in earning the majority decision in the Courts. This impossibility of state neutrality is apparent when balancing citizens’ freedom to practice their religion with the government choosing one religious value over another. This idea of balance originates in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution which declares, “Congress shall make no law

While ensuring religious freedoms that will encompass the right of their belief and to express it, while the government can’t make preference to either or (ACLU.org, 2015). Then we have the 14th Amendment of the Constitution which states the individual is assured freedoms and protection of citizenship, due process and equal safeguard under the law. However, for this scenario the focus will be equal protection under the law (US.Constitution.net, 2010).

Every single person in the United States have the right to express their religion of preference or no religion at all, however him or her wants without offending anybody, and the best way to protect religion’s liberty was by keeping the government out if it and creating this First Amendment freedom of religion, to separate the church from the state.