Freedom OF religion?  Or freedom FROM religion?   What does the Constitution say?  We’ve all read it: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”   

An establishment.   That is the separation that must be kept.  The Constitution does not separate religion as such from public or private life.  Many of the Founding Fathers were reportedly not churchgoers but they were Deists.  They believed in G-d.  They intended that Americans would always have the right to worship in their own ways, and they embodied that right in the First Amendment.

Prohibiting all religious expression in public events is therefore illegal.  That includes non-sectarian prayer, the pledge of allegiance, displaying the Ten Commandments, etc.  Prohibiting those expressions is just as illegal as it would be to pass a resolution declaring the United States to be a Christian country, or a Muslim country, or a Jewish country.  No atheist should be punished for abstaining, and no believer should be prevented from praying.

This entry was posted on October 18, 2007 at 4:00 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.