A Common Sense Approach to Religious Freedom

Down through the centuries and all over the world, the battle for religious freedom has been a bitter one. The United States has been no exception. Although most of those who founded this country came here seeking religious freedom, it has been a source of contention from the beginning and remains so today. There are fanatics on both sides of this issue. On one side, we have those who think their religious freedom is being violated if they are not allowed to force their religion down everyone else's throat. One the other side, we have those who believe it's their inalienable right to never be exposed to any element of religious life. Both extremes are wrong. Government should be neither hostile to any religion nor an enforcer of it. Instead, those who possess common sense should be capable of assenting to a happy medium.

Contrary to popular belief, the phrase, "separation of church and state", cannot be found in the U.S. Constitution. That phrase is misleading anyway as many people interpret it as "protection of the state from the church." Most of our Founding Fathers frequently, and often publicly, expressed their faith in a Creator, so it should be obvious to anyone that they never intended to banish expressions of religious faith from the public square. Any separation of church and state that they had in mind was to serve only four major functions: (1) allow people to freely practice the religion of their choice (or no religion at all) without interference from the state, (2) forbid any religion or denomination from being set up as the "state church", (3) prevent the state from having the church do its bidding, and (4) protect the church from being regulated and having its practices dictated to it by the state. From these principles, I think we can derive a common sense approach to religious freedom.

Our common sense approach should allow for verbal religious expression and for the display of religious symbols and materials in public and government venues. Although all religions should have equal access and rights regarding those expressions and displays, the majority religion would obviously have a major advantage here. But so be it. No one would be hurt or forced to practice any religion against his or her will. If anyone is offended, that's their problem. No one has a right to not be offended, although many people think they have this right. Being offended once in a while is the price one has to pay for living in a free and open society. If someone has a major problem with that, they are free to leave this country any time they wish.

Our common sense approach should also allow for limited amounts of prayer and religious teaching in public schools. It should not be the focus of any public school, but it should be permitted and based on the religion favored by the majority of the parents in a given school district. The majority of parents could opt for no prayer or religious teaching at all in a given school district, if they so desired. All parents would have the option of not having their child (children) participate in or be present for the prayer and religious teaching. Although the teaching of evolution would still be mandatory, creationism could be taught as part of any religious curriculum.

Another tenet of our common sense approach would be to make sure that all religious speech, no matter how offensive or "hateful" some people might find it, is always safeguarded. We do not want to follow Canada's lead of coding political correctness into law and banning some forms of religious speech. For example, in some parts of Canada, a person can be fined or jailed for proclaiming that homosexual activity is sinful. Too many people don't want to hear sin called sin anymore, but we must make sure that people always have the right to condemn anything that their religion says is wrong. This even includes the right of a Muslim, for example, to denounce our culture. As long as someone doesn't yell "fire" in a crowded theater, explicitly threaten anyone, or call for someone else to do harm, their speech should be protected.

Another element of our common sense approach to religious freedom would be to prohibit any laws (1) that are based solely on religious beliefs and (2) that punish those who do not follow them. For example, laws ordering that stores be closed on Sunday should be banned. Now, just because some law correlates with someone's religious belief doesn't mean it should be invalidated. Many valid laws, even those against murder, correspond to religious commandments. What I'm talking about are laws that exist expressly for furthering a religion. The state has no right to enforce anyone's religious beliefs, even those of the majority religion. Besides, what's the use of forcing someone to obey religious laws? Does it make them any more righteous? Does it make the community or the nation any more righteous? I don't think so.

The final component to our common sense approach would be to ensure that we protect speech or entertainment that might be offensive to any particular religion or even religion in general. Once again, no one has a right to not be offended. Many fundamentalist Christians are so outraged by anti-Christian speech or entertainment that they would like to see it banned, censored, or at least driven from the airwaves. However, if we're going to have unlimited freedom to promote our religion, then others should have unlimited freedom to demean it. If we don't allow the free exercise of anti-religious speech, we are not much better than an Islamic theocracy and we are not practitioners of true religious freedom. Besides, if one's religion can't hold up in the face of criticism, it is evidently quite weak anyway.

Terry Mitchell is a software engineer, freelance writer, and trivia buff from Hopewell, VA. He also serves as a political columnist for American Daily and operates his own website - http://www.commenterry.com - on which he posts commentaries on various subjects such as politics, technology, religion, health and well-being, personal finance, and sports. His commentaries offer a unique point of view that is not often found in mainstream media.

---

Choosing the Christian Path

- 147.5 million Americans claim affiliation with a religious group-... Read More

The 1000 Year Millennium Kingdom

After the last bowl judgment is thrown by God the... Read More

Pope John Paul II, The Right Man at the Right Time

The world has been blessed to have Pope John Paul... Read More

Mystery, not Myth: Jesus Christ is real!

In the children's section of any bookstore, books on the... Read More

The Apocalypse

Revelation 6:2-6:8.I will bring thee down, saith the LORD. ... Read More

Do Not Believe All You Read In The Holy Books

Observation shows that human creative activity has a physical, a... Read More

Terror; The Lost War

Zephaniah 1:14-1:18{Terror; Intense, overpowering fear.An emotion experienced in anticipation of... Read More

The Pope Hates Potter ? Both of Them

This month a court in Burlington, Kentucky issued the largest... Read More

Powerful Powers

Have you ever wondered what is power and where does... Read More

Theology, Hollywood Style

After years of watching TV shows and movies, I think... Read More

Resurrection Faith (Part 1)

At the heart of Christianity is a cross; and one... Read More

Serving

Some people may ask how do we serve God and... Read More

Moslem America Conclusion

Isaiah 55:7-55:9Moslem America conclusion Let the wicked forsake his way,... Read More

Gods Favorite Religion

What does your church teach regarding the subject of Widows... Read More

A Time of Suffering

As the clock ticks down to the fateful day of... Read More

Lets Restore the Word of Christ

"What? Trying to spread the gospel message without quoting from... Read More

We Are From Jesus Christ

Most people wonder at one time or another where do... Read More

Falsehoods

There are many different church denominations in this year of... Read More

DNA RNA are you ready for what is next?

As the human race maps out the genome and unlocks... Read More

No Ishmaels Please

I want to say a word about faith. Recent events... Read More

What They Mean By Child-Like Faith

Prv:18:2 A Fool Receiveth Not The Words Of Prudence: Unless... Read More

Christian Book Stores are a Great Indicator of the Popularity of the Religion in Demography

Have you ever wondered how exactly would someone find out... Read More

2nd Coming of Jesus

In this first verse, God says He will allow all... Read More

The Gospel Of Convenience

The subject of this document is so unpleasing to the... Read More

A Common Sense Approach to Religious Freedom

Down through the centuries and all over the world, the... Read More

Following In the Masters Footsteps

In these interesting times of change, millions of people the... Read More

Vegetarianism

Millions worldwide suffer from malnutrition and the threat of starvation.... Read More

3 Clues To Know Where You Fit In Ministry Part 1

Clue Number 1: You Have TalentYou were born with at... Read More

The Rapture, A Coming Event; Part 1

Daniel 2:44-11:35To begin with, what is prophecy? It's the study... Read More

Kabbalistic Chanukah: The Downloading of Primordial Light

God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.(Genesis... Read More

Truth, Justice and the American Way to Boil a Frog

Using a good tool over and over doesn't make it... Read More

Kingdom of Heaven

Kingdom of Heaven is Ridley Scott's way of trying to... Read More

Helping Others - What Did Jesus Say?

Helping others was something Jesus did on a daily basis.... Read More