Freedom of Religion


The first Amendment to the Bill of Rights to the Constitution of the United States of America states:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, prohibition the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of Grievances.”
Later counts have used this for the establishment of the wall of separation between church and state this was never meant to protect the state from religion, but religion from itself. The framers of the constitution had seen what happens when one religion becomes dominate in both the Puritans in Massachusetts and the Anglicans in Virginia (Jamestown). Especially the Puritans who burned people at the stake if the didn’t believe the same as they did. The main ones who fought for freedom of religion were James Madison and Thomas Jefferson along with John Adams and Ben Franklin, Madison wrote “Whilst we assert for ourselves a freedom to embrace, to profess and observe the religion which we believe to be divine origin, we cannot deny an equal freedom to those whose minds have not yet yielded to the evidence which has convinced you.”
They saw the use of the word God by the Government as a “Public God” which could mean a divine God in heaven or just the human spirit that moves humankind forward whatever your personal believes are it was meant to mean all things to all people. They did not live in the fancy world that school history books put them in, but the real world in which they knew there would always be those that would try to make their religion the dominate one in the nation that is why the first amendment.
There are those today that are trying to make this a Christian America, put their prays in public schools, to make all student learn Science the way their Bible says there by making their religion the dominate one. Thank God there are groups like the ACLU that fights for our freedom of religion and other right given to us by the Constitution.
Note: some idea and saying from the American Gospel by Jon Meacham. You can find out a lot more on this subject by reading this book.