23 Mar What do you need to understand about religious freedom?
What do you need to understand about religious freedom?
Religious freedom has always been the most significant issue of our society; whether or not to make-believe and form the social life around certain religious notions varies from person to person.
When it comes to the US – no other nation has such robust protection of religious freedom.
Even the Constitution and other legal protections reflect the importance of religious freedom to America.
To further understand the psyche, we can say this freedom to live according to extensively different religious beliefs has permitted men and women of diverse faiths to live, work, learn, and worship peacefully side by side. Any effort to curb our freedom to worship, teach, and live out our beliefs is an offense not just on human dignity, but on the very institution that has made America strong.
Proponents believe that the First Amendment of the US Constitution states, ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. No religion, or its practitioners, can be subdued by the state. When politicians threaten to use the power of the state to delete some people because of their religious opinions deliberately, they violate the Constitution and one of America’s most sacred rituals. The First Amendment affirms that no matter one’s beliefs, no matter how one worships – if one worships – every American citizen may enjoy the rights sanctified to them in the Constitution, given to them not by the state but by God.’
On the contrary, the critics say, Any business or religion can gather and practice their legal beliefs. No business or religion can act to oppress the legal beliefs of ‘others’ or deny otherwise public business services to ‘others’ since the ‘others’ are provided all of the same protections and rights under our law. Publicly licensed businesses are obligated to comply with the rules that govern the public irrespective of their own political beliefs. Religious organizations that interject themselves into political processes or decisions are lobbying for special treatment for their own political belief’s to force their beliefs upon others- and therefore, represent special interests lobbying for political change and should not qualify for tax exemptions otherwise afforded religious institutions.
When it comes to matters which touch every single individual’s roots, it is important to count on every single voice.
What is your opinion?
Should Congress Express Support for the Freedom of Conscience?
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