Church, State, And The First Amendment

I wish I could have been around when our founding fathers had the discussions regarding church and state, when they spoke of freedoms and rights and responsibilities. It sure would provide some necessary context and intent right now in our current political climate.

But until I have the opportunity to travel back through the space-time continuum, I just wish that religion and politics would go to separate neutral corners and stay there.

As Sergeant Joe Friday always used to say, “Just the facts, ma’am, just the facts”. So let’s at least stick with the facts as a starting point.

We all know that freedom of speech and freedom of religion are laid out in the First Amendment of the US Constitution. But the problem exists when the facts get bent for political gain, or when religious intolerance disguises itself as freedom of speech.

Let’s start off with a quick review of the facts - the First Amendment, as written in the Bill Of Rights:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting 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.

Please note: there is no official state religion. There is no prohibition of religion. There is freedom of speech. Regardless of what people believe that the founding fathers were thinking, the First Amendment is pretty straightforward.

Extend this to what Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1802:

"I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between Church & State".

It looks like the separation of church and state was pretty clear in 1802. So why does this get muddy in our politics now?

When Barack Obama became President of the United States, many Republicans were up in arms because they believed (and many still do) that he is a Muslim. Does the President not have that First Amendment right afforded to all the rest of us?

The issue has reared its ugly head again in the Republican presidential debates. They now have presidential candidates of Christian and Mormon faiths. Should it happen, will the Republican Party take issue with a Mormon presidential candidate?

Yes, we all have freedom of speech. But there are times when people forget that there is a responsibility attached to those rights and freedoms. That is what gets lost in the mix.

For example, the Rev. Robert Jeffress, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dallas, has remarked that Mitt Romney was “not a Christian”, that Mormonism is a “cult”, and now, this winning sound bite:

“Part of a pastor’s job is to warn his people and others about false religions. Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Mormonism are all false religions”.

I guess this is freedom of speech at work. Maybe we should ask the 1.6 billion Muslims, 1 billion Hindus, and 500 million Buddhists worldwide about “false religions”. How responsible is it to claim this when 3.1 billion people – half of the world’s population - would beg to differ?

Another example comes from Bryan Fischer, the spokesman for the American Family Association. Mr. Fischer has stated that First Amendment protections of religious freedom do not apply to "non-Christian religions," a category in which he includes The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

He asserts that it is

"very clear that the Founding Fathers did not intend to preserve automatically religious liberty for non-Christian faiths."

I guess the American Family Association has a spokesman that apparently has some deeper understanding of what the founding fathers really meant. Either he knows something that we don’t, or this is a fine example of religious intolerance being disguised as freedom of speech.

What drives all of this? Is it fear? Should we really care about our president’s (or presidential hopeful’s) faith? Should we really judge a presidential candidate by which God or deity he or she prays to (or doesn’t, as the case may be) behind closed doors?

Now that time travel machine sure does sound entertaining. Can we bring along Sergeant Joe Friday to collect some facts from our founding fathers? And then, can we just let it all go, take a deep breathe, and get on with being responsible with our freedoms?

Photo credits: Wikipedia