Religious Expression is Required!
November 13, 2008
“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.”
1st Amendment, US Constitution
Make no mistake about it,
I am indeed a Christian and if you haven’t checked go visit my section
labeled “Starting Point aka my World View” and there
you can gain a sense of where faith in God fits in my life.
As a devout Christian woman I proffer this premise that I am convinced
that religious groups and high profile religious leaders should not participate
in our partisan political system. However, if they participate
as individual citizens then even those leaders can and should be involved
to the level their world view allows.
The premise as stated
above is a result of my reaction to listening and observing individuals
and groups for many of the past years as exemplified by James Dobson of
Focus on the Family, Rod Parsley with Center for Moral Clarity, and the
late Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority and a host of others. Please
do not interpret this to mean that they have no right to speak out as an
individual citizen. I just have a problem with them using their celebrity
to recruit financial contributions or workers on behalf of a candidate,
party, or political cause.
You see I fail to understand
how anyone can doubt the intent of the framers of our Constitution.
The 1st Amendment states unequivocally that we can worship as we choose,
however there are some on the religious right that must not realize that
it also means that if your choice is to be a Buddhist, Jew or Muslim, then
you accrue that same right as well. The amendment does not stipulate
that you must be a Christian thus one would logically assume that an atheist
or an agnostic would be also be protected.
I am quite capable of
wrapping my brain around the idea that the 1st Amendment affects two issues
in relation to religion. First, we truly are able to worship however
we choose and that includes non-Christian entities. Secondly, it
means that individuals are free from any state sponsored endorsement or
even vague reference to religion.
For example, you might
also recall that a huge hue and cry went up with regard to removing the
Ten Commandments from a courthouse wall. I agree that was improper
in the absence of symbols representative of other belief systems.
Removing the Ten Commandments would however be improper if a Jewish star
or Muslim crescent were allowed to remain.
What so many Americans
find easy to forget is that the beloved framers of the Constitution immigrated
to these shores to avoid being compelled to espouse or participate in a
national religion. They left forced religious preference behind
them in Europe and the British Isles.
We should also understand
that the members of our Constitutional Convention consisted of 55 Protestants
and one Catholic. In spite of their religious beliefs they determined
that the 1st Amendment was necessary to guarantee true religious liberty
in our country.
Very often we find ourselves
at odds with each other because the Evangelical Christians tend to use
the amendment for additional support for their particular world view.
Unfortunately, history continues to demonstrate that a large segment of
our population reacts extremely negatively to religious participation in
politics, and to the point where they have closed their minds to considering
Christianity as necessary to their life.
Conversely, we need to
be turning people on to faith in God instead of turning them off by endorsing
candidates and fighting for parochial concerns. In my humble opinion
the religious/political activists would serve God in a better and more
effective way by redirecting their energy and resources toward evangelism.
