The United States: Christian Nation Or Secular Republic?

Does the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution mean that religion is a private matter?

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• Free
• Exercise
• Clause
• First
• Amendment
• United
• States
• U.S.
• Constitution
• America
• Christian
• nation
• secular
• republic
• church

[blessedvic]

A study by the American Political Science Review on the political documents of the founding era (1760-1805), [reported] that 94 percent of the periods documents were based on the Bible, with 34 percent of the contents being direct citations from the Bible. The Scripture was the bedrock and blueprint of our Declaration of Independence, our Constitution, academic arenas and heritage until the last quarter of a century.

[tothboy01]

If that is the case, then okay. Christianity was quite woven into the customs, traditions, social norms, etc in the founding era (1760-1805), so I think it's safe to say that the results of that report are probably what one would expect. Just to give three examples of religion's role in the origin of some of the American colonies, Massachusetts was founded by Puritans, Mayland by Catholics, and Pennsylvania by Quakers. (continued)...

[tothboy01]

However, this video is specifically about the free exercise clause in the First Amendment to the U.S. Bill of Rights. Free exercise of religion. (continued)...

[tothboy01]

I don't think I'm being unreasonable for holding the notion that free exercise of religion is a personal choice. If an American wants to freely exercise his/her own religion, then fine. But that is his/her own religion, not necessarily the religion of other religious people nor the stance of non-religious people. Having said all that, why should this one particular individual's own religion be imposed by law on those other kinds of people?

[infinityjrh]

Well said. To avoid discrimination, perhaps we should start providing equal opportunity on our money to all religions:

In Allah we trust

In Buddha we trust

In Poseidon we trust

In Lord Xenu we trust

Every Christian would be with you and me, demanding that the Constitution be upheld. It is a taste of their own medicine that is required.

[Syrinx69]

Wrong. You can't keep government out of church or out of people's lives unless religion is kept out of government. Freedom OF religion includes freedom FROM religion. Religion has no place in government at all. You would be singing a different tune if Muslims were enacting laws and meddling in our government affairs as much as Christians are.

[quantheory]

The federal First Amendment was only applied to the states via the post-civil-war 14th Amendment. The same applies to most of the bill of rights. So we really should be looking at 19th and 20th century jurisprudence to determine the scope of American freedom, not just statements written at a time when 19% of the population was enslaved, women were second-class citizens, and many states legally enforced religious oaths to keep Catholics/Jews/atheists (and others) from office.

[quantheory]

The Puritans fled religious persecution... and then set up their own oppressive theocratic government. Besides the Salem witch trials, they also persecuted and exiled religious dissenters. In the various States generally, there were cases of violence or persecution against Jews, Catholics, Baptists, Quakers, non-monotheists...

The First Amendment means that you can't use the government as a carrot or stick to enforce your religious rules upon others. And that has always been absolutely vital.

[WILLTHEWGMAN]

US liberty is grated first by a creator at birth and only recognized and upheld by the US constitution as a birth-right as such. Why, because if mere men or documents alone granted you liberty only a mere man or document can take it away! This is the distinction from American Liberty & why all men are created equal, evolution surly does not teach this but Christianity does. The basic notion of American liberty & freedom for all is by a God-given birth-right & a non-secular view historically.

[bearchewtoy75]

@infinityjrh Lord Xenu is a bad guy though...

[TheHomelessCripple]

@AdamTh1 lol so true, Freedom of speech and religion to a christian is : you have the freedom to believe and say what I tell you to.

[AdamTh1]

Its interesting to listen to Christians rally around and support the First Amendment like true Americans should. The truth is most of them support the First Amendment only to the extent that it allows them to freely express their religious beliefs. Anything more than that, especially anything critical of Christianity, all you will find will be plenty of dissatisfaction from them, you certainly wont find any support for YOUR freedom of speech from the majority of Christians.

[jfsfrnd]

I don't think so. If I am correct you are saying that government needs to stay out of religion, but religion does not need to stay out of government. That is not my understanding.

[GodsGalaxy]

Are we in agreement or not? I'm not quite sure.