The United States of America was founded as a place people could come to escape religious persecution. The Founding Fathers enshrined freedom of religion in the very first amendment in the Bill of Rights. But the Athiestic Communists from the Left have been chipping away at that freedom for 50 years, and are on the cusp of turning America into just another state where people are not free to practice their religion.
Europeans flocked to America when their small start-up Protestant sects were suppressed by the holy mother Catholic church. In an unfortunate and dark period of history, the bishops often wielded more power than the elected officials across the former Roman empire. That meant they became corrupt, driving a priest named Martin Luther to rebel.
As the corrupt bishops felt their power slipping through their fingers with the popularity of Lutheranism, lots of other protesting folks broke away to found their own churches independent of Rome. My own ancestry research uncovered the suggestion that my Great times 8 Grandfather Johan may have emigrated from Alsace, France to New York City in 1709 to escape the Church's persecution. Family members were jailed and their property confiscated because they had committed the mortal sin of abandoning the Holy Catholic Church to join a start-up Protestant Anabaptist Church.
What liberals did years ago was dig up an old letter penned by Thomas Jefferson, from which they grabbed an out-of-context phrase "wall of separation between church and state". They trumpeted that phrase and dishonestly claimed it meant that there can be no expression of faith in any public forum. So bible lessons and prayer were outlawed from the schools. Attempts continue to be made frequently to outlaw prayer from city council meetings, eliminate the ten commandments from courtrooms and courthouse lawns, and silence those who might dare to pray before school sporting events or at commencement ceremonies.
What most Americans do not know today is that the original intent of the First Amendment, supported fully by Jefferson himself despite the misused phrase from his letter, was to eliminate the direct interference of religious organizations with governing. It doesn't mean we can't pray in public or at public gatherings, but it does mean we can't pass laws that give special recognition to Methodists over Presbyterians. We can't levy a ten percent tithe from each citizen to go directly into the coffers of the Mennonites. We will not allow a priest, bishop, or minister to sit beside the President, Governor, Mayor, or other elected official to tell him (or her) what the church demands be done on a given topic.
If you object to a prayer being said before a football game, tune it out and say your own prayer by yourself. If you don't like the ten commandments monument on the courthouse lawn, petition to post the principles of your own religion in the town square. I think that anytime somebody doesn't like somebody else's free speech, the answer isn't to try to silence them, but to speak out with one's own free speech.
We now have a government that is violating that most sacred of constitutional rights by telling citizens we no longer have the right to our own conscience. Despite the fact that millions of Catholics feel strongly that contraceptive and abortifacient drugs are a chemical form of infanticide, Obamacare now forces them to pay for those drugs to provide them for free to anyone who wants them. That's a clear first amendment violation.
Gay Marriage is becoming the law of the land. The Supreme Court begged homosexual activists to bring another case asking to impose it as a brand new institution for all of America so they could dictate its implementation nationwide. This too is a violation of first amendment rights.
The imposition of homosexual marriage "rights" is already leading to oppression of people of faith who refuse to participate. In those states that have already legalized homosexual marriage, businesspersons are being sued for discrimination for turning away business from same-sex couples planning weddings. Soon the clergy will be sued, and I believe the day is fast approaching when priests and pastors will be jailed for refusing to perform marriage ceremonies for homosexuals.
Atheist educators everywhere can be found extolling their goal of purging all religion from society by teaching our children that there is no God. They've been engaged in that crusade since at least the 70's, and have all but succeeded. God has turned his back on the United States, and we are beginning to experience the inevitable suffering that comes once God has abandoned a people.
If I made the rules, faith would be encouraged across the land. While I would not allow any particular sect to gain control and pass laws for their own benefit, I would make sure all people of faith have the ability to express their faith wherever and whenever they wish.
What about Muslims and wierd religions, you might ask? Muslims should enjoy exactly the same freedom of religious expression as anyone. As long as they aren't sending their followers out to blow up buildings and kill other citizens, something that would not be tolerated. And Muslims may not convert anyone to their faith by force, no matter what the Prophet said.
Even religions I do not appreciate, like pagans and witches and even those misguided few who worship Satan, have the right to practice their religion. But again, if the practice of their religion includes murdering of others or animal sacrifice or other destructive behavior, they will be prosecuted. Not prosecuted for their faith, but for their antisocial behaviors.
I've found that the atheists who scream loudest about tolerance seem to be the most intolerant. They tend to be easily offended by anyone who even mildly mentions God in their presence. Especially anyone who might attempt to proselytize in their presence gets especially vilified. When will they realize that Christianity is a religion based on a personal conversion to the faith, and each individual has the right to choose to join or stay away?
Perhaps the atheist's desire to eliminate Christians overcomes any inclination to understand them.
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