Freedom OF Religion

If you read the newspaper or watch the news, most days you will come across a story where someone has done something to express their religious views and someone else is offended and thinks that the religious person should be fired, scolded, or forced to remove any sort of religious object in view of the the public or more importantly themselves. And just to be clear, I am not referring to any act of violence claimed to be in the name of any religion. Or any group such as the Westboro Baptist idiots who protest funerals. I am referring to a plaque of the Ten Commandments outside a city hall or the open expression of faith by someone in authority. Such as recently, the coach at a notable college came under fire for allowing a volunteer chaplain to come in and talk to players who were seeking counsel. Not one player, coach, or alumni has come forward saying they were wronged and the coach said all you had to do to play for the team was work hard and be a good athlete. An outside group lodged the complaint.

 The group involved with the college complaint has attacked many other groups for such open expression. Even though they are not directly involved. They recently got a city council to stop saying a prayer before their meetings because of the principle or separation of church and state. Though implied in the Constitution is never directly stated. It says no "establishment of religion" shall be made, but also states that there can be no law "prohibiting the exercise there of."

I think the group and many others like it have merely gotten their words confused. While it was more lengthy, the basis of the First Amendment is freedom OF Religion not FROM religion as some now days tend to use it. You have the right to have or not have what ever faith you'd like. You cannot force someone to have the same belief, just as they cannot force you. 

Let's look at another one correctly said yet thrown around a lot. Freedom Of Speech. What if we changed the OF to FROM? That brings a whole new context doesn't it. Freedom FROM speech means if you don't like this post you could potentially have me put in jail. Maybe Mitt Romney would be exiled for opposing the sitting President. You see, if you mix up the words, you bring us back to the society that our founders were trying to make us separate from. A society that what the ruler said went and you could not oppose it. 

That is not who we are. We are the land of the free. We have Freedom OF Speech and Freedom OF Religion. We have the ability and right to live how we want. To believe in God, or Allah, or nothing at all. We do not have the right to tell someone else they cannot do so. If you do not agree with a certain faith and they offer a prayer, simply stay seated or don't bow your head, but allow them to express their faith. 

Our country was founded on spirited debate from very different views. The one thing that sets us above all others is that all sides are heard on equal ground. Plurality is what makes us great. If we give up and discard our unalienable rights, we will lose the foundation on which we stand.