Religious Freedom Generates Moral Values
By: Monika Jablonska
America was founded on Christian values. The founding fathers intended us to be a just and moral people. Separation of church and state is to protect the church from government control. Our founding document says that we have a creator. He created us as equals in His sight. He is the author and source of all of our inalienable human rights. The document appealed to God as to the justness of our cause. The founders believe our nation won independence and was brought into being by divine Providence. A nation that protects religious liberty is likely as ours was to be a just nation that protects other human rights.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Religious Freedom Generates Moral Values
As Ronald Reagan once said, "Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged. When our Founding Fathers passed the First Amendment, they sought to protect churches from government interference.
Reagan added, "They never intended to construct a wall of hostility between government and the concept of religious belief itself. The First Amendment of the Constitution was not written to protect the people of this country from religious values; it was written to protect religious values from government tyranny."
In the 20th century, our nation faced a momentous challenge to freedom. We stood up against evil and defeated, first, fascism, and, then, communism.
Today, America faces a new challenge: an assault on religious freedom, which is the most fundamental of our human rights. Religious freedom is inseparable from the rest of our liberties. The question is, whether Americans can maintain their moral discipline and virtues to defend them?
Freedom of religious belief and practice is a fundamental and universal right enshrined in various moral and legal traditions, including ours.
According to Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, a milestone document in the history of liberty, "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion. This right incudes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance."
Pope John Paul II, who suffered for faith under the Nazis and Communists, asserted that “religious freedom … is the basis of all other freedoms and is inseparably tied to them all by reasons of that very dignity which is the human person.”
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI reminds us that "The right to religious freedom is rooted in the very dignity of the human person whose transcendent nature must not be ignored or overlooked.” Freedom is oriented to truth, moral values, and "is a means of achieving personal union with God."
In this sense, unlike utilitarianism and pragmatism, religious freedom is an inviolable right.
Then, the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 states, "From its birth to this day, the United States has prized this legacy of religious freedom and honored this heritage by standing for religious freedom."
As our National Security Strategy so clearly express that, "Our Founders understood religious freedom not as the state’s creation, but as the gift of God to every person and a fundamental right for our flourishing society."
Indeed, our Founding Fathers believed that the Christian moral system --- where people "Love God with their whole heart, soul, and mind; and to Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself' — corresponds to the true nature of man. They were convinced that religion helps create moral discipline within society.
On May 29, 2018, then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in his remarks on the release of the 2017 International Religious Freedom Annual Report, declared, "Religious freedom is in the American bloodstream from the beginning. It’s what brough the pilgrims here from England. Our founders understood it as our first freedom. That is why they articulated it so clearly in the first Amendment … Religious freedom was vital to America’s beginning. Defending it is critical to our freedom."
Constitutional protection of religious freedom in the United States reflects the Founding Fathers’ belief that religion was necessary for existence of a free system of government. Why? Because free government was only "suitable and sustainable for religious people" — a people who have believed that God is the source of human freedom and dignity.
As John Adams put it, "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other."
James Madison described religious liberty as "a right towards men" but "a duty towards the Creator," and a "duty… precedent both in order of time and degree of obligation, to the claims of Civil Society."
The First Amendment of our Constitution — which was intended to separate church from state providing for limited government, while giving "the People" broad liberty — reminds us that the freedom to belief and practice is a fundamental liberty.
Standing for religious freedom is standing for God, natural law, moral values, and truth in America. It's standing for liberty of human person and his dignity.
Whether Americans can maintain their moral discipline and virtue to defend them?
I truly believe so, but we still need Christian leaders who will act on our religious values and morals in public and private. We need young people "who will go beyond the political and cultural impasses of the present and proclaim the Gospel with fresh hope, insight, and conviction." We need political leaders who are ready to fight for our liberties: the freedom to live according to our faith and beliefs.
Dear fellow Americans, now it’s the time for all of us to defend our Church and our religious freedom. It’s also time to defend our own freedoms and the freedom of our families. Freedom of religion not only strengthens the nation's but also serves as a necessary foundation of peace and security in America and globally.
Defense of faith helps us shape our culture for the better.
"Be not afraid," as St. John Paul II appeals to us from the house of God, "throw open the doors to Christ."
Slavery, genocide of native Americans, white supremacy, forced conversions, truly Christian values.
Thankfully we've come a long way and, like the founders intended, made a more perfect union for ALL citizens, not just the privileged white Christian conservatives who've been running things for the last 400 years.
As for religious freedom, what freedoms have the religious been denied? I can erect a statue of Baphomet in my front yard and worship it all day long surrounded by burning upside down crosses if I wanted to, how is anyone's religious freedom being denied? The only restriction on religious freedom is where it meets another Americans freedoms. Religious freedom does not mean it trumps other Americans freedoms like the freedom to get a marriage license or buy cakes from public businesses.
There has never been as much religious freedom as there is now in America. We now hear far more holiday greetings regularly in many businesses and establishments, from Happy Hanukah to Joyous Kwanzaa along with Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Being inclusive is what religious freedom is all about, though apparently some whiny loser Scrooges disagree and are offended that their Holiday isn't the only one being mentioned this time of year.
Now we have another regular winter Holiday tradition which is to listen to right wing conservative news pundits snivel and whine like ants under a magnifying glass about the supposed "War on Christmas" because someone said "Happy Holidays" to them in some clothing store. By the first week of December you can start making a drinking game out of it when watching Fox. Just take a shot every time someone complains about the plight of poor Christian victims having their religious freedoms stripped away by bi-coastal secular progressive anti-God Democrats who refuse to say Merry Christmas to them. Do not attempt to drive home later, you'll be passed out by 7:30...
The seed above is full of right wing rhetoric but nowhere does it actually make any case for religious freedom being attacked or denied. Being critical of whiny religious pricks who constantly play the victim is also not denying them any religious freedom. A religion losing members and going into decline isn't denying them any religious freedoms. Exposing rampant sexual abuse of minors within religious groups and Churches is not denying them any religious freedoms. Protecting a woman's constitutional right to privacy and access to safe legal abortions is not denying any citizen their religious freedom. So where exactly are religious freedoms being denied?
Not in this universe. Maybe at UC Berkeley?
Let's see, slavery is not condemned or prohibited by either God or the Bible. There was the Manifest Destiny. Forced conversations have historically been performed by Christians, often at the sword when converting Pagans or other religions, as we as being seen today with gay conversion therapy. Need I continue?
Probably not since he's talking about the white conservative Christian universe, you know, where right wing fascists dwell, and where right wing conservative Christians can do no wrong and are always the victims, where they're rubber and you're glue so anything you say bounces off them and sticks to you, a realm where being a selfish petulant child is the highest form of faith. Reality has zero relationship with their universe so there's not much point in arguing with them.
I don’t think that’s true. I see no evidence of it, at any rate.
I agree that freedom of religion is important and it that it has always been a fundamental concern of this country. However, no description of an “assault” on that freedom is described in the article, and I think freedom of religion is actually in a pretty good place in this country.
This seed, the introductory comments and the seeder's follow up comments are all ammunition in the theocratic dominionists' War on the Truth.
And every one was a dud.
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Total duds.
There is no "conversation" here. There is the fraudulent theocratic dominionist propagandistic disinformation, which is a total dud, and there are the valid critiques and the truth expressed by normal people refuting the theocratic dominionist disinformation.
Reactionary extremist and theocratic dominionist beliefs are the epitome of evil and would inevitably lead to the destruction of modern, enlightened civilization.
This is an example of your Christian truth and what a government based on the Christian religion would be,
That is a brilliant response. You support all of those ideas in your quest to make the US a conservative Christian theocracy. People who support those ideas deserve the same fate as those who support ISIL.