by Christyl Rivers

Created on: January 09, 2011   Last Updated: January 10, 2011

People must, and will, follow what their understanding of conscious and God tells them to do.

We need separation of Church and State because if each and every religion were to be given equal time, there would clearly be no time left for institutions to do anything else. The United States was founded first by those seeking freedom for their religious choices. Native American spirituality, was largely ignored at first, but clearly protected by the time the framers of the Constitution wrote the first amendment.

It says, that we, the  people, have no right to disallow Natives, or immigrants, or anyone, the right to worship as they so choose. That right is one clearly defined by our Constitution. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." is the phrasing that matters.  Thomas Jefferson did not write the phrase separation of “church and state”, but he did craft the language that suggested “a wall of separation” would be wise. He was right about this, yet people still fight over it. Without a wall, religious tolerance, doctrinal teaching, dogma,  and peaceful assembly blur where they overlap. Discrimination creeps in. People erupt in disputes.

The founding fathers framed the Constitution very carefully to word it in such a way that it is clear one faith is not to be allowed to dominate over any other faith.  This was a response to the tyranny of official state religions, as England was then dominated by the Church of England as an “official” faith. When people try to make others conform to anything being “official” it automatically assumes all other versions are unofficial, and therefore of less value. Freedom of religion allows you to worship a Christian, Muslim, Jewish, or any other, kind of God.  Without this freedom, people are oppressed. In those nations today with official state religion, there is intolerance, brutality, and oppression of “unofficial” worship. The middle east, most notably, has shed blood over whose Allah/God/Jehovah, is the “True God” even though He is the basis for all three! Centuries of bloodshed could be avoided by allowing choice.

When people lobby for prayer in school, or intelligent design creationism to be allowed in science classes, or when they are outraged against public nativity scenes being removed, they usually are not thinking of equal time for all religious views. They are thinking that as the true faith, in possession of absolute truth, they alone should have the right to promote, and celebrate their religion.

The beauty and strength of those nations that are “melting pots” or places where many views, many opinions, many forms of ideas are tolerated are the only places where freedom really reigns.  New ideas are what shape policy into forward thinking belonging for us all. Assimilation is what provides good ideas to be promoted, and outdated and oppressive ideas, such as slavery, discrimination, and domination, to be discarded over time.

The early settlers in the colonies understood that religious oppression for any reason, is an old fashioned, and volatile atmosphere wherein new knowledge and progress in social networks cannot be expressed.  As many people have fought and died for these principals, they are surely worth protecting by all patriots.

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