|
|
|
Amendment I of the US Constitution clearly states:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
|
| The men who wrote the constitution were clear in their concern that this government of the people, by the people and for the people was to have no established national religion. The consensus of the times favored the concept that all men were endowed with the right to follow the dictates of their conscious as it relates to religion. In the religious fervor which I sometimes hear and read about, it is clear that people have forgotten why the USA came into being and this important piece of our history--this nation was founded by people who had escaped their native lands seeking to worship as they pleased. As such, it was no less an accident, that many of this nation's founding fathers including George Washington, as was my father and a brother, subscribed to the Masonic Order, as do I as an Eastern Star. As such, we believe in one G-d who has dominion. |
| In this great nation, each person is free to worship or not worship and each should be free to do this in an unrestricted manner. Neither the state nor individuals has the right or duty to impose the religious dictates that our citizens acting in a law-abiding manner will follow. The Supreme Court has ruled and continues to rule, that the separation of Church and State is a tenet, which supports this first Amendment to the constitution. I agree with this fully. |
|
|
