Freedom of Religion and the Establishment Clause

• Author: Daniel Brannen, Richard Hanes, Elizabeth Shaw
• Pages: 91-96

Contenidos

• Free Exercise Clause.
• Establishment Clause.
• Suggestions for further reading.

Page 91

"The Star-Spangled Banner" says the United States of America is the "land of the free." One of the most cherished freedoms in America is the freedom of religion. It protects our right to worship as we choose or not to worship at all.

Religion has served many purposes for humanity. In prehistoric times it explained natural events and created order out of a chaotic world. Although science does this today, people continue to use religion as a shelter from the horrors of the world. Religion helps communities develop moral values for their children. Some people use places of worship just to socialize with fellow human beings.

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, many people fled Europe to find religious freedom in the American colonies. In Europe most people were forced to follow a religion selected by the government and to pay taxes to support it. In this way, the Church of England had been that country's official religion since the sixteenth century. This restricted people who wanted to follow a different sect of Christianity or another religion. People who tried to follow other religions were punished with imprisonment and sometimes death.

Page 92

The American colonists, however, did not enjoy true religious freedom. Most of the original colonies established their own official religions. Some colonists fell into the same habits of persecution that they left behind in England. Puritans, for example, who were greatly persecuted in England, were intolerant of other religions in Massachusetts.

After the colonies revolted against England in 1776, became the United States, and established a federal government with the U.S. Constitution in 1789, Congress drafted the Bill of Rights. Although the Constitution defined and limited the powers of the federal government, it did not protect the rights of American citizens. The Bill of Rights, which consists of the first ten amendments to the Constitution, does just that. Mindful of the history of religious oppression by the Church of England and the early American colonies, Congress used the First Amendment to protect religious freedom in America. The First Amendment says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

The First Amendment, indeed the whole Bill of Rights, talks only about protecting American rights from action by the federal government. While some states included freedom of religion in their state constitutions, state governments did not have to obey the First Amendment regarding freedom of religion. After the American Civil War (1861-1865), however, the states adopted the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1868. The Due Process Clause in the Fourteenth Amendment says, "No State shall ... deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law."...