#Freedom of religion amendment how to
#Freedom of religion amendment free

Our country's founders - who were of different religious backgrounds themselves - knew the best way to protect religious liberty was to keep the government out of religion. So they created the First Amendment - to guarantee the separation of church and state. Constitution says that everyone in the United States has the right to practice his or her own religion, or no religion at all. And what I'm going to do right here is tell you about RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. The Bill of Rights applies to young people as well as adults. Many federal and state laws give us additional rights, too.

#Freedom of religion amendment free

of certain fundamental rights including the right to freedom of religion and to free speech and the due process of law. The Bill of Rights guarantees that the government can never deprive people in the U.S. Constitution, which has some amendments, known as the Bill of Rights.

(Because one day we are going to be in charge!)īut in order to really participate, we need to know our rights - otherwise we may lose them.

#Freedom of religion amendment how to

Zeenat Rahman is the director of the Inclusive America Project at the Aspen Institute.Getting an education isn't just about books and grades - we're also learning how to participate fully in the life of this nation.

If our goal is a just, free, and equitable society, then we must reimagine the relevance of religious freedom for every citizen. Let’s commit to holding our political leaders accountable to protecting the religious rights of each and every citizen. The commemoration of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom should serve as a call to action for each one of us. Religious pluralism should not strive for the lowest common denominator version of engagement, but rather an appreciation and acknowledgement of our differences, a commitment to cooperative and constructive agreement across those differences. To be sure, our differences are real and should not be glossed over. There are many resources that can serve as a starting point. There are numerous ways to do this and many are easier and more surprising than one might think: commit to finding and hearing stories from communities that not often heard from, and approach conversations about difference with empathy and humility. So let’s open ourselves up to talking about our faith and learning about the faith of others. Recent studies have highlighted that while many Americas can provide a few basic facts about Christianity and the Bible, few know about Judaism, Hinduism, and what the Constitution actually says about religion as it relates to elected officials. Our increasing division and polarization has also meant far less understanding of other faiths. By speaking up, we can demonstrate that such rhetoric does not hurt only a subsection of the population, but all of us. The most vocal response was from Muslim leaders and advocates, yet imagine if we heard vociferous condemnation from evangelical leaders based on the premise of religious freedom. Just days ago, the President tweeted out an Islamophobic image, assigning traditional Muslim dress to his political opponents. This begins with standing up for the rights of other faith communities, not just our own, and especially if one is part of the majority faith community. In order for our religious diversity to be a strength, we need a radical reimagining of how we perceive religious freedom and its connection to all faith communities. This avoidable clash has fomented the culture wars and only divided us further.

So why then is something that is a constitutionally protected right that should be beneficial to all citizens (even those of no faith) so polarizing? Religious freedom has come to be perceived as something that is only meant to protect some citizens at the expense of others. It was visionary for Thomas Jefferson to separate from the Church of England at a time when separation of church from state was practically unheard of, and even today it is a protection for citizens that is pretty unique to America. Religious freedom, one of our core First Amendment principles, supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance. What does that have to do with me, you ask? Well, 2019 saw the greatest increase in violence against religious communities in almost a decade in this country. Today is National Religious Freedom Day, the anniversary of the passage of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, a statute written by Thomas Jefferson disestablishing the Church of England in Virginia, and an important precursor to the Establishment and Free Exercise clauses of the First Amendment. This article originally appeared in The Hill.