"I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute- where no Catholic prelate would tell the president (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote--where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference--and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the president who might appoint him or the people who might elect him." --John F. Kennedy
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."
From the Encarta Online Encyclopedia entry on Freedom of Religion.
Freedom of Religion, right of a person to form personal religious beliefs according to his or her own conscience and to give public expression to these beliefs in worship and teaching, restricted only by the requirements of public order.
After Christianity became established as the official religion of the Roman Empire in the 4th century, heresy and heterodoxy became equivalent to treason. Centuries later, the colonists who immigrated to the Americas brought with them this doctrine of religious intolerance. However, by the time of the American Revolution (1775-1783), the principle of religious liberty had taken hold in many of the colonies. The principle was adopted in various state constitutions and expressed in Article VI and the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States.
In 1998 President Clinton Signed a Religious Freedom Bill into Law that allowed the United States in ensure religious freedom in countries all over the world.
Each year millions of people are persecuted due to there religious beliefs. Christians, Judaism, Pagans, Wiccans, Buddists, Taoists, Satanists, Church of Satan, Hindus, Atheists, Sikhists, Bahai'ist, followers of New Age and Spirituality, Humanists, Liberal Religons, Interfaith, Native Americanism, and many others suffer each day. It is truely time for all people to accept that not everyone has the same religious belief and that we can live in harmony even if we follow a different doctrine.
Examples of Religious persecution
Editors Note: "Christian" in my writing refers to denote Christians primarily in the Christian Fundamentalists groups. I know many Christians that I have the upmost respect for and in no way to I intend to demean their religious beliefs or practices.
13 conservative Christian groups are asking Americans to not enlist or re-enlist in the U.S. Army. The boycott is to continue until the Army terminates the freedoms of religion, speech and assembly for all Wiccan soldiers while on base.
The facts
On 1999-MAY-18, U.S. Representative Bob Barr (GA-7) issued a press release which attacked the freedom of religion experienced by Wiccan soldiers at Fort Hood TX and at many other armed forces bases. His initial concern appears to have been that the U.S. army was funding a religion that he personally felt should not be allowed within the military.
Barr "tried to amend a defense authorization bill to prohibit the practice of Wicca or any other form of witchcraft at Defense Department facilities. The measure was nixed on procedural grounds." It was not considered germane to the bill to which it was attached. He has promised to try again.
This was followed on JUN-9 by a joint statement of 13 conservative Christian groups. In the words of Paul M. Weyrich, president of the Free Congress Association: "Until the Army withdraws all official support and approval from Witchcraft, no Christian should enlist or re-enlist in the Army, and Christian parents should not allow their children to join the Army. An Army that sponsors Satanic rituals is unworthy of representing the United States of America."
Perhaps someone should explain this to me...because I do not understand why no one has ever boycotted the military for the practice of other religions. Weyrich believes that Wicca and Satanism are the same thing and interchanges the two on a regular basis. He wants to deny the right of the soilder to practice what he is sworn to protect. I served in the Navy and I remember swearing to protect the constitution of the United States of America. I did not swear to protect it for everyone except the soldiers that die to protect those rights. The Christians proclaim that the Country was founded with Religious Freedom so that Christians could practice their religion without persecution. And that it is the Christian's belief that any religion other than their own is wrong and must be stamped out, that is what the bible has taught them to do. Well why don't we go back to the times of the Salem Witch Trials.
Take the attitudes from then and place them in the year 2000. If the inquisition showed up at your house tomorrow and told you to denouce anyone you could suspect of Witchcraft or you would be considered a Witch and tortured to death by the inquisition who would you turn in. Keep in mind if they suspected you tried to protect someone you would be tortured to save your soul. Do you know anyone that have ever called a Pychic Hotline, played with a Ouiji board, or used Tarot cards or Rune Stones. Have you ever pretended your broom was a horse and rode it abound the house, lit a candle in prayer (when you weren't in church)
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