The first amendment to the Constitution was written by James Madison and is one of the most important measures of freedom in the world. It gives religious, speech and press freedom that at that time had never been available to anyone in the world. It differentiated the new United States of America from all other counties and set the new country on a course of greatness, The gift of religious freedom to the citizens of this new country was something that they had wished for many years and most of them had come to this country, or their forbearers had for religious freedom. The Pilgrims, Puritans, Quakers, Congregationalists and even the Roman Catholics. The Pilgrims and Puritans with the Congregationalists were mostly living in the Northeast in Mass, NY, RI and Conn while the Quakers were settled in Penn. The Roman Catholics were mostly in Md with the rest dispersed among the thirteen colonies. It was said that a Quaker that was caught in Virginia for the third time was hanged. The British extracted a tax to support the Church of England which is still true today. Everyone paid the tax whether or not they attended that, Church. The freedom of religion that many of the people came to the new land for was not available. The first amendment corrected that by stating that the state or country would not establish a Church and that citizens could not be forced to not practice their respective religion. It was a freedom that opened the new country to all and any religion without government interference. It was historic at the time and had never been available before to anyone in any country. The religious freedom started in the new Virginia Constitution which was written by Madison and Jefferson and Jefferson's influence pushed Madison to agree to this concept,
This freedom that we have has slowly been eroded over time and much more rapidly after the second world war. While I was in grade school the minister would visit every week for religious training and was open to all. Students of a different faith could elect to miss this time and it was just a few years before the minister was not allowed in the school. Those that wanted were released each week for one hour to go to the Church for the training. That did not last very long and there was no religious training allowed during public school hours. Soon after that prayer was not allowed, and religion was removed from school completely with the final removal of Christmas programs. Prayer in locker rooms and by sport teams was banned and religion was completely removed from public education although there had never been any attempt to start a state religion but educate students on the religions which could be represented at a particular school. Religion was taught only, in private schools which were banned from receiving any public funds.
Slowly the freedom was being removed without most realizing it. This started to speed up in the last few years with the "War on Christmas" in which reference to Christmas such as Merry Christmas was replaced by Happy Holidays. Department stores bought into this and soon the word Christmas was nowhere to be found. Christians fought back by not buying at stores that refused to say Merry Christmas and much of the signage was reversed back to acknowledge Christmas. We still see many stores and advertisements stating Happy Holidays, but Christmas has returned somewhat. A few years ago, a baker in Colorado was sued by the state for refusing to decorate a cake for a gay couple because he said it was against his religion. It was his shop, and he was the sole owner, but the state said he was discriminating and breaking the law. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States, and he won because the state was violating his first amendment right to practice his religion. It is quite interesting that the state has proceeded to sue another shop owner for the same thing and is now in litigation. They still don't believe the first amendment right to allow a person to practice his or her religion. Hopefully they will again lose in the Supreme Court. Another case involved a high school football coach that knelt in prayer after each game and some of his team joined him. He was fired from his job because of it. Again, the Supreme Court reversed his firing, and he won his case to practice his religion. Tim Tebow was derided when in college and the NFL for praying in the endzone after each touchdown. We have seen Christians and Jews being criticized often when trying to practice their respective religion in public and now it has spread to Muslims.
The scariest thing that happened just a few weeks ago was in England where they do not have complete religious freedom when a woman was arrested for standing across the street from an abortion clinic and silently praying. The officer asked what she was thinking, and she said that she was thinking a prayer for those seeking abortions. She was arrested for thinking and standing on the street. The devil is alive and well and moving at speed to destroy our Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths. lI must add that while prayer is not allowed in public schools. I have been told that at least one of our elementary schools has a Muslin prayer room in it where students can take their mats and pray at the designated times during the day. I was told to keep this quiet.
I heard a man on TV say that if the Church membership kept declining there would not be enough people to defend religious freedom and it would just dissappear.
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