kattmanduu wrote:
Wow! This gonna be fun! I will open with the part of our 1st amendment of our Constitution, that says the state shall not support religion. (period) and that all the people shall have the right to choose what ever belief they wanted without interference from the state.
With that said, I will say a great big non-Texan howdy to all.
That part of the Constitution I mentioned basically said that America is a land of all religions and all races, no matter who or what we say our creator may be.
Our founding fathers wisely avoided the issue of who or what the creator is or is not. That was then, and should be now, an individual decision and is personal.
Now then, on to the 1st Amendment as it pertains to religion; "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise ......" You must also take Amendment 14 the "Due Process Clause" for the scope of the government. The First Amendment has been interpreted by the Court as applying to the entire federal government even though it is only expressly applicable to Congress. Two clauses in the First Amendment guarantee freedom of religion. The establishment clause prohibits the government from passing legislation to establish an official religion or preferring one religion over another. The free exercise clause prohibits the government, in most instances, from interfering with a person's practice of their religion.
However, religious actions and rituals can be limited by civil and federal laws.
Religious freedom is an absolute right, and includes the right to practice any religion of ones choice, or no religion at all, and to do this without government control.
Your rights to Freedom of Religion and the free exercise thereof means:
The Freedom of Religion is an inalienable right.
The First Amendment provides for the Freedom of Religion for all Americans.
The Free Exercise Clause provides that government will neither control nor prohibit the free exercise of ones religion.
The government will remain neutral.
The first amendment does not address race or individual belief systems. It does not address the exemption, however, the Supreme Court has ruled on certain types of exemptions such as from taxes and certain "blue laws."
For state constitution regarding religion and the practice thereof, one must read and analyze those constitutions to ferret out state involvement. Ergo, your opening statement is either an oversight, a misunderstanding of the intent of the Constitution, or you may be talking about your own state's involvement in religious practice.
Thomas Jefferson once claimed, A democracy cannot be both ignorant and free.