Samuel Hirsch is author of first in 2016-2017 MLHS senior student editorial series
Will Religious Freedom Endure?
The battle for religious freedom has always been a part of history, society, and government, but the establishment of America seemed to settle the issue. The document resolving this conflict, the Constitution, reinforced by the Bill of Rights, states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Now, 240 years later, religious freedom is once again in jeopardy as it continues to decline in the United States, thus renewing the age-old battle.
Throughout much of world history, the struggle for religious freedom was a losing fight. Governments from the Ancient to the Late Middle Ages hardly recognized any form of freedom and rights for their citizens. Most often state-established religions forced people to follow a designated religion or be punished, which is what America’s founding fathers tried to avoid through the Establishment Clause of the Constitution. The clause states that no national religion can be declared, and the government cannot tell people to have a religion or what religion to follow, meaning that people should be free to worship and practice their religion without government interference. Even though the freedoms and basic human rights guaranteed to American citizens have been protected and preserved by our system of government, lately many of these rights have been taken away.
Although religious freedom is part of the Constitution, many Supreme Court cases, acts, and bills that have been passed have tried to define what religious freedom means, and, more recently, have put more regulations on our religious rights as citizens. According to United States Reports, the Supreme Court case of Edwards v. Aguillard in 1987 declared it illegal to teach the view of creationism in public schools as an alternate view to evolution. This is just one example of the plethora of recent Supreme Court rulings that have begun to place laws above religious beliefs and practices. Because the government considers many beliefs to be discriminatory, they often restrict religious practices, but in singling out religious practices and beliefs, the government itself is discriminating against religions. In some cases, religious acts are considered illegal because they are unconstitutional or criminal acts, but there is a fine line between keeping order and over regulating and restricting our rights. According to Congress.gov, in 1993 Congress passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a bill that would have protected religious freedom from government regulations, but the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional because the act went beyond Congress’s enforcement power. Another recent example of the decline of religious freedom is the passing of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, which requires companies to provide health care for their employees, including contraceptives that could result in an abortion. Many companies refused to do so and cited their religious beliefs against abortion, but they were required by the government to provide that specific type of health care. Business owners have also lost numerous cases when they cited religious beliefs as a reason not to serve homosexuals who wished to get married. In both situations the majority of business owners were fined large sums of money and often had to close their businesses.
Moreover, this radical and quickly changing definition of religious freedom has greatly restricted how people can practice their religions in the United States (U. S.). The changes in law and the increasingly negative treatment of religious members have suppressed religious expression. A large part of the problem has to do with the increasingly liberalized judicial branch of the federal government and the progressively secular and changing culture, which focuses more on freedom from religion than the freedom of religion. The media and the culture have begun viewing religions as hateful toward others and discriminatory, and our country has drifted away from the morals upon which it was founded. In order to stop our religious freedoms from continually being taken away, we need to protest the injustice that is taking place and spread awareness of the issue by talking to our representatives. Most importantly, we must vote in representatives who will respect and uphold the rights guaranteed in the Constitution.
All things considered, I am shocked by the swift decline of our religious freedom because our country was based on and established for those freedoms and rights. The history behind religious freedom, how our government was set up, and the current decline of our rights should tell us that we may be facing a long fight to safeguard our religious freedom, but it is one that we must fight to preserve the values of our great country. Overall, we the people must recognize and stand up for our religious rights to ensure their preservation.