Four Religious Freedoms

Our Four Religious Freedoms

Live Oak, September 16, 2007

Paul Sullivan

Good Morning. Tomorrow, September 17th, marks the 220th Anniversary of when our fabulous U.S. Constitution was written in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

I am honored to be with fellow religious liberals to pause and thank our Nation’s founders.

In honor of our Constitution, I would like to discuss our four religious liberties in our Constitution and the responsibilities we have to protect them.

Our first religious freedom is in Article Six. It says, “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office.”

This prevents discrimination based on religion for government jobs.

Our second religious freedom is in our First Amendment. It says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”

This means there will be no government financing or promotion of religion.

Our third religions freedom is also in our First Amendment. It says, “Congress shall make no law … prohibiting the free exercise” of religion.

The Enlightenment taught us that we are best left to pursue our own individual spiritual journey. This freedom places a restriction on the government that allows us to pick our own religion.

Our fourth religious freedom comes from a 1985 Supreme Court case that says that, “… The Court has unambiguously concluded that the individual freedom of conscience protected by the First Amendment embraces the right to select any religious faith or none at all.”

This fourth religious freedom is the liberty to be an atheist, an agnostic, a humanist, an existentialist and otherwise not practice any religion at all.

As Unitarian Universalists, our seven principles address religious freedom. We believe in the value of all humans, in a free and responsible search for truth and meaning, and the use of the democratic process.

That is why I am here before you today. Many attacks are being waged against our religious liberties.

These attacks are from within America, not from outside.

Our first religious liberty preventing religious tests, is being ignored. The President selected Supreme Court justices based on their extremist religious beliefs. Even Congressional directories list the religion of every elected official.

Our second religious liberty that prohibits government support for an organized religion, is also being ignored. Since 2001, billions of our tax dollars were spent on faith-based programs with very little Administrative or Legislative oversight.

Religious schools that would otherwise close due to lack of church funding now receive a windfall of our tax money to teach religion.

In a dangerous repeat of the past, the organized religion that brought us the Dark Ages now brings us the Jesus Camp, the Christian Coalition, the Moral Majority and other groups that seek to establish their extreme version of theocracy in America.

A few months ago in Washington, four generals at the Pentagon abused their military rank, government office space, and government time to proselytize and raise money for an organized religion. To learn more about this, please read, “With God on Our Side,” by Michael Weinstein, a book that documents the surge of evangelizing chaplains within the military.

Today, our soldiers in the Iraq War who seek mental healthcare are sent to chaplains due to the shortage of psychiatrists. Many of these chaplains aggressively proselytize, saying a conversion to evangelical Christianity will help them in their fight against Islam and terrorism in Iraq.

Forty four years ago, organized religion also fought against equality for African Americans. The poignant “Letter from the Birmingham Jail,’ written by the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. lamented how some religions turned their backs on our Civil Rights movement. Eight religious leaders told Rev. King that law and order was more important than equal human rights for all.

How quickly religious leaders had forgotten the “Stuttgart Declaration of Guilt” written by leading German theologians after World War II. This rarely-discussed historical document apologized for the unconscionable actions of some organized religions for supporting Hitler’s Nazi Germany and for remaining silent during the Holocaust that murdered 11 million people in Europe. Elie Wiesel’s book, “Night,” provides a vivid example of a world without protections for religious minorities.

Our third religious freedom to exercise our religion, is in jeopardy, too.

The Administration blocked the request made by a fallen soldier’s mother for a Wiccan headstone. The soldier was killed in Iraq, but he couldn’t get a headstone in America. The family eventually won and received a Wiccan headstone after filing a lawsuit.

Our fourth religious freedom is in the most danger from fellow Americans. A March 2006 poll by the University of Minnesota found that atheists are America’s least trusted minority. Not gays, not African Americans, but atheists.

How ironic, that in the land that professes religious freedom, the non-believer is the most feared.

Just as some religious extremists fought against civil rights, women’s rights, and gay rights, some now attack non-believers. A few organized religions even supported a unilateral invasion of Iraq in 2002.

These same religious extremists incorrectly claim the U.S. is a “Christian Nation,” when that is not true. America is a Nation with a majority of Christians. Yet we have a secular government that balances majority rule with minority rights.

While working at the Department of Veterans Affairs in Washington, I briefed political appointees about the surge in mental healthcare claims among Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans. A political appointee responded that, if the veterans simply believed in god and country, then they wouldn’t come home with post-traumatic stress disorder.

In conclusion, here are three lessons about the assaults on our religious freedoms.

First, our Constitution remains a proud accomplishment from The Enlightenment. Yes, there were flaws discriminating against Native Americans, African Americans, and women, yet most of the flaws were corrected. We are evolving, and that is good.

Second, we have a responsibility to live our Constitution. This makes it harder for despots and would-be tyrants to take away our freedom. This means we should register to vote, go to the polls on Election Day, and stay informed about current events.

Third, the long-term appears ominous. There are several universities created by organized religion with the sole purpose of bringing religious tyranny to America. I suggest reading “God’s Harvard,” by Hanna Rosin. She describes religious intolerance at Patrick Henry College in Virginia.

Our Constitution limits government and prevents the excesses of organized religion. We are born free. Let’s keep it that way, so we, and our children, may meet here at Live Oak for another 220 years.