Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of
speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to
assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Call me crazy...I still believe in the Constitution of the United States. I believe in the Bill of Rights. I am saddened at what is happening in America. One important aspect of my "job" as a chaplain calls on me to protect religious freedoms. In fact, I would argue that one of the primary functions of chaplains in my agency is to protect religious freedoms and to recognize strongly held religious beliefs.
However, our nation has moved to not only diminishing this amendment of the Bill of Rights, but it seems to have abandoned it. It appears that we have arrived at a moment in America when our nation is striving to be void of religious expression. Evidence of this movement to become a nation that doesn't allow any religious expression as part of our societal landscape can be seen in a 9/11 ceremony that occurred in 2011.
Prior to 9/11 pluralism was a buzzword in America. However, I have sensed that post 9/11 many realized that pluralism was not an acceptable view. Religious beliefs were radically different. This propelled a movement to simply remove religious express from our culture as a personal expression of deeply held religious beliefs.
I sense our nation will always protect the free exercise of religious as long as it occurs in the "church house" or our private homes. After we depart either of those locations it seems we are suppose to dispose of our "strongly held religious beliefs."
I don't hold to a worldview that is always proclaiming the sky is following, the country is falling apart at the seams or that the end of the world is near. However, I will say we are on a very slippery slope when it comes to religious freedoms in America. Americans should be free to speak against things that their interpretation of the Bible leads them to believe are sins. This falls under the concept that their view of something as sin is a strongly held religious belief and they should have the freedom to exercise that aspect of their religious beliefs.
We have reached a point where it seems Americans don't have the freedom to exercise their religious beliefs at schools, as military chaplains or even as business owners. I found the recent court ruling that a photographer can't refuse to shoot gay ceremonies as a gross infringement upon the 2nd Amendment.
Religious expression is important. The freedom of religious exercise is vital to our nation's foundation...yes, even religious expression we deem as incompatible with our own theological beliefs. I fear we are steadily marching towards a moment where calling something...anything...sin..will be deemed as hate speech and punishable in a court of law.
Regardless of one's view on what is sin and what it is not...regardless of one's view of the Bible...our nation must remember that we were founded with an eye towards free speech and religious freedom. It seems our right to religious freedom is dying one court decision at a time.
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