We recently have seen increasing numbers of Christian groups who use religious arguments to influence public policy.
Catholic priests, joined by numbers of protestant ministers, say religious organizations should not have to pay for their employees? birth control. Other groups use religious arguments in their opposition to abortion, and still others say that marriage same-sex or LGBT people is against God?s law.
The success of these religious arguments is obvious: Employees who work for Catholic organizations must pay for their own birth control; abortion services are being wiped out state by state; and, gay marriage is still not legal.
The fact that religious arguments are at the forefront of our public policy debates means that we citizens have the opportunity to define religion?s role in our government. To do that, we must look at the larger picture ? we must look at how religion functions in our society, and we must examine our belief in freedom of religion.
Once we better understand how religion functions, we will begin to view the notion of freedom of religion through the lens of the First Amendment?s establishment clause ? and we will see that religiously based laws have no place in our public policy.
In public discourse, religion is characterized as if it were monolithic. Even though there are many different religions, Americans have set expectations about what constitutes religion. Our religious expectations include behavioral standards and adherence to certain statements of belief. In America, we understand that religions have unique holy days and that each religion tends to have its own body of sacred writings. Religion helps a person to know what is expected. Religion helps people to explain their place in the world and in the society around them.
Christianity and Judaism are two religions that have been hugely influential in helping Americans determine their relationship to society and the world. Although very different in practice and belief, both Christianity and Judaism share the same creation story ? and in this story God creates the entire universe. Having a God who creates the entire universe sets up some problems. After all, if there is one God who creates everything, shouldn?t that God also be the God of everything and everyone? This conflict ? the conflict of the universal against the particular ? is now playing out in American society. Americans are currently struggling with how a universal God can allow particular beliefs, especially when the particular beliefs are in conflict with what the universal God has set up as the truth.
The framers of the Constitution addressed the issue of the universal and the particular through the First Amendment. As it relates to the matter of religion and government, the First Amendment reads as follows: ?Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ? .? In the First Amendment there are two clauses relating to religion: One deals with the establishment of a national religion, and one deals with the free exercise of religion.
The establishment clause states that American government will not favor one religion over another. Yet this is exactly what society is struggling with ? the establishment of Christianity as our national religion.
The First Amendment calls for a balanced approach in using religion to engage in public policy. This balanced approach means that we will accept one another?s religious beliefs, but we will not establish any particular religion as our national religion. We may not establish a Christian nation.
As it stands, many Americans do not have a balanced approach to religion and politics. We place too much emphasis on accepting one another and do not place any limits on the public role of religion. Our belief in freedom of religion causes us to accept the Catholic Church?s assertion that paying for employees? birth control would prohibit their religious expression. This is nonsense. We need to stop being so accepting and start seeing what is really going on.
Laws which limit access to birth control, abortion and marriage are laws which are meant to establish Christianity as the basis for federal law. If Jews or Muslims began pushing legislation based on kashrut or sharia law, Christians (and others) would begin to protest ? as rightly they should. Neither kashrut nor sharia law has any place in federal law, and to most Americans this seems obvious. It is much harder to see that limiting access to abortion, birth control and marriage establishes Christianity as a national religion. Yet this is precisely what is happening in America today.
American law is not supposed to set up a national religion; rather, American law sets up the absence of a national religion. Make no mistake, laws which restrict access to both birth control and abortion ? and laws which restrict a person?s right to civil marriage ? are laws based on religious belief and biblical law. If these laws are passed we will have taken three steps closer to establishing Christianity as the national religion of the United States. Only by speaking out in support of our First Amendment rights will we be able to continue living in freedom from religious law.
Freedom of religion may allow us to live in community with one another despite our religious differences, but the establishment clause of The First Amendment determines the role that religion must play. Government does not have the power to establish Christian law in the guise of federal law. The First Amendment is radical in that it defines both a freedom from religion and a freedom of religion.
Each individual has the right to believe that his or her religion is universal, but no one has the right to impose that ?universal? religion on others through our political process.
Source: http://blogs.denverpost.com/hark/2012/08/08/religion-amendment-christian-nation/873/
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