Freedom of Religion

June 1992


Democracy and Freedom

Is it democracy that makes us free? Democracy is an essential feature of the American form of government. Instead of a king making law by edict, we vote on how we are governed, and the will of the majority prevails. It is called majority rule, and is widely felt to be the strength of democracy as a form of government. It was the main idea presented in the American Declaration of Independence. "We, the people..." forms the government, and its ultimate authority is derived "...from the consent of the governed."

Today democracy and majority rule are commonly invoked to justify the mingling of religion with government. The assertion is that if the majority want to mix state and church then that is how it should be. That is "the American way." If the majority of Americans want prayer in the public schools then we should have it. That is majority rule. It does follow from the simple definition of democracy, but American democracy is not that simple.


The answer again is the Declaration of Independence. "We hold these truths to be self-evident ..." it states, that all Americans must have "inalienable rights," such as "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." History shows that Americans refused to adopt the Constitution of United States until it contained a "Bill of Rights." That Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution as the first ten amendments.




Freedom of Religion

Our first right guaranteed in the first line of the first article of the Bill of Rights, is the right to freedom of religion. Again, if we as a people do not understand what freedom of religion means, and where it comes from, it can be taken away from us by our own government, and we won't even know it. There are crucial principles to be understood:

  • Freedom of Conscience
  • Pluralism
  • Tolerance
  • Governmental Neutrality
  • Separation of State and Church
  • Freedom From Religion

The basic idea of freedom of religion is that no one, especially the government, is allowed to force religion on anyone else or prohibit anyone from practicing a religion. To force others to support a church or profess belief in a church's tenets is as much a violation of their civil rights as is preventing them from practicing their religion.


Americans used to be proud of that. The unity we felt as a nation, in spite of our plurality of religious ideas, found expression in our original national motto. E Pluribus Unum, Latin for "One Out of Many". We called it Pluralism and valued it as a strength derived out of our freedom; from the historic divisiveness of religion. Pluralism is the willingness to put aside religious differences and work together for mutual prosperity. It is what the words "one nation, indivisible" in the original version of our Pledge of Allegiance referred to, before the divisive words "under God" were inserted.



In the majority opinion of Wallace versus Jaffree (83-812, 1985), Supreme Court Justice John P. Stevens wrote, "The individual freedom of conscience protected by the First Amendment embraces the right to select any religious faith or none at all." Freedom of conscience thus guarantees that the right to freedom of religion includes the right to freedom from religion.

A civil right to freedom from religion is also supported by the establishment clause. It states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." If the purpose was simply to proscribe favoring one religion over another, as some religionists maintain, it should read "..respecting the establishment of a religion." If it said "a," the assertion would be that government is forbidden from favoring Islam, say, over Pentecostalism. The lack of the indefinite article "a," however, makes it clear that it is religion in general, as opposed to non-religion which may not be established.

Freedom Diminished


To accomplish this they have to twist the meaning of freedom of religion in the minds of the public officials and the public at large. Government cannot promote the tenets of specific religions such as prayer and "God", without violating the American values of freedom of conscience and pluralism. On the other hand, the ultra-religious cannot overtly challenge these values without drawing attention to their subversion of civil rights.

Instead they pay lip service to the words "freedom of conscience" and "pluralism" and then ignore their meanings and applications. The faithful in and out of the government are easily deceived by this. They readily accept this approach at face value and fail to notice the inherent contradiction.


As a result, anyone who publicly criticizes a church or a religious idea is characterized as intolerant, discriminatory, rude, and therefore a bigot. The nation's media cater to this distortion and are quick to sensor statements directly critical of church leaders or the ideas they promote. It is as if churches have a First Amendment right to freedom from criticism.


Another distortion, one that has recently appeared in Utah newspapers, is that tolerance means that people should tolerate the use of religion by government. This is also backwards. It is the government that is constrained to be tolerant of the people's freedom of religion. That means neutrality. That means staying out of religion altogether.



Accommodationists attach a qualifier to the word "neutral." They refer to a "benevolent neutrality" or a "respectful neutrality" of government towards religion, and claim that to be the true meaning of separation of state and church.

Of course, if government is any more respectful or benevolent towards religion than non-religion, it is not being neutral. Any special privileges or exemptions for churches or religious ideas are incompatible with the requirement for neutrality. The terms "benevolent neutrality" and "respectful neutrality" are simply oxymorons.

The Supreme Court ruled on this issue on June 5, 1985, when it rejected Alabama's moment of silence for voluntary prayer in the public schools (Wallace versus Jaffree, 83-812, 1985). The court concluded that Alabama's purpose was to "convey a message" that the state was endorsing prayer as a "favored practice." "Such an endorsement is not consistent with the established principle that the government must pursue a course of complete neutrality toward religion." The word neutrality is clear enough, but in view of the trend toward distortion of the word, Justice Stevens found it necessary to add the word "complete."

Theism vs. Freedom

The most sinister distortions originated in the early 1950's as a part of the McCarthy Era paranoia. In that climate of fear, religionists seized the opportunity to subvert the position of freedom as the central, essential value of American government, and to substitute theism in its place. Belief in "God" was advanced as the litmus test to distinguish true Americans from "godless communists." Red baiters across the nation associated patriotism more with theism than with freedom.



The authority of the U.S. government is derived from "We the people..." The U.S. Constitution is completely secular and devoid of any reference to a god. Given that the Greek roots of the word atheist mean "without" (a) "god" (theos), the U.S. Constitution is literally an atheistic document.


Nonetheless the campaign to establish "God" belief as the paramount American value and to associate patriotism with theism was largely successful. The subversion of freedom to a secondary position has been accomplished in many people's minds.

Legal Precedents


A series of such laws were passed in the early 1950's (the McCarthy Era). For example, on June 14, 1954, the words "under God" were added to the pledge of allegiance to make it read "one nation under God." America is supposed to be one nation under a constitution, but this law now instructs everyone that our Constitution is officially secondary to the word of "God."

Public Law 140, signed by President Eisenhower on July 11, 1955, was another one (31 U.S.C. 324a). It required that all coins and currency bear the motto "In God We Trust." Originally, all American money was secular. It wasn't until 1864 that "In God We Trust" first appeared on an American coin at the instigation of a Baptist minister. Theodore Roosevelt discontinued the practice, but it was subsequently reestablished for certain coins. American paper money had remained completely secular up to 1955.

This was followed by Public Law 851 signed by President Eisenhower on July 30, 1956, which replaced our traditional national motto E Pluribus Unum with "In God We Trust" (36 U.S.C. 186). In making belief in a generic god a precondition for patriotism, the American tradition of pluralism was effectively declared null and void. The First Amendment has not been repealed, but this new legal precedent had the same effect as far as freedom of religion was concerned.


--Chris Allen