Dayne Nobody IV wrote:why do you insist on the co-mingling of religion and state?.. our founding fathers never wanted Christian values to intercede with the state's view on religion.. big difference between a lawful citizen obeying man's law, and a Christian following a law that has never been written, but transcribed by the thoughts of people that believed they heard God speaking to them?.. WOW!
Not sure who that was directed at, but if it was a response to the post i had above this comment then I wonder what you're talking about?
It WAS overwhelmingly Christians who made certain that the rights of all people were respected when they wrote and ratified the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence.
The right of free speech and the right OF the free exercise of religion are joined together in the First Amendment because they are inseparable. What one believes about the supernatural is open to interpretation which the State has no rights to dictate. The very purpose of our very first Amendment was because of religious persecution in Europe in nations where only one particular denomination or religion was approved. Like most muslim countries today, for example.
According to the founders of the USA, these rights come from our Creator, but they do not guarantee a person will never be offended by the words/beliefs of others. They instead guarantee the right to have a contrary opinion on matters of politics AND religion, no matter how offensive, with the assumption that each citizen has personal responsibility and accepts the consequences of their words and actions. There are (or used to be) other laws made to protect us from ideologies and persons who would use violence to oppose free speech.
