How to Understand Your First Amendment Rights I--Freedom of Religion

This amendment and the nine that follow were added to protect individual rights against a strong central government. The Bill of Rights was added to the new constitution by the founders as a guarantee that citizens could never be controlled by a ruler who was not held accountable for his actions. The founders of the United States came from a variety of religious traditions. They left an old world that was engulfed in conflict, most of it based on religious differences. Religious tolerance and freedom thus became primary concerns of the new nation and so became the first right listed in the Bill of Rights.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."

1. "Congress shall make no law..." The federal legislature may not limit rights accepted as natural human rights (inalienable). Although the British parliamentary system afforded a measure of democracy in England, this participation had not extended to the colonies, and the revolution had been fought largely based on the radical view of England as a totalitarian monarchy. It therefore became important to the founders to limit the power of a central government and "reserve" a large measure of the power to govern to the individual states where government could be more directly responsible to the people.
2. "...respecting an establishment of religion," Religion based on individual conscience was what many people had come to the new world to find and the largely protestant constitutional convention accepted the idea that no one person could rule by "divine right". 18th-century humanist philosophy as well as Martin Luther's Reformation thought held that the church and state comprised "two kingdoms". All agreed that the excesses of the Inquisition and Tudor succession (the period of religious turmoil in England after Henry VIII's death) might be avoided if the government were forbidden to establish a national church.
3. "...or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;" Among the founders were not only humanists and Reformation protestants but also Roman Catholics, agnostics and atheists. If the government is prohibited from saying which religion all must subscribe to, then it may not dictate the religious beliefs of anyone. If it may not dictate which beliefs are correct, it cannot declare beliefs incorrect nor may it control the expression of those beliefs in thought or action--unless those expressions endanger public safety or the common welfare. This clause about expression is the source of controversy that has kept cases concerning religion in American public life for the last century before the Supreme Court for the last century.

Tips & Warnings

• The Authors of the Bill of Rights (and the U.S. Constitution) wrote in very general terms in order to have a rule that could be applied to all citizens in the nation into the unknowable future. This meant that specific situations were left to be dealt with by the congress and the states and laws interpreted by the courts. Over the years, situations have been judged against this amendment and existing law to determine whether a certain action was legal. These cases (or "case law") help us understand the law in specific situations, refine it and make it relevant today.
• For more information about the balance between freedom of religion and its limits, search for key words "religious freedom" and "freedom of religion". Many religious groups have websites explaining their interpretation of this First Amendment right. Information concerning freedom of religion case law can be found on a number of websites, some of which are listed below.
• The rights guaranteed us are ours only so long as we do not use them to interfere with the same rights of other citizens.
• Individual rights are guaranteed by the Bill of Rights to persons in the United States. The founders believed that these rights were part of being human. Not all governments--or individuals--agree that they belong to all equally. This means that these rights are not guaranteed to us wherever we are in the world just because we're Americans.