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No Religious Test, Ever, for Citizenship


"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."

That is Article 1 of the Bill of Rights in our Constitution.  Congress may not establish any religion, nor prohibit people from practicing religion.  We are guaranteed free speech, freedom of the press, the right to assemble peaceably, and to howl at the government, if we want to.  

That is what the guarantee of freedom of religion means in the United State.  The government may not establish any religion as an official religion.  Government may not deny us the right to practice our religion.  

We are not a Christian nation.  We are not a Jewish nation, nor a Buddhist nation, or a Greek Orthodox nation.  We are a nation defined by our Constitution, and our Constitution, in the first article of the Bill of Rights, says very clearly that Government may not pass any law establishing a religion.  But if you want to, you can be religious, yourself.  You have that right.  

We are not founded on a religion.  We are founded on a Constitution.  

Article VI, Section 3 of the Constitution specifically states that there will be no religious requirement for holding office:  "The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."

We are pledged to support the Constitution, but no religious test, or membership, is required.  

Enough, enough!  Muslims and Rastafarians are not going to take over this nation!  And neither are fundamentalist Christians or Jews or Catholics or Latter Day Saints.  Not unless we throw out the Constitution.  

The claim that we are a Christian nation can only mean that culturally, most Americans have been shaped by Christian history and ethos.  In the same way, I am a Scandinavian, because I have been shaped by much of my experience as a second and third generation Norwegian.  My father was born in Norway, and so were my maternal grandparents, and I love cod fish.  To that extent, I am a Scandinavian.  But I am, hopelessly, happily, obviously, an American who believes in the right to howl at our own government if I want to.  So I do, from time to time.  

More and more of us hyphenate ourselves:  Scandinavian-Americans, African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Hispanic-Americans.  We have a right to wear Norwegian sweaters and to speak Spanish and to believe that God is an old man with a bad track record regarding sexual equality, if we want to.  We don't have to, and we certainly have no right to demand that everyone else believes what we do.  

What we have in common, what takes precedence over anything else we believe, is that we will all uphold the Constitution.  And if our goofy religious beliefs contradict the Constitution, we will uphold the Constitution.  Period!  

Who is going to try to explain that to The Church Lady from Minnesota, or to the Anti-Birth Control Guy from Pennsylvania?  It doesn't matter what the Pope thinks, or what Focus on the Family thinks!  We have a Constitution!

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