When the pilgrims settled in what would later become Massachusetts, they were seeking religious liberty after years of persecution in Europe. The pilgrims were the first of many such people seeking to make a new life lived in liberty for their families in the New World. Remembering such religious persecution, the founding generation adopted the First Amendment to prevent the federal government (and later state and local governments through the Fourteenth Amendment) from “prohibiting the free exercise” of religion.
That protection for religious Americans should not act merely as a small carveout from government abuse. Rather, it should ensure that being religious or part of a particular religion does not subject someone to different treatment either compared to his non-religious fellow citizens or to members of a different, state-preferred, religion.
Read Full Article »