RELIGION AND AMERICAN LAW

Q: If one man's religion is another man's foolishness, what is it then that is allowed the "free exercise thereof"?

A: Religion, in terms of opinion, is completely free; but, actions (or exercises) are free only within the limits of the civil and criminal laws of the land, regardless of religious opinion. Religion, however you choose to define it, is not above the law. Behold the lack of conflict or confusion in the brilliance of the wording of the First Amendment's religion clauses, as finally drafted by the 1789 Joint Senate-House Conference Committee, approved by the majority in the First Congress, and ratified by the states. America was not founded on so-called "Judeo-Christian" or any other principles of religion; it was founded upon the principle of law as proclaimed in the Constitution for the United States of America which is the supreme law of the land and which declares that in America there is to be "no religious test" (Art. 6, Sec. 3).