REAL RELIGION IS NOT
Real religion is not something eaten or worn, advertised around a neck or on a head, seen on a sign or pinned on clothing, hung on a wall or placed on a desk, done on a certain day or at a certain time of year, displayed on a street corner or at a flagpole, demonstrated by posture or mouthed by repetition, rung with a bell or illuminated by a light, painted in a picture or carved in stone, read from a book or observed in the stars, ceremonialized or paraded, necessary to a geographical location or dependent upon someone else.
Has the above thought ever been better said? Sure, for example, Matthew 5:16, 7:12; Mark 12:27-34; and, First Corinthians 13.
In America, everyone has a right to believe and hope for whatever, but no one has a right to impose, through government institutions or activities, any religious belief or religious exercise--upon their friend, their neighbor, their employee, or their employer. Religious belief is not something which can be established by law or required for anyone. Religious belief must be voluntary and its exercise must be free. Religious belief is a matter of opinion, and its exercise is a matter for individuals, families, churches, and church organizations; it is not the business of government authority, one way or the other. The Constitution makes a distinction in regard to religion; it gives freedom to believe and to the exercise of religion within the limits of law, not to anarchy. There is something about a wall, about a fence, about separation, about freedom from religion established by government.
Has the above thought ever been better said? Sure, for example: ³It is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties. We hold this prudent jealousy to be the first duty of citizens, and one of the noblest characteristics of the late revolution. The freemen of America did not wait till usurped power had strengthened itself by exercise, and entangled the question in precedents. They saw all the consequences in the principle, and they avoided the consequences by denying the principle. We revere this lesson too much, soon to forget it. Who does not see that the same authority which can . . . force a citizen to . . . support any one establishment, may force him to conform to any other establishment in all cases whatsoever?² (James Madison, Papers of James Madison, 8:300, ³Memorial and Remonstrance,² 1785); ³make no law respecting an establishment of religion,² (James Madison, First Amendment, 1789); and, ³strongly guarded as is the separation between Religion and Government in the Constitution of the United States, the danger of encroachment by Ecclesiastical Bodies, may be illustrated by precedents already furnished in their short history² (James Madison, ³Detached Memoranda,² undated, William and Mary Quarterly, 1946, 3:555).
