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I assume here that you’re asking this as it relates to the founding of the United States of America, and the founding documents that are at the center of this discussion.
In that respect; the exercising of the Christian faith requires the truth be told (Exodus 19: 5, 23: 1-2) of the events of our past.
Actually, I wanted to know what the exercise of the Christian religion actually entails?
Exercising your religion means the performance of your religion.
You say that it requires the truth to be told about the history of Christian Religion. The verses you provided do not support that; but telling the truth falls under freedom of speech. I wouldn't call it performing the Christian religion.
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I’ll close with this question: How does a Bible, sitting in a display case, in front of a court house prohibit the free exercise of an atheist’s religion?; Or a Muslim?; Or Buddhist?
A Bible sitting in a display case is not an exercise of the Christian Religion. So removing the Bible does not prevent a Christian from performing their religion.
A court house should be neutral zone. The individuals inside the building are not hindered from worshiping or not worshiping as they please or speaking of their religion or lack of religion.
So what does the exercise of the Christian religion actually entail?
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Since the United States of America was founded by Christians so that Christians could follow the dictates of their faith (religion) without fear of reprisal from non-Christians (both in government and in the privet sector) our monuments and historical documents are fraught with references to our faith and our God. To tear down these references; and hide there significance is to partake in a lie.
Not really. In the colonial times the church fathers and the government were the threat, not non-Christians. Colonist were here over 150 years before the constitution was ratified.
Liberating the foundersMr. Waldman: Most people tend to think of, well the founding fathers were aware of persecution in Europe and they wanted to avoid official religions in Europe. And that's partially true, but almost all of the colonies had official or semiofficial religions. And in fact, you could look at the first 150 years of colonial history as one experiment after another of people trying to have state-supported religion. In New England, it was the congregational churches, the Puritans, and in the Southern states, it was the Church of England. In Pennsylvania, it was Quakers. And the one thing that all of these experiments had in common is they all failed. There's really a lot that is quite painful. For instance, the treatment of Quakers in early American history was not just a case of harassment or persecution, it was illegal to be a Quaker. And Quakers were thrown in jail and in fact executed. There's, you know, a case of a woman named Mary Dyer, who I feel like every school child ought to know the story of Mary Dyer.
The "
Bill of Rights" was a campaign promise.
Mr. Waldman: And he had to go and court them. And the thing that they were most fearful of was that the Constitution, this was before the Bill of Rights, did not adequately guarantee religious freedom. And at that point, Madison actually didn't really agree. He thought it was OK the way it was. He was not an early supporter of the Bill of Rights, ironically. But they said, 'Unh-unh, come on. We know you've been with us in the past but this is really important to have religious freedom.' And Madison made what was probably the most important "read my lips" campaign pledge in American history. He said to the Evangelical leaders in his district that, 'if you elect me, the first thing I will do is put forward a Bill of Rights and it will have religious freedom as one of its core components.' And they agreed and they got him elected and he kept his promise.
Religious freedom wasn't a priority of the government.
Campaign for a Bill of RightsWhen the Federal Convention met in 1787, only a handful of delegates expressed any interest in including a comprehensive list of rights in the new constitution of national government they were drafting. On 12 September 1787, five days before the convention was to adjourn, two of the three delegates still present raised the issue of including a bill of rights in the Constitution; these delegates indicated that they would refuse to sign the completed Constitution without such inclusion. George Mason, one of the two, apparently thought that the convention could simply imitate the influential Virginia Declaration of Rights that he had drafted in 1776. The convention dismissed the idea after perfunctory debate.
The United States continues to evolve. We are a country free to worship the god of our choice or free not to worship any god. Keeping public grounds free of religious paraphernalia maintains the balance and doesn't impact anyone's exercise of their religion.
Edited by purpledawn, : No reason given.
Scripture is like Newton’s third law of motionfor every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
In other words, for every biblical directive that exists, there is another scriptural mandate challenging it.
-- Carlene Cross in The Bible and Newton’s Third Law of Motion
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