Last week at his Liberty University commencement address, President Trump reaffirmed his pledge to “protect” this nation’s religious liberty. He referred to his “very important” Executive Order which he had just signed to assure his most reliable evangelical supporters of this commitment. An unenforceable Executive Order may be an acceptable symbolic gesture, but we have a far better, more significant and enforceable document given to us by our founders: The First Amendment to the Constitution which provides that: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
For many years, those words were interpreted as protecting us from government regulation as to what people believed, prayed, or how they practiced their faith. As Thomas Jefferson put it, in speaking of religious freedom: “The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are 20 gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.”
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