Freedom of Religion

False religion tickles the ears of the people while encouraging them in covetous practices. A society's appetite for the wages of unrighteousness degrades it and paves the road to despotism. Plutarch and Polybius wrote about it. John the Baptist, Christ and the early Church preached it. The Christian conflict with Rome was their unwillingness to sign up with the Corban of the world which was making the word of God to none effect.

Freedom of Religion

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Kelly Shackelford's defense of freedom of religion on PragerU was valiant and maybe in good faith but fundamentally flawed. Instead of defending freedom of religion as he may have desired to do, he has perpetuated the power and delusions of the lie that people have already come to believe which simply is not true.

Kelly Shackelford, president of First Liberty, cited Thomas Paine’s Common Sense and the religious motivation of the Revolution. He defended the first amendment saying that it “wasn’t an accident” that it was the first freedom listed in the Bill of Rights — beginning with “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”

In support of Shackelford, The Daily Wire references historical examples of the "suppression of religious freedom". They explain how it affects all freedoms, pointing to the closure of churches and the “control of all religious life” under Soviet rule, as well as religious limitations enforced under the Chinese communist regime."

They go on to say “The reason for such anti-religious sentiment, … is that religion “challenges the authority of the state more than any other freedom,” and that “people who adhere to a religion believe that there’s something higher than the state, and no repressive government can tolerate such a belief.”

While I sympathize with his view, he has already lost the war. He should have read the argument made by David Crocket and Heratio Bunce against the rise of the welfare state. An attack on freedom of religion is not merely an attack on freedom or liberty of thought because religion is much more than thoughts and opinions. From the beginning, religion was not something you think or say but what you do and how you do it.

The truth is that pure religion challenges the means by which the authority of the state expands its power and diminishes the liberty of the people. It does them by creating a dependence in the people upon the State and its welfare provided through taxation instead of charity. We were warned against such covetous practices by all the prophets and condemned by Jesus.

Writers from Polybius to Plutarch said things like, “The real destroyers of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations, and benefits.” The desire for those benefits which are the wages of unrighteousness spreads a strong delusion infecting the minds of the people until they inevitably degenerate into perfect savages.

Kelly Shackelford even quotes Alexis de Tocqueville who understood that when “When…men attack religious beliefs, they are following their emotions not their interests. Tyranny may be able to do without faith, but freedom cannot.”

The first attack on religion came not from tyrants but from wordsmiths. They simply changed what was the “duty” of religion to what one thinks about God. The Holy Spirit was replaced by an emotional high of self-righteousness regarding vain rituals and rites rather than the humble self-sacrifice of the righteousness of God exemplified in the life of Christ.

The real problem is not an attack on religion by government but the abandonment of pure religion by the people. I am not talking about low attendance in what are posing as religions today. I am talking about the cognitive dissonance which came when people developed "an appetite for benefits and the habit of receiving them by way of a rule of force..."

Alexis de Tocqueville observed a flawed America that was far greater than what we aspire to accomplish today. In America, like the early Church, there was little dependence upon government handouts. No Christians would pray for the free bread offered by men who called themselves benefactors but exercised authority one over the other. Christians provided for the welfare of their community through faith, hope and charity and a daily ministration that rightly divided that bread from house to house.

If repentance is thinking differently, then people who think they are religious need to ask when did God say it was okay to covet your neighbor's goods through men who exercise authority one over the other. The quickest way to raise up a tyrant is to tell your government they have the right to take from your neighbor so you can have, supposedly, free health education and welfare at your neighbors' expense. And the only way to protect or restore liberty is to seek to provide those benefits of society through the perfect law of liberty by freewill offerings and charity like Christ commanded.

Once you understand what the word Religion meant 200 years ago in America and 2000 years ago for the first century Church, your thinking about Religion, the Church, the Bible, Politics of the world and what modern Christians should be doing and not doing will have to change. But changing the way you think is the meaning of the word repentance.

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What is the true history concerning the "Strangers and pilgrims"? There are lots of different accounts from different sources putting together a view of the past and the motivation of the players. And then there are "revisionists" like Howard Zinn, with a political agenda, creating false narratives skewed by personal prejudice and bias. The question we all should be asking is "What is the truth?"

The Free Exercise Clause

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While the Constitution of the United States is wholly inadequate by biblical standards, it is the founding document of the United States to which the individual state government and their subordinates must comply.

According to Wex, the free legal dictionary and encyclopedia by the Legal Information Institute at the Cornell Law School, the “Free Exercise Clause refers to the section of the First Amendment”.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

The key clause referred to as the “Free Exercise Clause” is the simple phrase “prohibiting the free exercise thereof” which is a limitation imposed upon the legislature because "Congress shall make no law" that limits religious practices, rights or rituals. This prohibition placed upon congress, which is the legislature, to make laws that respect the establishment of religion also prohibit the “free exercise” of “religion”.

To fully understand the importance of this clause in the Constitution of the United States concerning Freedom of Religion we need to understand the meaning of the word religion at the writing and ratification of that original limiting document. The free exercise of religion is not merely what you think about God but what you may be obligated by faith to actually do as a duty to God and your fellowman.

Wex goes on to say “The Free Exercise Clause reserves the right of American citizens to accept any religious belief and engage in religious rituals through righteous practices. Free-exercise clauses of state constitutions which protected religious “[o]pinion, expression of opinion, and practice were all expressly protected” by the Free Exercise Clause.”

Americans are protected from the legislature, both federal and state, from any prohibitions and restraints not only in what they think but in what they do in the practice of their religion. The value of this prohibition is a key element in the liberty under God. That free practice of Pure religion through charity by its nature will unlock the prison of our own minds. It will bring about the liberation of the people as we have seen in Judea and Rome by Christ and the early Church and of course the church in the wilderness by Moses' liberation of Israel from the bondage of Egypt.

Because “The Free Exercise Clause . . . withdraws from legislative power, state and federal, the exertion of any restraint on the free exercise of religion. Its purpose is to secure religious liberty in the individual by prohibiting any invasions there by civil authority.”

“The Clause protects not just religious beliefs but actions made on behalf of those beliefs.” More importantly, that “free exercise envisions religiously compelled exemptions from at least some generally applicable laws” and therefore would naturally extend to the policies of institutions subordinate to those laws of the legislative power, state and federal.

Because of this withdrawal of power from the legislature by the document that gave it the power to exist, they have included certain “mandatory exception” clauses found in the codes of the United States which extends to the States. It would seem that it is not only reasonable to believe that this withdrawal of power extends to the several states but would also extend to limit the discretion of all institutions and entities existing by or under that “legislative power, state and federal”. Therefore all business existing and operating under the authority of the states should then make similar accommodations and exceptions in their policies and practices in order “to secure religious liberty” for all Churches serving Americans in the exercise and practice of their religion.

That would mean that no institution, business, nor service allowed to exist by the permission of the legislature could prohibit, restrain, or refuse services to any Church who sought their assistance in the exercise and practice of religion without refusing all churches and religions the same services. This prohibition and withdrawal of discretion may even extend to any from "institution, business, nor service" that provides their service to the general public because many of the people in the general public depend upon the Church in the practice of their religion.

“The Free Exercise Clause” allows “American citizens to accept any religious belief and engage in religious rituals” and any “[o]pinion, expression of opinion, and practice were all expressly protected” from the legislative power of government and the policies of the institutions under its authority.

A primary “religious ritual” of the early Church was the acceptance of the freewill offerings as the sacrifices of the people and the redistribution of those gifts and gratuities to individuals in need and for a provision to the general welfare of society in a manner that strengthens the poor. The Welfare state system that forces the contributions of the people has a tendency to not only weaken the individual poor but society in general.

For the legislature or its subordinate institutions to impose arbitrary rules, regulations, or policies which by their nature will prohibit, restrain, or withhold services to one religion while providing it to another, by their nature, whether intended or not, would be a violation of the free exercise clause.

Only with religiously sacrificing in love of your neighbor can society become immune to the cognitive dissonance that undermines the heart and soul of society.

To apply business practices and policies equally to all religions or churches falls short of complying with the free exercise clause. It is by its nature discriminatory since policies and practices may by their nature "restrict, deprive, or restrain the Church" the practice of religion for one Church or religious group while offering the same service to others.

Any arbitrary requirements that would exclude or restrict one Church and its religious practices over another, especially when those requirements are not required by the law, would be a violation of the Free Exercise Clause. Even when a restriction seemed to be a requirement imposed by the law, it should be well understood that the legislature can “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise.” To allow one church or religion to engage in or enjoy the services of an institution under the authority of the federal or state but prohibit another from enjoying the same services would violate the founding documents of the nation.

The legislature has made accommodations for Churches and so should its subordinate institutions.

Constitutional scholars and even Supreme Court opinions have contended that the two religion clauses are in conflict. E.g., Thomas v. Review Board, 450 U.S. 707 (1981). As mentioned previously, the Free Exercise Clause implies special accommodation of religious ideas and actions, even to the point of exemptions to generally applicable laws. Such a special benefit seems to violate the neutrality between “religion and non-religion” mandated by the Establishment Clause. McConnell explains::

"If there is a constitutional requirement for accommodation of religious conduct, it will most likely be found in the Free Exercise Clause. Some say, though, that it is a violation of the Establishment Clause for the government to give any special benefit or recognition of religion. In that case, we have a First Amendment in conflict with itself—the Establishment Clause forbidding what the Free Exercise Clause requires."

To fail to make appropriate accommodations the exercise of religion.

It is extremely important to understand that “religion” is not merely what you think but includes what you do. And from a biblical point of view, no one is practicing pure Religion if they are dependent upon men who exercise authority, force contributions through fear and fealty. Christ preached and appointed a dominion that must operate by faith, hope, and charity lest it make the word of God to non effect.

Christ appointed the kingdom to His called out ministers to be His Church as His corporate institution for the “performance of its duties to God and its fellow man”. To restrict, deprive, or restrain the Church that is truly separate from the world in the performance of their religious duties would “substantially burden” His Church and deprive “American citizens” of equal protection to freely practice their “religious belief and engage in religious rituals”.

Importance of Religion

The Christian conflict

In the Constitution of the United States we see the first Article of the Bill of rights - Freedom of expression and religion

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

(text coming)

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Religion | Pure Religion‎ | Private welfare | Fleeing Religion |
False religion | Public religion | Our Religion | Christian conflict |
Corban | Baptism | Benefactors | That Word | Daily ministration |
Modern Christians | Diocletianic Persecution | Christians check list |
gods | Judge not | Judge | Fathers | Deist | Damnable heresies |

Factions at the altar |
Pharisees | Sadducees | Zealot | Essenes | Levites |
Messianic Judaism | Menahem the Essene | Sanhedrin |
Altars | Clay and Stone | Red Heifer | Golden calf |
Freewill offerings | Religion | Pure Religion | Public religion |
Christian conflict | Paganism | Denominations | Dispensationalism |
Benefactors | Corban | Daily ministration | Calendars |
Cult | Imperial Cult of Rome | Guru theories| | Covet | Merchandise |
Mark of God | Mark of Cain | Mark of the Beast | Nature of the Beast
Section 666 | Benefactors | Biting one another | Cry out | Worship |
Church | Temples | Religious Orders | Priests | Kings and priests |
Hear | Bible Index | Network |

Footnotes

About the author

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  Brother Gregory
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