Keep Religion Separate from Government and Education

Education
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The First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States stands as a cornerstone of our democracy, granting us the freedom of religion. This right is not just a privilege but a solemn guarantee that no individual can impose their beliefs on another—least of all through the instruments of government or public education.

Let me be clear: religion has no place in shaping our laws, governance, or public policies. To invoke the Bible—or any religious text—as justification for legislation is not only divisive but fundamentally unconstitutional. Our government is meant to serve all Americans, not a select few who align with their faith. The same standard applies to our schools, which are institutions for education, not indoctrination, with the sole exception of private religious schools, where such teachings are a matter of personal choice.

If religious studies are to be offered at the high school or college level, they must remain strictly elective, unbiased, and inclusive of all beliefs—not as a tool to advance any one religion, but as an academic exploration of diverse cultures and philosophies. Even then, such courses should be approached cautiously, as the teaching of faith is best left to the homes and families of “We the People.”

Let us uphold the true intent of our Constitution: to safeguard freedom, preserve liberty, and ensure justice for all. It is the right of every American to choose their own path—be it Christianity, another faith, or none at all—without interference from those in power. To violate this principle is to betray the very cornerstone of our democracy.

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Respectfully, I totally disagree. You want to uphold intent, so let’s look at history to understand intent. The country was founded on the pursuit of being free to worship God as you pleased, in response to the violent oppression of religion that occurred in the 1500 years prior, particularly during the early Roman empire and the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. Remember the Pilgrims? They wanted to worship without government forbidding and punishing them.

The Judeo-Christian texts, values, and morality, were foundational to the very ideas of freedom and justice at the beginning of our country. Rights come from God, not from government, according to our Declaration. Consider also that the vast majority of our founding fathers were Christian (not Deist as often claimed), and wrote extensively about the need for faith as the basis of civilized government. Basic familiarity and agreement with the Judeo-Christian worldview was something the founders just assumed citizens would have, and they warned of dire consequences if the citizens did not.

Therefore, the most likely intent of the First Amendment protection was to keep government from banning religion and free worship, but it has been twisted in the past 80 years or so to empower government to ban religion in the public square, at football games, in schools, and in the very halls of the government buildings that are otherwise adorned with inscriptions of faith on the outside.

I mean no disrespect, but the very definitions of justice, fairness, equality, gender, personhood, and even truth are all collapsing in our culture. The reason is because these things are primarily defined by religion. If you remove religion, you are left with the relative humanism we see today that has no standard of measurement, no defining rule, but relies on individual feelings. A society cannot exist without common ground, and the religion (because even lack of religion or self-religion is religious by nature) of moral relativism demolishes everything it touches.

There must be a standard of morality to bind society together successfully and peacefully. And for 200 years in our nation, and before our official founding, that standard was the Bible. Religion is very much a civics issue.

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Truthfully, I believe you’re way off mark for what my post is regarding. Thank you for such a detailed message though. :slight_smile:

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You missed the point Jasper made entirely. Government shall not be in the business of dictating morality especially not religious morality in schools.

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Yes. My main concern is simply keeping ANY TYPE of religion OUT of government, politics, schools, etc. and leave it to THE PEOPLE to teach within their own homes if they so choose. I do not want to hear anybody try and justify some new proposed law with a quote from a religious text such as the bible or anything close to this.

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