First Amendment Protections of Absolute Assertions Based Upon Religious Dogma

Too many people have been conditioned to believe that the First Amendment to the Constitution protects them from the assertion that their activity is sin. This thinking stems from two fallacious premises. First it comes from a misunderstanding of the function of the Constitution, and secondly, it proceeds from a false understanding of tolerance. Tolerance is a Christian virtue, but next week you will be treated to an analysis of how this term has been turned on its head in order to destroy Christianity. Today you will read a short contrast between the thinking of the founders with the thinking of modern American liberalism.

Americans have accepted a philosophy of existentialism, which asserts that all that matters is the present. Therefore, Americans do not take time to research the multitudinous documents from the Constitutional period that are helpful in understanding the thinking of the men who penned the Constitution in general and the First Amendment in particular. If they would study the writings and actions of the founders they would discover that the man who wrote the First Amendment also wrote a lengthy treatise on why the Bible must always be the main text book in American schools. They would discover that the very Congress that passed the First Amendment also appropriated money enough to print Bibles to be distributed throughout the land. They would discover that Thomas Jefferson, as superintendent of the Washington DC schools required the Bible and Watt's Hymnal as the two text books for DC schools, and they would discover that at least 9 of the 13 states had a State-established religion long after the passage of the First Amendment.

In fact, by simply reading the First Amendment, much of the contemporary controversies surrounding politics and religion would be eliminated. The First Amendment states:

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.

Note that it specifically states, “Congress shall make no law...” Consider these simple rhetorical questions; Is your State legislature Congress? Is your local school board Congress? Is your Local or County Government Congress? Are your boss, neighbor, fellow employee, or a pastor from an orthodox church Congress? Of course the answer to all of these questions is no. One final question concerning the First Amendment; What does it have to say about any of the entities or personalties mentioned above? Of course the answer is absolutely nothing. Though you could find mounds of material from the founding era to support the assertion that the purpose of the Constitution is to bind the hands of the Federal Government, you need look no further than the text of the the First Amendment to determine the truth of the assertion as pertaining to it. Stated simply, the First Amendment affords no protection from ones assertion of sinful behavior.