Our Constitutional freedoms come with responsibilities and consequences. When first venturing out from our protected nests into the real world, most learn, painfully sometimes, that we’re not free to do as we please, what we believe in at home doesn’t necessarily translate elsewhere, life isn’t fair and tantrums don’t work any more when not getting our way.
If one freedom is to be more significant than any other, any time, then freedom becomes tyranny. To this end we live under laws created by majority rule, insuring that all enjoy the same freedoms while at home and when interacting in the public square. This new experiment in governance passed on from those early revolutionaries, who boldly challenged the centuries old canon of kings and religious ideologies controlling the people, is being undermined by some who feel persecuted for wanting their religious beliefs to have the final say for you and me.
We have citizens’ defying established law read as majority rule, a Congress willing to fruitlessly hold the nation hostage again — read as throwing a tantrum — and several state’s leaders concocting unconstitutional and typically overturned “just” laws. Even presidential hopefuls have become so embolden as to say only certain religions should be considered for participation, fanning the flames of public discourse! There’s freedom of religion in practice, right?
Religious beliefs — read as all religions — are indeed protected by the Constitution, but were clearly ordained to be preached from a pulpit, not the political lectern… Sometimes life just isn’t fair is it? Maybe it’s God’s will?
Dennis Doolittle
Arlington
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