I Have Heard That Today is Religious Freedom Day

Granted, I did get the hint from the fine people over here, and in mind of that, I am going to post a chunk of and a link to the Virginia Statute for Religious Liberty, Thos. Jefferson, author.

Let's make that two chunks. Here is part of the case why religion should be considered strictly a no compulsory matter of conscience:


An Act for Establishing Religious Freedom

Whereas Almighty God hath created the mind free; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the Holy author of our religion, who being Lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as it was in his Almighty power to do; that the impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who being themselves but fallible and uninspired men, have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavouring to impose them on others, hath established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world, and through all time.


And here is the operative section of the statute:

Be it enacted by the General Assembly, That no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinion in matters of Religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.

http://www.teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=950

Now I am really a hard ass when it comes to the matter of religious compulsion, or coercion, or evangelizing, or back door or other wise styled subtle and covert means to make an end-run around The Establishment Clause, of the US Const. Part of the reason I am such a hard ass is because I really get what Jefferson is saying there, not just in the chunks that I quoted, but in the whole of the statute. And I am sure there are many, even millions of christians in America who really would not consider it an Affront to the Almighty to seek to coerce, either directly or indirectly, anyone to follow their chosen religious dogma or ideology. But as is plain to you, I am siding with Jefferson. I think he really got it, and got it right, in how matters of religion need be a matter of personal conscience, and any attempt to make it a matter of coerced compliance is not only an affront to the very notion of liberty, but to The Almighty.

Let's get real here. If you assume God is omnipotent and omniscient, you take it as a matter that necessary follows the preceding, that you can not fool God.

(For the second time in recent postings, I am going to do the dialogue thing. I hope it makes the point clearly.)

St. Peter: "Ok. We have reviewed your file. So what say you? Explain yourself."

Wannabe Theocrat: "Um, I am not sure what you mean."

St. Peter: "We have your file and it is complete. You spent decades of your life forcing your dogma and practices on others."

Wannabe Theocrat: "But I was only doing that for the greater glory of The Lord."

St. Peter: "So is what you are saying, is that you expected The Lord to be impressed that you forced people to lie to Him and to be insincere servants to Him?"

Wannabe Theocrat: "Well . . . um . . . "