Before reading this article “The Myth, Is there religious liberty in America?” by Kevin J. “Seamus” Hasson. I took a quick look at the authors credibility to be writing an article on this subject. I found that Kevin Hasson is the Founder and President of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. It’s a law firm that represents people of all religious faiths. It protects the human right to freedom of religion with out fear of being discriminated against. Kevin was an attorney that focused on religious lawsuits. In the eighties he served as a legal counsel at the Justice Department where he advised the White House and the Cabinet Departments on church-state relations.
Kevin describes how there has never been religious liberty in America and there will never be religious peace because there will always be competition. Religious liberty is not the solution to religious competition. It is in our nature to want to the find the truth and goodness. When we think we found it, we want to spread it.Even in the beginning when the pilgrims came to America to have religious freedoms didn’t practice whatthey came here for. The Puritans banned Quakers from their city. The Pilgrims banned the celebration ofChristmas. The Puritans were hanging Quaker preachers. Rhode Island barred Jews from voting. It took nearly a hundred years until a Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom came about. “Freedom to embrace, toprofess and to observe the religion which we believe to be of divine origin” Madison said. This means even people that disagree must have the same freedom to follow their consciences as we do. This is a Natural Right. Jefferson knew that legislators would find a way around this so he wrote if any future legislation is “to repeal…or narrow” it would “be an infringement of natural right” So he knowing he can not make anyone respect natural rights, so he tried to shame them into it. It was written into the Bill of Rights but the states had there own laws. They did not get rid of religious tests for public office. This left states free to persecute as they wished. For example Vermont required all that held public office had to be protestant. It was wrote in their constitution. Many other states had similar provisions, excluding minority faiths.
