Religious Freedom Day has a simple but meaningful history. “Each year, the President declares January 16th to be
Religious Freedom Day, and calls upon Americans to ‘observe this day through
appropriate events and activities in homes, schools, and places of worship.’
(President Obama, Jan. 16, 2013) The day is the anniversary of the passage, in
1786, of the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom. We encourage schools
to recognize Religious Freedom Day during the school week leading up to January
16.” (from religiousfreedomday.com)
Following are some of the
comments from the President’s Proclamation:
“Foremost
among the rights Americans hold sacred is the freedom to worship as we choose. Today, we celebrate one of our Nation's first laws to
protect that right -- the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. Written by
Thomas Jefferson and guided through the Virginia legislature by James Madison,
the Statute affirmed that ‘Almighty God hath created the mind free’ and ‘all
men shall be free to profess ... their opinions in matters of religion.’ Years
later, our Founders looked to the Statute as a model when they enshrined the
principle of religious liberty in the Bill of Rights.
“Because of the protections
guaranteed by our Constitution, each of us has the right to practice our faith
openly and as we choose. As a free country, our story has been shaped by every
language and enriched by every culture…
“As we observe Religious Freedom Day, let us remember the legacy of faith and independence we have inherited, and let us honor it by forever upholding our right to exercise our beliefs free from prejudice or persecution.” (Excerpts from the President’s Proclamation declaring January 16, 2013 as Religious Freedom Day, Huffington Post, January 22, 2013)
In the hours following the President’s Proclamation, the digital ink flowed from both supporters and detractors of the president’s words. John Ragosta writing in the Washington Post (“Something to Celebrate on Religious Freedom Day”, January 16, 2013), rejoiced that the proclamation fully expressed both the breadth and the limitations of religious freedoms enjoyed by our citizenry.
The opposite perspective was taken by writers such as Ken Blackwell and Bob Morrison who, when writing “Endangered Religious Freedom Day?” in the American Thinker (Jan. 16, 2013), felt that the President was being less than true to his words. They quoted Thomas Jefferson as saying, ‘To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical.’ This interpretation would lead one to believe that not only can you not tax a man to support a church he rejects, neither can you force him to support financially an act he feels morally repugnant. This would seem to make the contraceptive insurance requirement of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act unconstitutional if we have a Jeffersonian concept of religious freedom.
Our constitution says we have freedom of religion. That must include the freedom to allow religion to play no role in our individual lives. The question we face more today, however, is not whether we are free to have a religious belief or not. Rather the question is may our religion be more than a set of beliefs held in private and never expressed in public through action. May our religion govern our beliefs and our actions toward others in ways that do not limit their expressions of religion or their search for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? Where can the government say my religious freedom has its boundaries? May the God some of us recognize guide our courts to come to His conclusion.
