Nearly 225 years after the ratification of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the cause of conscience protected by the principles of “no establishment” and “free exercise” may be losing support in the minds and hearts of the American people.
Appeals by religious individuals and groups for exemption from government laws and regulations that substantially burden religious practice are increasingly unpopular and controversial. So much so that many in the media have taken to using scare quotes, transforming religious freedom into “religious freedom.”
Now the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights appears to be recommending that we make it official: Our first freedom is first no more.
One wonder in hindsight how future historians who study American History (if there are any in the future) will look upon this phase. Is it a revolution, a transition? Do political structures need redefinition every 100-150 years?
I know I wake each day and hardly recognize the government under which I was born and continually ask: Are we still a nation?