Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof
It is as you said…primarily as a freedom to practice whatever religion you want…but this also effectively prohibits any government official from enacting any policy or legislation that promotes their own religious beliefs over any other, since it may conflict with the free practice of someone else’s religion.
In essence, it prevents the state from getting involved in religious matters altogether.
prohibits any government official from enacting any policy or legislation that promotes their own religious beliefs over any other, since it may conflict with the free practice of someone else’s religion.
Okay, so Christianity says we can’t kill people. But jihadism exists in Islam. Then the law must allow killing by Islamists to avoid being based on Christian beliefs and restricting jihadists’ practice?
But I could in theory promote a secular policy based on my theoretical religious belief. Say I want to lower barriers to immigration and as motivation I quote the parable of the good Samaritan saying that even foreigners should be treated as ones neighbour. Now in doing this I’m letting my religious belief affect my policy making. However I’m not inhibiting anyone else’s free practice of religion since this is secular policy.
Yup. That’s all very true. But, when some idiot politician like JD here, straight up says the quiet part out loud, you can sue the government for all kinds of wrongful damages. Now, all of his policy positions can justifiably be scrutinized through this lens.
As for inhibiting anyone else’s free practice…that’s where the first amendment is most powerful. I have the right to not be governed by someone else’s religious beliefs. So, when JD here straight up admits that he’s governing based on his religious beliefs…that automatically means he’s infringing upon everyone else’s.
It is as you said…primarily as a freedom to practice whatever religion you want…but this also effectively prohibits any government official from enacting any policy or legislation that promotes their own religious beliefs over any other, since it may conflict with the free practice of someone else’s religion.
In essence, it prevents the state from getting involved in religious matters altogether.
Okay, so Christianity says we can’t kill people. But jihadism exists in Islam. Then the law must allow killing by Islamists to avoid being based on Christian beliefs and restricting jihadists’ practice?
But I could in theory promote a secular policy based on my theoretical religious belief. Say I want to lower barriers to immigration and as motivation I quote the parable of the good Samaritan saying that even foreigners should be treated as ones neighbour. Now in doing this I’m letting my religious belief affect my policy making. However I’m not inhibiting anyone else’s free practice of religion since this is secular policy.
Keep your stories out of secular law please. We will enact no law that favors religion(or uses any part of it).
Yup. That’s all very true. But, when some idiot politician like JD here, straight up says the quiet part out loud, you can sue the government for all kinds of wrongful damages. Now, all of his policy positions can justifiably be scrutinized through this lens.
As for inhibiting anyone else’s free practice…that’s where the first amendment is most powerful. I have the right to not be governed by someone else’s religious beliefs. So, when JD here straight up admits that he’s governing based on his religious beliefs…that automatically means he’s infringing upon everyone else’s.