Who was stopping people from worshipping as they pleased?
2006-10-20 15:09:11 · 16 answers · asked by noice 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
The right was granted so that the state (the government) could not dictate what a person could or could not believe. It is to guarantee personal freedom in religious belief. Please note, there are countries that exist today where you can only believe what they tell you to believe, like China, Russia (at one point), Malaysia, to name a few.
2006-10-20 15:14:14 · answer #1 · answered by Danny H 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
You're mistaken. The Constitution does not state freedom of religion. All it says about religion (in Amendment 1, in the Bill of Rights) is that Congress shall not make any law about religion, one way or the other. All that statement does is restrict Congress. It doesn't restrict the states or counties or towns or anyone else. The reason that was put into the Constitution was because some of the original 13 colonies had official state religions, and a lot of people didn't like that and didn't want the new national government to set up a national government or mess with anybody's religion, so they wrote in the new Constitution that Congress would stay out of religion. You will hear a lot of politicians and even some teachers say that the Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, but that is baloney as you will see if you will read Amendment 1 yourself. It's only one sentence. See the link below.
2006-10-20 22:20:12 · answer #2 · answered by yahoohoo 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
You have to look at where the framers of the Constitution had just come from. Many from England where state endorsed religion was the norm and it was strictly enforced. As was the case in Spain, France, and many other countries at the time. The freedom to worship who they pleased with government control was a reason many came here to start with and I think was why the founders of this country felt so strong about the separation of church and state.
2006-10-20 22:16:14 · answer #3 · answered by ndmagicman 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
In England, during the reign of Henry the 8th, Henry started the Church of England because the Pope would not grant him a divorce. Everyone in England then were supposed to change their religion to the Church of England. So, coming down through time, the Royalty of England persecuted, killed, and otherwise made life very difficult for anyone not professing to be adherent to the Church of England. People who wanted to worship openly in their own way flocked to the New World. So when our founding fathers established the Constitution, they were very specific that another could not force you into their religion.
2006-10-20 22:17:48 · answer #4 · answered by padwinlearner 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
You need to read church history from a non-Catholic point of view. You can not get a real in depth answer here.
But basically-the catholic church ruled the world and everyone in it for 1000 years. Then king Henry decided to run his own country without interference from the pope. He started the church of England (he just took all the catholic churches and changed their names). Henry or the "state" controlled the church. Just the opposite of catholic church where the church controlled the "state".
In the colonies people were tired of the church of England (Henry) and the catholic church (pope) telling them who, how, when, where, and why to worship. That is it in a nutshell.
2006-10-20 22:20:41 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
It was put in place because the people that came to America were escaping religious persecution. They came here so they would worship how they chose to.....so it was written into the constution to keep it from happening again as it did in Europe.
2006-10-20 22:12:45 · answer #6 · answered by chris 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
...that is what the United States is based on that is why people came here in the first place to worship how they pleased...and have the right to do so...
2006-10-20 22:16:21 · answer #7 · answered by appleblossom_1957 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Many of the settlers to the Americas were fleeing religious persecution in Britain. The founding fathers decided to prevent that persecution from happening in the US.
2006-10-20 22:11:12 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
Other people who wanted them to worship how they did, not how they wanted to. Which is why this is a secular country, where people aren't supposed to be able to tell other people how or what to worship.
2006-10-20 22:21:26 · answer #9 · answered by eri 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
when that right was brought in, no one new it would allow cult religions to flourish through tax breaks the way they have, and now we are paying for it. Freedom of religion is a bill that in my opinion should be brought back on the table and rewritten, because I believe it is totally out of control today.
2006-10-20 22:21:06 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋