&The Free Exercise Clause

Religious Liberty

From the colonial era to the present, religions and religious beliefs have played a significant role in the political life of the United States. Religion has been at the heart of some of the best and some of the worst movements in American history. The guiding prin-ciples that the Framers intended to govern the rela-tionship between religion and politics are set forth in Article VI of the Constitution and in the opening 16 words of the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights. Now that America has expanded from the largely Protestant pluralism of the seventeenth cen-tury to a nation of some 3,000 religious groups, it is more vital than ever that every citizen understand the appropriate role of religion in public life and affirm the constitutional guarantees of religious liberty, or freedom of conscience, for people of all faiths or none.

The philosophical ideas and religious convic-tions of Roger Williams, William Penn, John Leland, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and other leaders were decisive in the struggle for free-dom of conscience. The United States is a nation built on ideals and convictions that have become democratic first principles. These principles must be understood and affirmed by every generation if the American experiment in liberty is to endure.

Religious Liberty in American Public LifeBy Charles C. Haynes

The Religious Liberty clauses of the First Amendment to the Constitution are a momentous decision, the most important political decision for religious liberty and public justice in history. Two hundred years after their enactment they stand out boldly in a century made dark by state repres-sion and secratarian conflict. Yet the ignorance and contention now surrounding the clauses are a reminder that their advocacy and defense is a task for each succeeding generation.

The Williamsburg Charter (1988)

The Religion then of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man; and it is the right of every man to exercise it as these may dictate. This right is in its nature an unalienable right.

James Madison (1785)

There is . . . need of a badge which shall express at first glance, without complexity of detail, that basic principle of freedom of thought for which Liberals of all isms are contending. This need seems to have been met by the Freethinkers

of France, Belgium, Spain and Sweden, who have adopted the pansy as their

badge (French pensee, meaning thought). We join with them in recommending this flower as a simple and inexpensive badge of Freethought.

Let every patriot who is a Freethinker in this sense, adopt the pansy as his badge, to be worn at all times, as a silent

and unobtrusive testimony of his principles. In this way we shall

recognize our brethren in the cause, and the enthusiasm will spread; until,

before long, the uplifted standard of the pansy, beneath the sheltering folds of the United States flag, shall everywhere thrill men’s hearts as the symbol of religious liberty and freedom of conscience.

“The Pansy Badge” circa 1880sAmerican Secular Union

Affiliated withCampus Freethought Alliancehttp://www.secularhumanism.org/cfa/

Freethinkers at Virginia Tech is a student organization which seeks to educate the Virginia Tech community of the importance of church-state separation and increase awareness of cult phenomena.

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