Faith & Freedom

My first job in Washington, D.C. was to be the National Field Director of Chapters and Faith Groups for Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

It was a job I stumbled upon. I had come to D.C. to look for a job because my life in Los Angeles had been shaped by being an organizer for “causes.” I was very good at it. I have a plaque on my home office wall presented to me by the California State Senate for Outstanding Leadership. I was that good.

To this day, I don’t know who recommended me for that, I guess somebody did.

My husband at the time had decided he wanted to go to law school and I worked out the math. I couldn’t think of a job in Los Angeles that would pay me enough to put him through law school, so I decided to try Washington, D.C. So I trekked to D.C. and had twelve job interviews in three days. Then an atheist friend who lived in Silver Spring suggested I go to Americans United because they needed a new Field Director and he called up and arranged for me to be interviewed.

I got hired. And that’s how I got to D.C.

It was a job I fervently put myself into, one I absolutely loved. I was a devotee of our Founding Fathers’ First Amendment guarantee of Religious Liberty. Mostly because I fully understood the importance of the “Right of Freedom of Conscious” which is what that First Amendment guarantee insures. You have the “right” to own your own mind. To believe or not believe as you please. No one has the right to tell you what your brain thinks about anything. Period.

That First Amendment “Right of Freedom of Conscience” was fervently fought for by two groups in this country: the “Rhode Island Jews” and the “Virginia Baptists”. Both were being persecuted for their beliefs. The Road Island Jews for their very existence, and the Virginia Baptists for being “street preachers.” What is truly interesting about the Virginia Baptists is that they believed in “full immersion” baptism, not just the sprinkle. And the “Anabaptists” as they were called in Europe, were roundly persecuted for that distinction. And the British colonists were to have none of that “full immersion stuff” in the New World Colonies.

When the delegation met in Philadelphia, they passed a Constitution that did not include a Bill of Rights. They promised they would and they made good on that promise three years later. Mostly by being hounded by the Rhode Island Jews and the Virginia Baptists.

So the Separation of Church and State became a First Amendment guarantee, in the Amendments to the Constitution, it was that important.

“Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

A truly amazing and brief settling of the question of liberty of conscience.

And yet, here we are, 200+ years later, still arguing what that means. Seems pretty plain to me.

And the extension of that is not confined by religious ideology or thought, it is widely and properly interpreted as freedom of conscience. To believe as I will as the prescient person I was born, even destined, to be.

That right is not to be taken for granted.

All of our Constitutional rights have to be diligently protected and cared for or we risk giving them away.

The Freedom of Speech we so arduously fight for has no meaning if we cannot speak our conscience. The Freedom from Unreasonable Search and Seizure too. I would even add the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, as no one should be able to tell you how to protect your home and your family, that’s a matter better left to your conscience and intellect.

Everything we derive as “rights” of free people emanates from our conscience decisions and our freedom of thought.

But dare say a single word against popular trends or thought, and you risk losing your job, your paycheck and your reputation. The “thought police” are not an actual government entity, they are an ill-defined bunch of loose knit wackos on Social Media that will go out of their way to look up your employer, attack you on Twitter or even physically protest your bakery and shut it down. Do not, under ANY circumstance step out of line, not now, not ever.

I grew up in a time when the Red Scare was the Boogey Man of tremendous threat. The “Commies” would overrun us and plunge us into complete submission. We would be complete slaves to the state and there would be nothing we could do to stop it.

Well, that hasn’t happened. What did happen is Social Media. It’s way better than China or Russia could have ever longed for, a submissive overtaking of American values of Free Speech and Religious Liberty. Instead of government censorship, we have societal censorship. We censor ourselves for fear of retribution from the group. Our world has become an endless Salem Witch Trial for those who don’t tow the popular line of thinking.

Tonight, my husband showed me a video of clips in which reporters on the major news networks shut down interviews of athletes, award winners, people who were just grateful to be alive, giving praise to “Jesus, My Lord and Savior.” It was appalling. One host at CNN even made a face and sighed when an athlete thanked Jesus. And immediately after she told the audience “Oops, we lost that feed.”

I am wondering, if the interviewee had been praising Allah for his grace would they have shut that down?

Now I am a faith filled person in my heart, but I don’t talk much about it. I am not sure I would give Jesus the credit for my accomplishments publicly but I do know God and Jesus do get credit in my heart and in my prayers.

And I also am still very dedicated to the notion of Separation of Church and State.

But does it irk me when someone talks about Jesus to me? Nope. I am also perfectly happy when someone talks about the strength and grace that Allah has given them. I have friends who believe that their path is spiritual meditation. Or even secular meditation. I think anything that leads you on a path that betters your life and your mental health is perfectly fine with me. I know what I believe, I know what you believe, I’m good with that.

But it astounds me how Christianity is purposely singled out for ridicule. Yeah, I don’t care for fundamentalists and that is true for me regardless of any religious stripe. But am I the one who will shut down their belief system? No. We all have a right, guaranteed to us by the Founding Fathers and enshrined in the Constitution to believe as we will.

Period. End of Discussion.

And for these mainstream media news twinks to act so arrogantly toward people who are being interviewed when they are telling their heart felt stories is simply unacceptable.

They believe what they believe, they are praising God for their success or their personal survival and you are denigrating that? Who are you to be the critic of their genuine emotion? You’re a news anchor for God’s sake, a reader of a script somebody else wrote, two steps down from a real actor.

Let’s just say this reel turned my stomach. How hard is it to respect someone’s narrative about their genuine experience? Pretty simple, just nod and show respect.

Here is the video:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/DVQTX-zePSQ