The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances”. This amendment guarantees freedom of religion to residents of this country. “Freedom of religion” is an important phrase. The wording is significant.
“Freedom from religion” is not the guarantee. Americans should be able to exercise their religion without fear of interference from anyone, including and especially the various governments that we live under. This freedom is a really messy situation because certainly there are “religions” that I do not approve of but they also have the same freedom.
Perhaps the bigger issue of the day is the seemingly ever-present push to change the wording of this religious freedom from “freedom of religion” to “freedom of worship”. Those terms might seem on the surface to be identical but they are not. The First Amendment guarantees us freedom of religion and we ought to insist on it remaining that way. Redefining this freedom to freedom of worship is a huge loss to the religious groups in the U.S. This not-so-subtle change is meant to relegate Bible-believing Christians to a place of second-class citizenship. Freedom of worship is a far cry from freedom of religion. Freedom of worship means that a Christian can obey the Bible inside the church building but not necessarily anywhere else. Freedom of worship means that a Christian is free to believe anything that he or she wants to but that belief cannot necessarily control his or her behavior. Freedom of worship means that Bible believing Christians can profess allegiance to the God of the Bible but that allegiance ought not to inform his or her choices in the marketplace or in defining morality. If you think that I am worried about something that will not come to pass, let me assure you that more than this has already happened all over the country. Christian business owners have been forced to engage in business they find to be morally objectionable. Some of these business owners have been forced out of business by the levying of exorbitant fines for simply refusing to engage in business they find to be morally wrong. Furthermore, at least one Christian couple has been court-ordered not to talk about their reasons for not engaging in the business which is an attack on a second freedom enumerated in the First Amendment.
A greater tragedy for Christians is that many had already made this change. For years, Christians have voluntarily kept their religion inside the church by separating their lives into sacred and secular pieces. No matter the cultural pressures and no matter what the government decrees, faith in Christ and belief in the Bible must control our behavior and inform all of our choices in and out of the church building. There is no part of Creation that God does not claim ownership over. There is no part of our lives where God does not expect our character and behavior to line up with what He has commanded in His Bible. We have failed in far more areas than just those in which we are receiving governmental and cultural pressure. The real issue is whether or not we believe God. Our salvation hinges on this belief. We will be called to give account of our faith in God. Our actions are undeniable evidence for or against our faith.