{"id":600,"date":"2006-01-19T22:01:00","date_gmt":"2006-01-19T22:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=600"},"modified":"2006-01-19T22:01:00","modified_gmt":"2006-01-19T22:01:00","slug":"600","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=600","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Misunderstanding religious freedom<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Christian Science Monitor<\/em> observes the anniversary of the 1786 Virginia Statute Establishing Religious Freedom with the observation that many Americans have an imperfect idea what “freedom of religion” means<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dr. Haynes, who advises schools on these issues, offers a vivid example of the misunderstanding found not just among Christians. “American Muslims often tell me how much they appreciate the freedom to practice Islam the way they want to, which they couldn’t do in their native country even though it was a Muslim nation,” he says. “But then they say, ‘What is this nonsense about the separation of church and state – why do we need that?’ They don’t understand that’s why they have their freedom.<\/em><\/p>\n

Ironically, both Christian and Muslim theocrat wannabes<\/a> fail to understand that our American religious freedom is the reason that religion is taken more seriously here. When you have government-supported religion, then disliking or rebelling against one means that you wind up disliking or rebelling against the other at the same time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Misunderstanding religious freedom The Christian Science Monitor observes the anniversary of the 1786 Virginia Statute Establishing Religious Freedom with the observation that many Americans have an imperfect idea what “freedom of religion” means. Dr. Haynes, who advises schools on these issues, offers a vivid example of the misunderstanding found not just among Christians. “American Muslims […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s6xQTg-600","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6360,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6360","url_meta":{"origin":600,"position":0},"title":"The ‘Pentecostal Drift’ and Modern Paganism","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 29, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Religion blogger Peter Berger, melding articles from\u00a0 The Tablet (Roman Catholic) and The Christian Century (mainline Protestant) notes \"the major demographic shift in world Christianity\u2014the fact that more Christians now live in the Global South: Asia, Africa, Latin America\u2014than in the old Christian homelands of Europe and North America.\" With\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Christianity\"","block_context":{"text":"Christianity","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=christianity"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7100,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7100","url_meta":{"origin":600,"position":1},"title":"Wicca Again as the “Designated Other”","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 3, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Pasque flowers blooming in a thin layer of pine duff atop a boulder. I love them for their precarious and improbably habitat. Spring is slowly coming to the forest, and within it the offer of new chances, a feeling that you might get it right this time. Travel and editorial\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"pasque flowers","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/pasque-flowers-206x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":674,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=674","url_meta":{"origin":600,"position":2},"title":"Rutherford Institute defends Wicca (sort\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 7, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Rutherford Institute defends Wicca (sort of)John W. Whitehead, founder of The Rutherford Institute, a sort of ACLU of the religious right, says that Christians should support Wiccans' efforts to get tombstones for military veterans.Although our country was founded on a Judeo-Christian base, the Framers of the U.S. Constitution understood that\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":776,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=776","url_meta":{"origin":600,"position":3},"title":"Wicca: trendy, phony, and Constitutionally protected","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 9, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"If I were not teaching rhetoric, I would not have found Michael Medved's column on Sgt. Patrick Stewart's pentacle memorial while looking for a good political column for my students to analyze.After insulting the religion--\"it\u2019s a trendy, phony potpourri of druidical, primitive and New Age elements that\u2019s more a pagan\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":168,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=168","url_meta":{"origin":600,"position":4},"title":"The fastest-growing religion? The notion\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 21, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"The fastest-growing religion? The notion that Wicca is America's fastest-growing religion has achieved meme status. Everyone says it, but who started it? Thanks to Jim Lewis, I have been looking at some of the data collected by the American Religious Identification Survey, conducted at CUNY, and comparing sociological changes in\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":620,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=620","url_meta":{"origin":600,"position":5},"title":"Supremes uphold entheogenic churchEarlier post\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 21, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Supremes uphold entheogenic churchEarlier post here.The Supreme Court has upheld the right of followers of Uniao do Vegetal (UDV), a religion born in Brazil that uses ayahuasca as its sacrament, to use ayahuasca in the United States. 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