Our First Amendment to our Constitution, reads in part: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Another way to translate this seminal Amendment, is that each individual is entitled to the freedom of their conscience to believe or not to believe in whatever religion or faith they so choose, without governmental interference, or even to be required to ask permission from that government, to hold their respective beliefs. That is to say, our conscience is wholly our own, and therefore any subsequent laws or enactments that infringe upon that conscience are in all candor, probably unconstitutional, as well as being not in keeping with the principles of what this nation was so founded upon.
A free conscience is our unalienable right, and for a certainty, governments are instituted amongst the people, in order to secure our unalienable rights, and not to thus trespass upon them. Regrettably, though, there are many a person, that believes that their religion or their faith, should be the prevailing view that all should hold, and those then that do not also hold such beliefs are considered, by them, at least, to be something lesser than those that do conform to their particular doctrine. In truth, more people need to take to heart, that the motto of the United States, is E Pluribus Unum, which means “out of many, one.” That is to say, that those that are true to what the principles of this nation represent, are the true patriots to that nation, for they recognize that each of us are fairly entitled to our own conscience, as well as understanding the importance that in order to have harmony amongst our peoples, there has to be a strong core foundations that we all agree upon.
While most of us, when we consider property, think of material things, it has to be understood, that our mind and therefore our conscience is also our property, and this thus should be considered to be the most valuable type of property that needs to be well protected by that government, of, for, and by the people. Indeed, we are not meant to be a nation of sheep, for a nation of sheep, is one in which a demagogue can lead such into all sorts of trouble. Rather, we are meant to be free thinking individuals, entitled to our own opinions, our own thoughts, and our own objectives.
How each of us wants to relate to our faith, is our individual business, of which, we are freely entitled in this country to exercise our conscience in regards to the religion of our choice, along with being permitted to freely change our religion, if we are so inclined to. For those that believe, that there is indeed life beyond this material world, then the importance of having the freedom to express our religious belief is of even more value -- for each of us, when the time so comes, has to answer in that undiscovered country, for our actions and deeds so done here, to our Creator, and no one else or any government can do that for us.