Season 4 Podcast 47 The First Amendment: “Congress Shall Make No Law Respecting the Establishment of Religion Pt I”
Season 4 Podcast 47 The First Amendment: “Congress Shall Make No Law Respecting the Establishment of Religion Pt I”
The First Amendment 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.”
In this podcast, we are addressing the first part, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
In the Christian community, what is known as the three theological virtues—faith, hope, and charity—are universally taught as the most desirable of virtues because they help us become more like God.
1 CORINTHIANS 1-8 & 13
1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
…
13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
Those virtues cannot be legislated by the laws of the land. Where they are enforced by the whims of society, rather than individual conscience, the people are not free. Personal conscience is a necessary part of a democratic republic. That is why freedom of religion is an essential ingredient to any democracy.
Indeed, God is defined by His virtues. Christ embodies all virtues. However, it is not possible in the scope of this podcast to attempt a definitive description of the character of God as revealed by His multitudinous virtues: faith, charity, justice, mercy, light, truth, hope, love, knowledge, bounty, purity, pity, prudence, temperance, perfection, wisdom, intelligence, obedience, humility, zeal, reverence, patience, contemplation, omniscience, and omnipotence, etc.
Freedom is founded on no other laws than the laws of God. The greatest challenge to man who wants to be free is to decide which of the laws of God should be enforced by government and which of the laws of God must be strictly voluntary.
A democratic republic must manage a perfect balance between the laws of God and the laws of man or there can be no freedom. There is a vast difference between saying that there should be no state established religion and that there should be separation of church and state, meaning literally a separation of God and state. The first (no state established religion) is necessary for religious freedom; the second, however, (separation of state and God) is death to democracy, death to our republic, and death to freedom. It is like separating the spirit from the body. Freedom without God is like a wax figure in a museum. It has the dull presumption of similarity to a human being, but it does not have life. It is a parody of life.
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