Religion VS State

Your "religious freedom" has no freedom in the workplace unless you are a private owned organization. The right to "religious freedom" is literally what it says, the right to PRACTICE what religion you wish. NOT to discriminate nor force that religion on others. Religion is one of those "hot button" topics, so this could possibly be a trigger warning for hot heads that are going to be dead set in their ways.

n. The right, guaranteed by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, to choose religious practices or to abstain from any without government intervention.

This religious plea has to stop, and as Americans, we need to stop being completely ignorant and actually know what our rights are. As a company, it is called discrimination to fire/not hire/cause disciplinary action on sole basis of sexual or religious affiliation.

Discrimination: the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex.

  

RELIGION AND THE STATE

The fact that we, as Americans, are already forced to pay for religious institutions and non-profits through taxes every year in itself is against a Constitutional right as well as the laws in place for the separation of church and state. More than an average of $71 billion goes to churches and religious affiliated tax-exempt programs and organizations per year.

So I suddenly want to affiliate myself as the religion of the Gumfrees where it is against my religion to pay taxes to a government that I do not wish to support. Why can I not do this? Its the same thing facing our government today as they claim the first step is to "determine what is a religion and what makes it a religion". That alone is not the responsibility of the government and the two should not be intertwined.

We are forced to perform political voting acts in religious synagogues and churches, where any other day of the year I would be cursed and blasphemed for entering. Churches are breaking the law of non-profits by engaging in political activity as lined in the requirements of the 501(c)3 of the International Revenue Code as well as the 501(c)4, which has less strict codes but still prohibits a great deal of political involvement.

 

 BUT, IN GOD WE TRUST!

First of all, this country was never founded on the basis of religion, but rather the escape from the persecution thereof (which was even taught in schools, grade 5 easy learning). Our original documents including the Constitution never mentions the words “God” nor “Christianity” but remains secular to any and all faiths therein. Furthermore, our currency and everything else never began with “In God We Trust” but was originally “E Pluribus Unum” - translated from “From many come one”. Since the escape from the religious persecution of England, our founding fathers strived to remain as a secular government.

It wasn't until 1864 that it was seen on coins, then 1957 on paper currency with the approval of Dwight D. Eisenhower – who is known as not the first, but the 34th president of the United States. In fact, it wasn't even reported that the first CHRISTIAN president didn't claim religious affiliation until the 17th – Andrew Jackson.

 

BUT HOLIDAYS!

Actually, the majority of our modern Holidays – Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving, were once held as pagan traditional holidays that were somehow stripped from one faith to another. There are even claims from research that Christmas as we know (December 25th) was far from the birth of their Messiah. The long overlooked tradition however, is that these holidays – no matter how much you scream otherwise – are nothing more than store wide holidays for boosts in sales. No where in the bible has it stated to lavish your loved ones in gifts to prove your love to them on Christmas. What were these holidays really about? The turning of the seasons so that farmers could celebrate the turning of time.

 SCHOOLS

Another unfortunate mishap is when schools bring in religiously affiliated sermons, prayer circles, and testimonies. The school is a public place funded by the state where happenings such as this are not (or at least should not) be tolerated. Part of the “freedom” of our country includes the right to refuse subjection. This includes the right to say no to the Pledge of Allegiance as well as forced prayer groups. Prayer should not be led in school functions

Whether they hate it or not, the fact is that not everyone around you is a religious person or affiliated with your given religion. Show respect and know your rights, and know your religion.