Modern Christian Approach to "Freedom of Religion"

The Modern Christian Approach to "Freedom of Religion" Hasn't Changed at All
It's funny how Christians lay claim to "Freedom of Religion" as their own creation. In fact you will often hear them say that "Freedom of Religion" was the English pilgrim's motivation for coming to North America; so they could escape compulsory worship in/at the Church of England (or the persecution from the same¹). Freedom of Religion takes on a new meaning in their mind and really means “Freedom to Join Which Ever Christian Group You Want.” Lets delve...
What is a pilgrim and why do we call the early English settlers who landed in Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts in 1620 such a name?
Well, a “pilgrim” (L. peregrinis) is a traveler who is on his/her way to a holy place. Hmm... That's funny, I visited Plymouth Rock and I never saw a shrine or a temple or worshipers...anywhere. Could it have been a marketing ploy to get them to come here to North America? Greenland (which is almost all ice) was called “Green” to attract settlers as early as 12^th century, in what may have been one of the earliest recorded marketing schemes². Who called these English settlers “pilgrims” and what were they after?
Enter John Cotton, run-away priest in the Church of England and soon to be Puritan leader in the new world, and his message in a nut shell, was this: [ The folks who settle America are going to “the promised land” and God himself had it planned that way all along.] They had a Manifest Destiny to settle America and upon landing they quickly formed a society that was dominated and controlled by religious people and religious institutions. The Puritans loved freedom of religion so much they kept it all to themselves. There was no toleration of religious freedom in these early American settlements, a view which has passed from generation to generation of Americans and still strongly persists to this day.

Test this theory. You are “Q” and your Bible-Thumping-Baptist Uncle is “A” in the following dialogue:
Q: Uncle, do you think there should be prayer in schools.
A: YES! That's what's wrong with this country, the Atheists took prayer out of schools.
Q: What about at football games? Should we have Public prayer at high school football games?
A: Absolutely!
Q: Ok...great. So... I have a list of 5 people who have volunteered to come and lead public prayer at the local high school this week for National Prayer Week. Which one of these five should we invite to pray out loud at the student assembly each day and before all of the sporting events?

• Reverend XYZ from the Kingdom Hall of the Jehovah Witnesses
  
• Imam Muhammad KLQ from the local mosque.
  
• Rabbi HJK from Temple B'nai Israel.
  
• Bishop Joseph VGY from the Moron Temple, and
  
• Pastor Elizabeth KLQ from the Unitarian Universalist Church.
  

Your Uncle will start twitching at this point. Because he doesn't approve of any of these groups or their unique messages and therefore cannot approve of their prayers and therefore cannot go along with them praying in front of the kids.

Follow Up: “Uncle, prayer has always been legal in school. Every kid in America can pray any time he wants. They never took prayer out of school. They only took out state sanctioned prayer. Do you really want the local school board to only invite the Jehovah Witnesses to pray out loud in front of the kids? No you don't. Neither do I. That's why its not a good idea to mix religion (any religion) with the schools or any government function for that matter. There are are so many different religions and some people who don't even profess to have a religion at all. Our county was designed to allow you to practice your religion at home freely, at church freely, or any where you want, but it wasn't designed to let the State get into the religion business. Now wouldn't it just be better is we just didn't have public prayer at school at all?”

“Freedom of Religion,” developed over time in America, and after a more balanced spectrum of society immigrated to the states from Europe, the harsh Puritanical Pilgrim version lost its foothold. In 1789, when the Constitution of the United State was adopted, 169 years had passed since the Puritans had landed in Massachusetts. The country had matured and so had the concept of 'liberty'. The United States was the first known modern state to build a “wall of separation” between organized religion and the state. The framers of the Constitution were painfully aware of the abuses organized religion had played in the colonies (e.g. burning “witches” in MA, heresy was a capital crime in VA.) So they sat out in no uncertain terms that “Congress shall make no laws respecting the establishing of religion, or preventing the free exercise thereof.” This rule was also later applied to the states. Freedom “OF” religion is as equally protected as Freedom “FROM” religion.

We need to “witness” and educate Christians just like they try to proselytize us and our kids. When you take the time to use logic and reason, sometimes, just sometimes, you will have a break-through. A little light bulb will light up, and the spark of reason will live on. We are only one generation from regression to the stone age. Every morsel of science is sacred. Many have shed their blood before us to bring us the message of truth, reason and investigation. Honor their courage and pass on the word....
./cass t gate

1The truth is, the pilgrims left England and went to the Netherlands, which was religion tolerant. The Pilgrims actually left for America for reasons other than religious persecution. These reasons vary from person to person, but the trip was underwritten for capitalistic purposes and non-other. The Pilgrims were merely the players in the design and scheme of another.

2Grove, Jonath. "The place of Greenland in medieval Icelandic saga narrative", in Norse Greenland: Selected Papers of the Hvalsey Conference 2008, Journal of the North Atlantic Special Volume 2 (2009), 30–51