Take a Second Look at History of Religious Freedeom

To The Editor:
Religious liberty is very important, however Patricia Hall has failed to take a close reading of the history of religion in America. The Puritans did not come across the ocean for anything as noble as religious freedom. Sure, they wanted it for themselves but that was it.
When Mary Dyer came to Boston to preach and follow her calling to evangelize her Quaker faith, she was rewarded with the hangman’s noose. Within 50 years of their arrival to Plymouth Rock, they succumbed to religious hysteria and were burning “witches” at the stake. Among the colonies founded on a principle of religious freedom, it was only the Quaker colonies in Rhode Island and Pennsylvania that welcomed all faiths.
Hall has also failed to take into account the legal history of religion in America. In America we have the freedom to believe or not as we see fit. We do not necessarily have the freedom to practice our faith or lack thereof. I call her attention to Native American Church whose members were sentenced to jail for their ritual use of peyote.
The Mormon Church had to disavow their practice of polygamy in order to allow the State of Utah to join the Union. Members of historically peace faiths, Quakers, Mennonites and the Amish, among others, were regularly jailed for following their beliefs and refusing military service. There are many more examples in our history that separate the belief and the practice of religion.
Most importantly if a church chooses to accept federal money to carry out their church’s mission they must also accept that money often comes with strings attached. After all, who pays the piper, calls the tune.
If the churches want to run a spiritually pure endeavor, perhaps they should not look to the public square for employees and only hire from within their faith.
Lastly, religious freedom belongs to the individual not the church. Requiring churches to provide women’s health coverage does not infringe on any individual’s freedom to practice their faith, it only stops them from inflicting their faith upon others, which is truly the freedom of religion for all.
ROBERT POST
Villas