Doesn't Freedom Of Religion Also Mean Freedom From Religion?

[Me.]

The forefathers ordained a separation between church and state yet here we are in the 21st century having to kowtow to the beliefs of a small group of mostly white men who don't know zip about women's bodies. When did Jesus say "do not use contraceptives"? That jackass Dolan was out today yelling about this which made me angry all over again. Such nonsense is why I left that church in the first place.

[tnlefty]

1. It does in my way of thinking, but where I live, I'm just a

heathen.

ETA an h in where

[Me.]

6. Hang In There

[NMMNG]

2. Yes, it does

In fact, Freedom Of Religion requires Freedom From Religion. If Joe Blow has Religion X imposed on him, he's not free to practice Religion Y, or no religion at all. If the culture and/or the State in any way compels people to adhere to the tenets of a particular faith or endorses a particular religion (restrictions on reproductive freedoms, bans on same-sex marriage, "blue laws", government funded religious displays on public land, etc) they're impeding the religious liberty of others.

For true Freedom Of Religion each person must be willing to allow others Freedom From (his/her) Religion, or nobody truly has any freedom.

[Me.]

5. Thank You

[Sapphocrat]

3. Yes -- yes, it does.

"The bill for establishing religious freedom, the principles of which had, to a certain degree, been enacted before, I had drawn in all the latitude of reason and right. It still met with opposition; but, with some mutilations in the preamble, it was finally passed; and a singular proposition proved that its protection of opinion was meant to be universal. Where the preamble declares, that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed, by inserting the word "Jesus Christ," so that it should read, "a departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion;" the insertion was rejected by a great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan, the Hindoo, and Infidel of every denomination."

- Thomas Jefferson, re the Virginia Act for Religious Freedom, 1821

[Me.]

4. Thank You

And thank you all who responded. I certainly feel there is, and has been, coercion going on.

[No Elephants]

7. I believe that was the message of the school prayer cases.

However, as so often happens, the SCOTUS has ratcheted back from the breadth of the original cases.

(Edited to change "as always" to "as so often happens" because I wasn't sure if "always" was accurate.)