Warren Watson
November 29, 2007
Indy Star First Thoughts


Religious freedom for all

The First Amendment Center, based in Nashville, Tenn., yearly surveys Americans about their knowledge of and appreciation for the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The State of the First Amendment project, conducted annually since 1997, always contains some good nuggets of information -- and often some controversial findings.

This year, some of the controversy revolves around religion, one of the five protected areas under the First Amendment.

Only 19 percent surveyed could name "freedom of religion" as one of the guaranteed rights, down from a high of 22 percent in 2003. Bad news indeed.

Worse still was a finding that only 56 percent agreed freedom of worship applies to all religions, regardless of how extreme or unorthodox those beliefs are. That's down from 72 percent who agreed with that survey statement seven years ago.

Charles Haynes, a senior scholar with the First Amendment Center, said that one-third of the respondents appear to believe that the religious view of the majority should rule. The survey also pointed out that almost two-thirds of Americans believe that our Founding Fathers intended for the country to be a Christian nation -- despite the fact that the Constitution does not mention God or Christianity, Haynes said.

Food for thought, indeed.

The Bill of Rights was never intended to protect the rights of the majority. It exists to protect the rights of minority interests in the areas of speech, assembly, press, petition -- and religion.