Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof

Something I appreciate and value so much is freedom of religion. The first amendment to the U.S. Constitution gives us freedom of religion.

That freedom is something some have sought to hinder or take from us, but thanks to the Constitution, when such cases come before the Supreme Court, they get struck down.

An example from only 7 years ago is the case of The Little Sisters of the Poor. Obamacare tried to force The Little Sisters of the Poor to have provisions for birth control. I am not Catholic, but from what I understand, when a woman chooses to become a nun, she makes a vow of chastity meaning no sex. Furthermore, for serious Catholics, use of contraception violates their faith. The Federal Government under Obama went after The Little Sisters of the Poor, so they went to the Supreme Court and won. You can read about it at- The Little Sisters of the Poor.

It seems absurd to me that the government under Obama would do so because after all, a woman who chooses to become a nun has made the decision to not have sex for life. It was the government under Obama trying to strong arm a group of nuns.

It did not surprise me since Obama had referred to bitter clingers clinging to their religion. Such rhetoric was concerning to me.

My city has the largest number of Yazidi refugees in all of North America. They are so grateful for freedom of religion. They were a minority group in Iraq and Syria and were severely oppressed for it because of their religion.

I am thankful my Yazidi friends and friends of other religions have freedom here. I am also thankful I can share about Jesus with them, and remain friends with them whether they receive Jesus or not.

We need to be vigilant in the U.S. about freedom. Losing freedom will happen here not all at once but small steps like the Federal Government under Obama going after The Little Sisters of the Poor. I look at California where there are severe restrictions about going to church under the guise of concern over the pandemic. What makes that claim dubious to me is the fact that looters and rioters are allowed on the streets in mass gatherings there and are called peaceful protestors.

We will lose freedom of religion here only if we passively let it happen.

Thank you for reading. God Bless.