FUNDAMENTALS OF NATURAL LAW: The Freedom to Worship is NOT the same as Freedom of Religion

This is another of those posts that stresses the meaning of words. In fact, this post is all about the meaning of words and how we are having our most fundamental rights taken from us by people who are perverting our language. In this case, the issue is the Obama Administration’s attempt to destroy the 1st Amendment protection of religious liberty. Here’s the story:

IMBODY: Obama ‘freedom to worship’ assaults First Amendment
Freedom of religion not just for private expression

Obama Moves Away From ‘Freedom of Religion’ Toward ‘Freedom of Worship’

Make no mistake about this: Obama is deliberately trying to undermine the Constitutional protection guaranteed in the First Amendment. He is doing it by shifting the words he uses: in this case, from ‘religion’ to ‘worship.’ But the First Amendment does not address ‘worship,’ it addresses religion – which is an entirely different thing:

First Amendment
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

What is at stake here is one of our most fundamental Natural Rights: our freedom to acknowledge and honor God as we see fit. Our founders defined this as religion, and for good reason. Religion is a belief that is held so deeply that it governs the majority of the way we live. And that’s crucial to understanding what Obama is doing here. If you hold a belief so deeply that it governs the way you live, then it is impossible for that belief to be ‘private.’ Nor should it be. It will – by definition – govern the way you deal with other people, both in what you can and what you cannot agree to do with them. A perfect example if the recent case where a gay couple used the law to force a photographer to provide a service to them when the photographer claimed doing so violated their religious beliefs. The court sided with the gay couple and, in the process the court gave an approval to the notion of legalized slavery. But the court did more than bring back legalized slavery, it also destroyed the First Amendment protection of our freedom of religion by essentially saying the First Amendment protects worship, not religion.

The difference is that worship is a private matter that can be kept out of the public arena because – essentially – it means ‘admiration’. But you can have a right to admire God and still be forced to perform services for other people you find objectionable because the way you govern your life is religion, not worship. So, if Obama can successfully win the argument that the First Amendment only protects worship, he can remove religion from the public square entirely and claim that he is only enforcing the law in the process. But it is all a lie: a deliberate lie designed to destroy religion and force people to rely on the State instead of God.

I’m not going to bother going into what the founders had to say about this. They were very clear on this matter, and anyone who honestly cares to can find their original intent for the First Amendment in less than ten minutes of searching the Internet. No, what I am going to focus on is Obama’s deliberate subversion of the Constitution and Congress’s refusal to impeach the man for what is clearly an impeachable offense. This is not a matter of interpretation. The language of the First Amendment is clear, and there is a long history of affirmation by the courts saying as much – that is, before the rise of the Progressive movement and its attack on the Constitution. And that is what Obama’s latest attack represents: just another offensive in a century old campaign to destroy our Constitution and “fundamentally transform” America. It is lawlessness – period! And it is lawlessness on the part of the entire Federal government. I dare say that there may be a few individuals in the Federal government trying to uphold the law, but there is no longer a single institution within the Federal government that is not hopelessly corrupt. It is time to address the founders’ solution once again – but understand, their solution was not revolution. Their solution was to use the law!

The problem we have now is: are there enough Americans left who even understand the law anymore, let alone willing to stand up for it?

[NOTE: Our problem is not a man, nor a Party.  Our problem is an ideology.  We call it Progressivism, but — in its most fundamental form — it is the notion that man is his own god.  Understand, the last four Presidents this nation has had were Progressives — every one of them.   So, while I may seem to be focusing on Obama, it is only because he is in office now.  We can recognize the damage done by previous Progressive Presidents from both Parties, but focusing on them does nothing for us in the here and now.  So I will address the immediate threat, and that threat happens to be Obama and the people surrounding him.   It’s not a racial thing, either: it’s a TRUTH thing.]