One of the principle rights found in the American Bill of Rights is the right to practice whatever religion we wish, and that the government would not favor any religion through its laws or policies. So why is this not the case?
America is incredibly biased towards Christianity, and that makes a lot of sense. The nation was settled predominantly by Christian people, some of them coming here for the sole purpose of religious freedom. From the 1700s to now, the nation has remained mostly Christian, and that has been reflected in the policies the nation has put into place.
Take Donald Trump’s infamous travel ban for example. Trump plays on the thought that just because a few terrorist attacks are Muslim, including 9/11, that all Muslims are evil and out to kill us. The fact of the matter is that these Islamic terrorist organizations are radical extremists, or in other words, an incredibly small percentage of their religion.
Extremists exist for every religion and even most organizations in general, including Christians. The problem at the heart of the matter is a lack of understanding; one that can traced back to compulsory education.
Did you ever learn of any religion in detail besides Christianity growing up? If you’re like most people and did not, that’s largely due to local legislation stemming from national ideals. People fear what they don’t understand, and since people in the country largely do not understand other religions, we shy away from teaching them. This is remarkably odd in a nation founded on liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
The founding fathers of this country were not necessarily Christian, but nearly all of them saw value in some form of religion. Most religions offer a certain path, belief and/or way of life. Should we not, as Americans believing in freedom and liberty, allow our children and the other youth of this nation a chance to choose what religious practice they wish to pursue?
Parents should teach their children what they believe and why they think their kids should believe it too, but we should make it our mission to put anyone, especially our kids, in a position to make well-informed decisions on these very important things.
The way to approach multiple viewpoints is to represent every view and logically explain why your view is the correct one, not shield every other mindset away from the person you are attempting to convince.
The United States is a safe-haven for liberty and freedom, so we should treat religion as just another subject to be educated about. People cannot ever understand truth if they are introduced to a lie.
