Special to The Times The cesspool of our American culture is not the result of too much God, faith, or religion, but too little. With the pending confirmation hearing of nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, it is appropriate to review what our Constitution says about religion. The first two religious safeguards are contained in the First Amendment: “Congress (i.e. government) shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion … or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” American history makes clear that what the Framers of our Constitution meant by prohibiting an “establishment of religion” was only that there was to be no formal state religion to which all citizens were forced to conform and adhere. That’s it. However, what we see in our country today is a brazen and reflexive hostility to any notion of religion, particularly Christianity. This is a perverse distortion of the Framers’ intent. The second safeguard prohibits government from limiting or inhibiting our “free exercise” of religion, as well as the freedom not to worship. The third religious safeguard is less well known but specifically relevant to the confirmation hearing of Barrett. It is contained in Article VI. “No religious test […]
