Note from Community Impact Editor Amelia Robinson: this commentary is set to appear on the Dayton Daily News Ideas and Voices page Sunday, July 5. This week’s guest columnists were asked to reflect on the notions of freedom and/or patriotism. Other columns to be featured on the page are embedded. Marc Clauson, professor of history and law at Cedarville University, has worked professionally in state government and is ordained in the Presbyterian Church in America. Religious freedom, the liberty to worship our conception of a deity, or not to believe or worship at all, has been called the “First Liberty” in priority in the First Amendment. But it has always been a contentious theological, political and legal issue. Signs of its importance can be seen before the American republic existed. But the U.S. Constitution began an era of genuine freedom beyond mere granted tolerance — it became a right. But what did the phrase “Congress shall make no law … prohibiting the free exercise thereof (of religion) …” mean? More than 200 years of jurisprudence has failed to provide a truly satisfactory answer. At one time, for example, it was considered valid for states to restrict Roman Catholic education. […]
