Religious Freedom

Religious Freedom

      Section 5. No law shall be made respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. The free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship, without discrimination or preference, shall forever be allowed. No religious test shall e required for the exercise of civil or political rights.

   This provision recognizes the separation of the church and the State. Religious freedom simply means the right of a man to worship God and to entertain such religious views as appeal to his individual conscience without dictation or interference by any person or power, civil or ecclesiastical.

   Religion, within the purview of this constitutional provision means the service and adoration of God or a god as express in the form of worship, in obedience to divine commands, especially as found in accepted sacred writings or as declared by recognized teachers and in pursuit or way of life, regarded as incumbent on true believers, as ministers of religion.


Two Aspects of Religious Freedom

   First, the separation of the church and state contemplated under the phrase "no law shall be made respecting an establishment of religion" and 

   Second, the profession and worship (religious liberty) envisioned under the phrase "and the free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship without discrimination or preference shall forever be allowed. "Two implications are apparent under this concept. These are:

      1.) Every person has the right to believe with respect to his relation to God which is his religious belief unrelated to public welfare, therefore, not subject to any restriction of whatever sort. Religious belief cannot be constitutionally imposed for this is a matter of conscience and choice.

      2.) Every person likewise has the right to act in accordance with his or her belief which in the nature of things, cannot be "absolute and maybe regulated under the police power of the State".

   Within the intendment of the constitutional free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession or worship, a person is free to select his own God, who may who may be a person as in the case of Jesus Christ whom he is free to worship the way he pleases, but subject to interference under the police power of the State.