A fan of the American Family Association I have never been. But even I was quite startled earlier to read a report in the San Francisco that the AFA believes the First Amendment applies only to Christians:
Perry’s audience Saturday was filled with people who sang with arms outstretched in prayer — and wept — as Christian groups played music on stage. And Perry, himself, huddled on the stage in a prayer circle with several ministers who helped lead the event. It was Perry’s idea and was financed by the American Family Association, a Tupelo, Miss.-based group that opposes abortion and gay rights and believes that the First Amendment freedom of religion applies only to Christians.
Huh?
Is the AFA really that batshit crazy? As the above was in the San Francisco Chronicle, I thought I would google the language. That same charge against the AFA appears 3700 times, including this Fox News report:
“With the economy in trouble, communities in crisis and people adrift in a sea of moral relativism, we need God’s help,” Perry said in a June video when he announced the event, which is being called The Response USA. “That’s’ why I’m calling on Americans to pray and fast, like Jesus did and as God called the Israelites to do in the book of Joel.”
The rally is financed by The American Family Association, a Tupelo, Miss.-based group that opposes abortion and gay rights and believes that the First Amendment freedom of religion applies only to Christians.
It is one thing to call on Americans to pray and fast, but when you’re doing that while being sponsored by a group that apparently regards the First Amendment with such unbridled contempt, it raises questions.
What I would like to know is whether the AFA really believes that freedom of religion only applies to Christians. If they do, it makes their opposition to abortion and homosexuality pale by comparison.
I mean, I can handle a coalition between libertarians and social conservatives, but it’s tough to have a coalition with people if they don’t believe in basic constitutional principles, or the plain language of the Constitution.
Apparently the AFA really does believe that the First Amendment applies only to Christians. AFA’s Bran Fischer “explains“:
It was written for one specific purpose: to protect the free exercise of the Christian religion.
[…]
When the Founders used the word “religion,” they used it much as we did on the playground when I was growing up in America a generation ago. We’d asked each other, “What religion are you?” By the term “religion” we meant some variety or brand of the Christian religion, since that was all that was represented among us. We were Baptists, or Lutherans, or Methodists, or Presbyterians, or Catholics, etc. The question essentially had to do with what brand of Christianity you wore. Such was the case at the time of the Founding.
Of course things are different today, due to our inane obsession with culture-destroying muliticulturalism, but the point here is to determine the meaning and intention of the First Amendment as given to us by the Founders, lest we lapse into the kind of judicial activism and whackery that has given us abortion and pornography and same-sex marriage on demand.
I guess Fischer must have gone to Jew-free schools and never read George Washington’s letter to the Jews. If contemporary customs at the time of the founding dictate constitutional meaning, then perhaps the Second Amendment only applies to guns in the hands of white men.
Bear in mind that in defining “Christianity” for First Amendment purposes, the AFA does not include Christian sects of which it disapproves. The First Amendment only applies to Christian sects within the “stream of historic Christianity.” Meaning not Mormons (and probably not Unitarians or Rainbow Baptists).
Clearly, then, as our political experiment with the Mormon faith makes clear, there is no guarantee of the free exercise of religion for religions which are outside the stream of historic Christianity, as Mormonism is. (It denies the Trinity, the virgin birth of Christ, the unique deity of Christ, his all-sufficient atoning sacrifice on the cross, and the completeness of God’s revelation in the Old and New Testaments.)
Hmmm… I guess if freedom of religion does not apply to Mitt Romney, Perry’s love affair with the AFA becomes understandable.
Whether it’s presidential will be up to the voters.
Comments
15 responses to ““freedom of religion applies only to Christians””
It appears to me that Perry has just blown any chance of getting elected. Certainly those posed to like him will disregard this, but the majority of the American people support fairness for those in the majority, and that means, in this case, those of other faiths. Denying the protection of the First Amendment to Jews, Buddhists, and Wiccans will strike the majority of Americans as unfair, and lead them to look for somebody who will, at least, pay lip service to the Constitution.
Ooops, that should be “Those in the minority.”
[…] Classical Values » “freedom of religion applies only to Christians”. […]
I voted for Obama once. I can do it again.
If I have a Choice between the Christian Party and The Communist Party I’m going for the communists:
Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber barons cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. Clive Staples “CS” Lewis
The Christians and Communists both have this problem. Of the two I’ll take the Communists. Why? Perversity.
The Communist will at least ask: “how many tons of steel?” The Christians: “How many tons to you believe in?” The Communists are in certain respects more rational. Faint praise that.
Simon, there is no excuse for AFA or any of the other dogmatic believers who feel they must control their society for its own good, but when it comes to killing for such a belief or ideology, Christians are pathetic pikers compared to Communist.
Oops, no vote for Perry from this Christian Libertarian, the 1st amendment is absolute, for all of us and that’s it,
Bob
Actually Perry just shored up the evangelical vote which before last weekend was still up for grabs sans Huckabee. Whether that gives him a better national chance than Mikey remains to be seen… Now this AFA group seems a little too “conservative” even for a Christian dude like me, but I hope the media isn’t giving them undue coverage just because they seem easy to pick on…. I’d never heard of them before last weekend, just sayin.
As a former airborne ranger for 16 1/2 years, I can assure you that those who deny God the most are also those who cry for His intervention when the crap hits the fan and splatters back in their faces!
But I’ll respect anothers right NOT to believe…their choice, right? However, respect mine as well and we’ll get along just fine…one my most liberal traits IS the absolute willingness to allow anyone to be anything they want to be! Gay? Your business, just keep the associated behaviors and activities away from me and mine! Drug user or abuser? Fine by me, the world would benefit from your abusing yourselves to the point of room temperature! Drink and drive? All good…just dont expect me to cut you out of the car you just wrapped you and your buddies around a tree with, ok? If I smell alcohol, Im walking away and if you bleed out,…Oh well……if I see tracks or the tells of a drug abuser…here, have a light or a little air in that syringe…good luck to you…get any number of those awful gay diseases….must suck to be you!(no pun intended)
See how simple things are in my world? Its sad that indifference has to be my defense, but theres no other way for an individual to accept the consequences for their own behavior then to accept them!
I’m certainly not shocked that Gov. Perry would attend the event. Pols need votes to win. Christians vote. A pol had better be conversant in “God talk” if he/she wants to have a shot at winning public office in this country.
I find it ironic that so many voters think that a pol’s belief in God will lead to better political decision making. Look where we are at currently. Every US Rep, US Senator, US President, and US SC Justice in the history of the republic has professed a belief in a higher power, yet we find ourselves living under oppressive laws and with a bankrupted treasury.
God help us….
I’m not surprised by the AFA’s take on religious freedom. I wish I were.
History has shown that recognizing “the other” has been perhaps the main source of human conflict through the ages. For some religious adherents, evidently like the AFA, recognizing “other” Gods, faiths, sects, or lack thereof just isn’t in the cards for them.
Falcon,
Dr Robert Marks of England/Wales found that when heroin is readily available addiction rates go down. By a factor of 10X or more. This so upset the English authorities that they (at the behest of the US DEA) shut him down.
So as far as I can tell the only purpose of prohibition is to spread drug use.
Is that what you intended? If not how do you explain your ignorance?
Will,
I said my choice was perverse. But not for me. I’m not a follower (personally) of any official religion.
Yes. The Communists would be worse. But not for me personally.
If I talk to a Communist we can discuss how things work. If I talk with a Christian all I can do is sit back and listen. Because, “God Says…..” And if I tell him God didn’t say it to me then the Christian goes all indignant. He has a book after all.
But he never can prove the book was written by God and not the Devil. That has to be taken on faith.
But as I said – my position is perverse. It comes from being forced by the Public Schools to sit through and partake in Christian ceremonies in school. In a High School that was 50% Jewish. We never had any Jewish ceremonies that I recall.
The Christians wanted me indoctrinated. They got their wish. Too bad it didn’t work the way they planned.
[…] huge AFA prayer event, because the AFA not only supports re-criminalizing “sodomy,” but believes the First Amendment only applies to Christians. If such positions do not constitute bigotry, then what […]
So Deists and Unitarians – both active in the Founding need not apply? I guess the Unitarians are especially problematic because they believe there is merit in ALL religions. A very good friend of mine is an ordained Unitarian Witch. Will the AFA be organizing a burning?
I guess a few people will have to be written out of our history:
http://www.adherents.com/largecom/fam_unitarian.html
John Adams – Founding Father, 2nd U.S. President
John Quincy Adams – 6th U.S. President
Millard Fillmore – 13th U.S. President
William Howard Taft – 27th U.S. President
BTW I helped Christa get ordained by driving her around to give sermons at various Unitarian meetings in the Chicago area. I guess I’m up for burning too.
Here is a bit I wrote about Christa with some links:
http://powerandcontrol.blogspot.com/2011/09/for-sale.html
She and I both studied in the school of Thelema. Her officially, me unofficially.
I am a Thelemite and I take the heroin sacrament as often as possible. Its a shame that our fundamental constitutional rights are trampled on without anyone making a fuss. Just wait until your religion is outlawed, see how indifferent you’ll be then. ignorant fool.