Josep Adolf Martí i Bouis

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

With these powerful words, the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America expresses what would later become one of the basics freedoms that for a long time would differentiate this country from other communities on Earth. The right to say things that others may not agree with; the right to live a faith that goes against the established churches; the right to influence your Government and to assemble with other individuals with similar opinions. These rights, that had been reserved to the ruling class for centuries, were one of the rocks on which the nation, with its new constitution, was founded upon. Freedom of speech, for example, was not anymore a reserved privilege to those in power, like it was in England after the 1609’s Bill of Rights, that protected the right to discuss whatever issue and opinion only to the members of the Parliament.

The Amendment is divided in two clear parts. First, we can find the words concerning free exercise of religion and a claimed separation between church and State, although some scholars and lawyers believe that the point of the sentence “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion” is not to separate Government from church, stopping religious institutions from shaping or influencing the nation’s path, but to preserve the different denominations’ independence and freedom of worship. While many founding fathers believed in this concept created by Thomas Jefferson, what they considered to be a separation between these institutions is not at all what today’s secular society wants us to believe.

There’s a reason for that part of the Amendment to exist. Many non-conformists, religious protesters, were forced to sustain with their taxes the official church of the British Empire: the Anglican Church, or Episcopalian Church, as it was re-named in America after the war. Because of that, Thomas Jefferson himself wrote the “1786 Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom”, that protected people from all Christian faiths and assured them the natural right to worship as they pleased. We can surely find the spirit of the First Amendment in this piece of legislation that Jefferson considered to be so important that asked it to be written in his graveyard as one of his life-long accomplishments. Does it really say that religious institutions have no place in Government? That is the excuse that some judges in this country have used to take prayer out of schools, ten commandments sculptures out of public spaces, etc. but is not at all the original intention of the Act nor of the Amendment.

There’s many ways to prove that the war against Christianity and God that the new America’s Left is carrying on has no foundation on this First Amendment or in any early American document. The same man who wrote the “1786 Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom”, Thomas Jefferson, used the expression “Creator”, meaning God, in his even more famous document, the Declaration of Independence. While such thing would not be acceptable to many people today, it was perfectly normal to those politicians who voted for the First Amendment when the Constitution was adopted a handful of years later. The simple reason is that while they believed that Government had to stay out of religion, they did not want religion to stay out of Government. They were religious people and believed that freedom without the virtue that Christian teaching and values give is not durable. Yet, many people do not want to see this point.

The next sentence in the Amendment was created to defend, as mentioned at the beginning of this paper, the right of all americans to express their personal opinions and views, no matter how different, heterodox or against the status quo they may be, without any force by the Government to stop so. That means that, while if you're in somebody’s property you have to respect their rules, Government shall make no Law against your freedom of speech. Sadly, this basic freedom is under attack in America. Not only by the Big Government that threats every opinion not shared by the Masters, but also by a new generation of brainwashed-by-political-correctness that doesn’t respect nor appreciate the process of discussing and to exchange ideas.

The movement Black Lives Matter, very powerful in many universities and inner cities, has been caught shutting down events, rallies, speeches, etc. just because the people carrying them on were from a different race. Of course, the Bill of Rights protects citizens from Government, but following Benjamin Franklin’s quote “A Republic, if you can keep it”, a society that doesn’t believe in the freedoms of America is condemned to failure. A return to the basic liberties that made this country great is obviously needed, and one of the foundations of the return to prosperity is adopting once again the flag of freedom of speech.

Not only Black Lives Matter but other radical leftists groups (feminists, environmentalists, etc) like to shut down people that do not agree with them. The United States’ government has been threatening for years the basic freedoms stated in the Bill of Rights. Through nonsense policies like “Free Speech Zones”, the right of americans to disagree with the State is under attack, if it still exists at all. Again, Franklin’s quote is there to remind us that while our rights are written in the Constitution, it’s the People’s right to keep them alive for themselves and the next generations.

An America without the First Amendment would not be America. The light of freedom was shining in 1791 when it was passed, and it is critical that it shines again. It will take a lot of effort to fight back those who want religion out of society, or those who don’t want to listen to other people’s opinions, but it is absolutely worth the sacrifice. The rights stated in the first ten Amendments to the Constitution are not men-given and should not be taken away by mankind. They come from God and every human who is born is entitled with them. It is, then, our duty to protect them.