Religious Liberty and Nonreligion

Court Opinion

Government in our democracy, state, and national, must be neutral in matters of religious theory, doctrine, and practice. It may not be hostile to any religion or to the advocacy of no-religion; and it may not aid, foster, or promote one religion or religious theory against another or even against the militant opposite. The First Amendment mandates governmental neutrality between religion and religion, and between religion and nonreligion.

[Justice Abe Fortas for the majority in Epperson v. Arkansas (1968), at 103, 104]

The right of a man to worship God or even refuse 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, is as fundamental in a free government like ours as is the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

[Iowa Supreme Court in Knowlton v. Baumhover (1918), 182 Iowa 691, 166NW 202, 5 A.L.R. 841]

The "establishment of religion" clause of the First Amendment means at least this: Neither a state nor the Federal Government can set up a church. Neither can pass laws which aid one religion, aid all religions, or prefer one religion over another. Neither can force nor influence a person to go to or to remain away from church against his will or force him to profess a belief or disbelief in any religion. No person can be punished for entertaining or professing religious beliefs or disbeliefs, for church attendance or non-attendance.

[Justice Hugo L. Black for the majority in Everson v. Board of Education (1947), 330 US 15

The day that this country ceases to be free for irreligion it will cease to be free for religion… We start down a rough road when we begin to mix compulsory public education with compulsory godliness.

[Justice Robert H. Jackson, dissent in Zorach v. Clauson (1952), at 325]

Bringing their convictions to bear, the framers of our Constitution were determined that every individual must be free to practice or not to practice religious beliefs in accordance with the dictates of his conscience, and that government must stay out of religious affairs entirely.

[Judge L. Clure Morton for the U.S. District Court in Beck v. McElrath (1982), 584 F. Supp. 1161]

Author Opinion

In the United States we have come to believe that government is not the exclusive property of one faith, that government must be the protector of persons of every faith and of none.

John M. Swomley, Jr., in The Churchman, April, 1985.

Nonbelievers are protected by the religion clauses of the Constitution not because secular humanism is a religion, which it is not, but because when the government acts on the basis of religion it discriminates against those who do not "believe" in the governmentally-favored manner.

Norman Dorsen, "Civil Liberties," from Encyclopedia of the American Constitution (1986), edited by L.W. Levy, K. L. Karst, and D. J. Mahoney

(It) would seem that religious liberty extends to atheists as well as to theists, to those who find their religion in ethics and morality, rather than in a Supreme Being.

William O. Douglas in The Right of the People, (Doubleday, 1958), pp. 92

From definitions by Individuals and Organizations

Freedom of religion, as the Founding Fathers saw it, was not just the right to associate oneself with a certain denomination but the right to disassociate without penalty. Belief or nonbelief was a matter of individual choice—a right underwritten in the basic charter of the nation’s liberties.

Norman Cousins, Saturday Review, December, 1980

Freedom of religion also implies the right not to have or profess a religion. This is sometimes overlooked. It is a sad commentary on religion that religionists, probably quite well-meaning at times, have throughout history tried to force fellow human beings into a required religious mold. Apart from the very wrong theological assumption involved, this is a flagrant violation of the dignity of the human person. Coerced religion is demeaning and of little value.

Bert Beach, Seventh-day Adventist religious liberty executive in Bright Candle of Courage, (Pacific Press Publishing, 1989), p. 15

Religious freedom means (among other things) the right of every individual to believe or not believe, to profess or not profess, any religious proposition or creed on the basis of his or her own experience, education, study, or reasoning, and the concomitant right to change one’s beliefs. It means the right to worship or not to worship, to be or not be a member of a religious group, to change or discontinue a religious affiliation.

Edd Doerr, Americans for Religious Liberty executive in Address at Touro Synagogue, Newport, RI, August 19, 1990

We recognize that religious liberty includes the freedom of an individual to be an agnostic, a non-theist, an atheist, or even an anti-theist. Otherwise, the civil community would be invested with authority to establish orthodoxy in matters of belief. We are confident that such a state of affairs would constitute a threat to all religious interests. … Theologically speaking, religious freedom … include(s) freedom to doubt and deny God.

Excerpt from the General Assembly Resolution of the United Methodist Church, 1980