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The Founders’ Gift: Free Exercise of Religion, by Thomas Farr – Brown Pelican Society of Lousiana

The Founders’ Gift: Free Exercise of Religion, by Thomas Farr

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Cecil Calvert Presenting the Acts of Toleration to Governor William Stone (The Founding of Maryland) by T.H. Matteson, 1853 [Museum of Fine Arts of Washington County, Hagerstown, Maryland]

By Thomas Farr,  The Catholic Thing,  December 11, 2024

Thomas Farr was the first director of the State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom (1999-2003). Co-founder and president emeritus of the Religious Freedom Institute, he is writing a book on the American gift of religious freedom.

Note: Longtime advocate for religious freedom around the world, Tom Farr, reminds us today of something we shouldn’t need reminding of:  our first freedom. One of the greatest challenges facing us today is the way that many have tried to paint that fundamental liberty — and the things that flow from it like parental rights, the right to life, the traditional family, and much more — as an excuse for bigotry and hate. Defending such things is one reason why The Catholic Thing has been here all these years. We’re going to be in the midst of many tussles next year trying to fix the many recent departures from our central political and religious traditions. Are you interested in being part of that effort? If so, please, act today. Do your part to help us return to our great tradition of faith and reason. – Robert Royal

God created all of us in His image and likeness. Each of us, therefore, has a dignity that no one, and especially no government, may violate.  God wants us to follow Him, but He endows us with free will. He does not coerce. He beckons. No just government, may coerce anyone in matters of religion.

Fortunately, the Founders of America agreed. They believed in a God who not only creates us equal, but endows all of us with certain natural rights that must be protected by government. And for them, the first of those rights was religious freedom. They guaranteed this right in the First Amendment and called it the “free exercise of religion.” For two centuries it was known as America’s “first freedom.”

It’s difficult to overstate the importance of the first freedom for our nation, and the world. The Founders’ way of dealing with religion and religious freedom was not only unprecedented, but a turning point in the recognition of human dignity for all mankind. …

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