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The Constitution protects religious beliefs not religious practices. Restrictions on religious practices was considered acceptable. Similarly, the content of s
by gamblor956 6y ago
The Constitution protects religious beliefs not religious practices. Restrictions on religious practices was considered acceptable.
Similarly, the content of speech is protected, but the action performed by that speech (for examine, incitement) is not.
- AdrianB1 6y agoFalse: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;". "Free exercise" = "free practice" for the layman. For free speech, the protection should be for speech, there is no free action so your comment is not clear on what it points at.
- kmonsen 6y agoYou are making strong statements about things you need to read up more on. The congress and others can put limits on religious practice in many ways. The most relevant example here is that building and fire codes apply for churches.
- AdrianB1 6y agoI quote a text, I am not making statements. What is wrong with that?
- gamblor956 6y agoIn a nutshell: religion back then strictly meant beliefs but not actions. (Thomas Jefferson has a letter discussing this with one of the members of the BOR convention.) Since then, religion has come to take on the layman's meaning including both beliefs and actions, and courts have given religious practices First Amendment protections similar to speech. (In this sense, it is similar to the dichotomy between the blanket protection on the content of speech but the allowance for restrictions on the actions that speech may effectuate.)