Lesson Summary
When people talk about religion, it can get messy, but what you believe—or don’t believe—about religion isn’t the main point of this lesson. The key idea behind Religious Freedom is your right to hold, express, and act on your deeply held beliefs, whether they’re religious or not. In fact, your right to NOT have any religious beliefs is also part of what we can learn from this aspect of American history!
Religion played a crucial role for many people who came to the “New World,” but there were other reasons as well. Ultimately, it was the freedom to choose your own path, based on your beliefs and desires, that drew Europeans (and others) to America. Before that, the Protestant Reformation in the 1500s sparked important ideas like personal liberty, the tradition of dissent, individualism, and even self-government. These became the building blocks of our American way of life.
Religious Freedom is so vital that it’s protected in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, alongside freedom of speech, the press, assembly, and the right to petition the government when you’re unhappy with what they’re doing. Notice which freedom was protected first?
Unfortunately, there’s an ugly side to this important topic: intolerance. People may say they support religious freedom, but are they willing to live peacefully with people who strongly disagree with them? Religious Freedom means freedom of ANY religion—or no religion at all. In short, it’s all about liberty!
