And I didn’t make it up. National Religious Freedom Day officially remembers and celebrates the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, drafted by Thomas Jefferson (and marked on his tombstone as one of the signal events of his life. Curiously, his presidency isn’t mentioned…) and adopted by the Commonwealth of Virginia on January 16th, 1786.
I suspect there are two things that keeps our republic juicy. One is freedom of the press. I’ve heard, although I couldn’t find it in a simple google search that Jefferson once commented if the choice is between a government and a free press, he’d go for the free press. Yes, it is rife with problems. But, I suspect with all those problems, the ability for ordinary people who wish to find out what’s going on to do so is astonishingly powerful.
And the other thing is religion. Voltaire once described England has having forty-two religions and only two sauces. America has outdone the mother country. Hundreds of religions. And fortunately, many, many sauces.
Religion is where we live. Religion carries our core metaphors.
And the free exercise of religion is critical to a free people. I really believe.
Now I agree with the Unitarian Universalist call for a “free and responsible” investigation of religion. But, frankly, push come to shove, give me total freedom. Let Anglicans, Unitarian Universalists, Rastafarians, Wiccans, Zen Buddhists, Roman Catholics, Sunni Muslims, Gnostics, Reconstructionist Jews, Flying Saucer advocates, Serbian Orthodox and followers of the Flying Spaghetti Monster get into the tumble, and lets see who prevails.
In celebration of this day I hope everyone will go out and think a religious thought for themselves. Defy the priests. Defy the politicians.
Find the truth for yourself!
And then write it up and post it somewhere. (Perhaps you might want to create a blog, for instance…)
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