Click2Religion - Freedom of Religion - 1st Amendment - Chapter 5

<body link="0000ff" alink="ff0000" vlink="000000" bgcolor=000033> <table width="100%" bgcolor=000033> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <table width=90% bgcolor=ffffff> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <tr> <td> <div align=center><p><b><font face="arial, helvetica" size=5 color=000000><b>FREEDOM OF RELIGION</p> <p><font size=4>CHAPTER 5 - FIRST AMENDMENT FREEDOM</b></font></p> </font> </div> <center> <table width="90%"> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> <p><font face="arial, helvetica" color="000000" size="3">Having briefly looked at atrocities people endured in the name of theological correctness, let’s compare life in a society where freedom of religion is guaranteed by law.</p> <p>As you examine the links in this chapter, remember: Sometimes we succeed and sometimes we fail. But, the American First Amendment provides something that makes the ultimate difference: a law that assures freedom of religion and, when that law is broken, a legal process to help correct the wrong.</p> <ul> <li>In 1770, a group of Baptists were free to be baptized <a href="http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/f0209s.jpg" target="_blank"><b>in a river</b></a>. Eight years later, a <a href="http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/f0509s.jpg" target="_blank"><b>gang attacked</b></a> the preachers conducting an outside service. It was 1778, two years after the Declaration of Independence.<br><br> <li>Many of the early Americans used religious themes to help them look at, and understand, their daily lives. The "<a href="http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/vc006410.jpg" target="_blank"><b>Tree of Life</b></a>" is only one example.<br><br> <li>In the 19th century, and before, people <a href="http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/vc006456.jpg" target="_blank"><b>gathered</b></a> together at "camp meetings" to hear famous preachers from America and from Europe. Sometimes the best preachers drew crowds of 30,000. An 1839 <a href="http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/f0703s.jpg" target="_blank"><b>camp meeting</b></a> would have been just one of many that year.<br><br> <li>Preachers who traveled everywhere to deliver sermons were called "<a href="http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/vc006572.jpg" target="_blank"><b>circuit-riding</b></a> preachers." They traveled on horseback, through all kinds of bad weather, with no special legal requirements imposed on them. Traveling preachers, using <a href="http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/f0206s.jpg" target="_blank"><b>moveable pulpits</b></a>, needed no special papers or governmental permits allowing them to speak.<br><br> <li>Today it’s annoying when religious groups try to give us their materials while we’re rushing through busy public places. But think back to a time and place when laws did not allow distribution of such materials. The First Amendment gives people the right to distribute religious information, just like the folks depicted in this <a href="http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/f0709s.jpg" target="_blank"><b>1825 picture</b></a>.<br></ul> </div> <p align="center"><font size="2"><a href="freedom_religion_ch4.htm">GO TO LAST CHAPTER</a>     <a href="freedom_religion_ch1.htm">BACK TO FIRST CHAPTER</a>     <a href="freedom_religion_ch6.htm">GO TO NEXT CHAPTER</a></p><br> </font> </td> </tr> </table> </center> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </body>