There has been much talk in the news lately about religion and politics.  Evangelicals don’t want to vote for Romney because he’s Mormon, a former govenor of Utah held secret meetings on how to incorporate Mormonism into state policy, Huckabee once gave a speech to fellow Baptists on taking America back for Christ, blah, blah, blah, blah. 

Well, anyone who knows me knows that I have got something to say.

In 1620 a group of Separatists, now known as Pilgrims, founded the Plymouth Colony. The reason they did this was because the religious majority back in England - the Religious Right of their day - had declared them undesirables and persecuted them accordingly. In other words, they didn’t have the right to pray and worship as they believed. The majority religion forced their beliefs and their prayers on them. So, the Separatists left in search of Relgious Freedom from the majority.

Also, in the 1600’s after seeing the evils of violence and persecution, a young soldier named William Penn joined the Religious Society of Friends - another group not approved of by the religious majority in England. In 1681 King Charles II granted Penn a large tract of land in North America in rememberance of Penn’s father, not because King Charles II had any affection for William. William Penn founded his colony, now known as Pennslyvania, on the very Quaker principles of religious freedom and tolerance.

Today, the so-called Christian Right completely ignores that this country was, in fact, founded on freedom of religion and tolerance for other religions. They claim that because Christianity is the majority religion in the United States, that they have the right to force their brand of Christianity on everyone else. They completely ignore the fact that under the umbrella of Christianity is a wide and diverse group, many of whom don’t want prayer in public school. They completely ignore the fact that many of the more recent court cases involving prayer in public school were filed by various Christian groups who didn’t want a different brand of Christianity forced on their children. Do they imagine that a Quaker or a Mennonite would want someone from the Assembly of God teaching Christianity to their children or vice versa? No, it’s better to leave religious instruction to parents and the churches of their choice.

The Religious Right fails to offer any real evidence that not having a state-sanctioned teacher lead prayer in public school infringes on anybody’s religious freedom. Last time I checked, students did have the right to pray individually and to assemble if that’s what they wanted to do. On the flip side of that, non-Christians also have the right to pray and assemble, which really seems to drive the Religious Right crazy. Because, you see, the Christian Right doesn’t really believe in freedom of religion - except for themselves. All other religions are "undesirable" and must be supressed, which if exactly the kind of thinking the Founders came here to get away from.