79. Religious Freedom

            Americans (and I’m no exception) love the constitution—even when we really don’t know much about it. Those first ten amendments make us practically giddy and we fight to uphold them in any way we know how. There is no doubt that there are millions of people who came to this country for religious freedom, for the safety to worship as they choose. They didn’t come here because they would suddenly become a majority, they came here because they wouldn’t be persecuted or fear death because their religious beliefs didn’t fit in with their countrymen who were anything but tolerant. Here, for the most part, that’s not true. Here you can worship how you feel lead and you might be looked at as odd but you are legally protected under the constitution. That has made our country extremely diverse. While there is no doubt that we are a predominantly Christian country, we have always had a variety of religious groups who aren’t Christian at all. These people have come from all over the world and they have been given the freedom to worship openly as they feel lead and they have been protected.

            I, for one, cherish this freedom and the diversity that it has brought to my country. I love the exchange of ideas that people have when they come from different backgrounds, when they have new and different ways of expressing their devotion to a deity that has given them life and provided the sustenance and the means to obtain it. I love the freedom of religious beliefs that we have in this country and the inherent diversity that that freedom through has brought to my American home.