Bryan Fischer
Citizenship exam mangles Constitution
By Bryan Fischer
Follow me on Twitter: @BryanJFischer, on Facebook at "Focal Point"
Host of "Focal Point" on AFR Talk, 1-3pm CT, M-F www.afr.net
For a decade now, the exam that prospective immigrants must take to become U.S. citizens has altered the Constitution in a dangerous and freedom-limiting way.
Through bureaucratic legerdemain, immigration bureaucrats have actually altered the very words of the First Amendment in a way that severely limits a fundamental and unalienable civil right.
The test now refers to "freedom of worship" as one of the rights which belong to "everyone who lives in the United States." But that's not what the Constitution guarantees at all.
The words of the Founders were much more expansive. What the Constitution guarantees is the "free exercise of religion." What's the difference? Easy. The right to the free exercise of religion is something we possess 24 hours of every day, seven days of every week. Freedom of worship is a right we possess for only one hour a week, from 11 to noon on Sundays.
The left has been on a crusade to limit religious liberty whenever and wherever it can. What better way to shrink it than by convincing newcomers as well as American citizens that religious rights can only be exercised 60 minutes out of every week, and only inside the four walls of a church building?
Homosexual activists believe in this constricted view of freedom with an venomous passion. During my time as a pastor in Idaho, I once had an angry lesbian activist get up in my face declaring (and this is virtually verbatim), "I don't care what you teach inside your church, what you do inside your church, or what you believe inside your church, as long as you keep it inside your church. Your church belongs to you. But the public square belongs to us."
The Constitution's guarantee of the free exercise of religion, however, means that religious expression cannot be constitutionally confined within the four walls of a building. Christians are guaranteed the right to live out their faith not only in their homes but also in the way they run their businesses, whether that business is a bake shop or a floral shop. They have the right to the free exercise of religion in school settings, in work settings, in city council chambers, in state capitols, and in the halls of Congress.
But by amending the Constitution to read "freedom of worship," immigration officials have strangled the life out of this fundamental liberty.
President Obama is fond of this linguistic obliteration of the Constitution. In essence, the president has said to the American people, "You have the right to freedom of religion one hour a week, but the other 167 hours belong to the bureaucratic minions of the federal government."
This is not the America the Founders bequeathed to us. It's long past time for America to reclaim the religious liberty which is ours by providential grant and secured for us in the Constitution. And one of the places to begin is by teaching newcomers to America the actual words of the Constitution instead of the words President Obama wishes were there.
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)
© Bryan Fischer
May 2, 2015
Follow me on Twitter: @BryanJFischer, on Facebook at "Focal Point"
Host of "Focal Point" on AFR Talk, 1-3pm CT, M-F www.afr.net
For a decade now, the exam that prospective immigrants must take to become U.S. citizens has altered the Constitution in a dangerous and freedom-limiting way.
Through bureaucratic legerdemain, immigration bureaucrats have actually altered the very words of the First Amendment in a way that severely limits a fundamental and unalienable civil right.
The test now refers to "freedom of worship" as one of the rights which belong to "everyone who lives in the United States." But that's not what the Constitution guarantees at all.
The words of the Founders were much more expansive. What the Constitution guarantees is the "free exercise of religion." What's the difference? Easy. The right to the free exercise of religion is something we possess 24 hours of every day, seven days of every week. Freedom of worship is a right we possess for only one hour a week, from 11 to noon on Sundays.
The left has been on a crusade to limit religious liberty whenever and wherever it can. What better way to shrink it than by convincing newcomers as well as American citizens that religious rights can only be exercised 60 minutes out of every week, and only inside the four walls of a church building?
Homosexual activists believe in this constricted view of freedom with an venomous passion. During my time as a pastor in Idaho, I once had an angry lesbian activist get up in my face declaring (and this is virtually verbatim), "I don't care what you teach inside your church, what you do inside your church, or what you believe inside your church, as long as you keep it inside your church. Your church belongs to you. But the public square belongs to us."
The Constitution's guarantee of the free exercise of religion, however, means that religious expression cannot be constitutionally confined within the four walls of a building. Christians are guaranteed the right to live out their faith not only in their homes but also in the way they run their businesses, whether that business is a bake shop or a floral shop. They have the right to the free exercise of religion in school settings, in work settings, in city council chambers, in state capitols, and in the halls of Congress.
But by amending the Constitution to read "freedom of worship," immigration officials have strangled the life out of this fundamental liberty.
President Obama is fond of this linguistic obliteration of the Constitution. In essence, the president has said to the American people, "You have the right to freedom of religion one hour a week, but the other 167 hours belong to the bureaucratic minions of the federal government."
This is not the America the Founders bequeathed to us. It's long past time for America to reclaim the religious liberty which is ours by providential grant and secured for us in the Constitution. And one of the places to begin is by teaching newcomers to America the actual words of the Constitution instead of the words President Obama wishes were there.
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)
© Bryan Fischer
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
