What's a "Constitutional Right" to a true believer?

The Socialists are on the warpath, as they always seems to be, against the "free exercise of religion." Now, of course, they have the very best of intentions. One of the foundational statements of Socialism is the assertion that there is no God. As Karl Marx said, "Religion is the opiate of the masses." If you take the time to read comments on internet news articles, you will regularly see comments referring to the imaginary nature of religion, or suggesting that religion is a human invention, a crutch, for the weak minded.

This is, of course, nonsense, as agnosticism and atheism are religious philosophies themselves, and recognized as such in various places, including the Humanist Manifesto and the United States Supreme Court. The agnostic or atheist who refuses to seriously acknowledge an obligation to open-mindedly investigate the various religions (including their own) to determine which is true, is more guilty of weak-minded credulity than those they sneer down at ever could be. Those who are sold out to Socialism, despite all the evidence which has accrued over the past century of the misery, the suffering and millions of deaths due to Socialism, are possibly among the most gullible of people.

Nonetheless, Socialists are true believers. Somebody, they ardently believe, will eventually do Socialism correctly, and in each generation, some group believes maybe they are the ones who will do it! In the meantime, there is all this culture of the past that has to be torn down and destroyed - so, since the 1960's, the true believers of Socialism, commonly called the "Progressive Left" have been hard at work to shear America from its foundations.

One of those foundations was the religious beliefs of its Founding Fathers. Even though the Socialists have made progress in neutering religion in America, the religion on which America was founded has proved to be remarkably durable against the onslaught of the Socialists. There are numerous examples of these attacks, some subtle, some not.

In a public school, a student is given a suspension for saying "God bless you" in response to a fellow student's sneeze. Perhaps that student is being deliberately loud and disruptive, but one suspects, given the reports of drug use and violence in today's public schools it hardly seems "Bless you" is the most pressing disciplinary problem.

Or the Fort Worth, Texas, public school that gave a one day in-school suspension, and two days full suspension, to a student who remarked to a friend that because he was a Christian, he believed homosexuality was wrong. This was not a comment made to a group, or in a disruptive manner, but was merely overheard by the teacher. Only after a public outcry did the school district relent and remove the punishment.

Then there's Vanderbilt University. About a year ago, a Christian fraternity refused membership to an openly gay individual, who then complained of discrimination. As a result, Vanderbilt has reviewed about 300 student groups, and placed about a dozen, including five Christian groups, on provisional status. The reason? The groups' charters require the leaders to profess or exemplify the beliefs of the group - the leaders of Christian groups have to lead Bible Studies and prayer, and Vanderbilt officials want to put a stop to that discriminatory practice. Political correctness is required.

Now the Department of Justice, under Eric "Fast and Furious" Holder, is pushing to apply Federal Anti-Discrimination laws to religious organizations. Traditionally, the government is not allowed to interfere with employment in religious institutions to prevent the government from trampling the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. In this case, a former teacher at a parochial school sued under the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the District Court refused to apply that law to the church operating the school. The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals decided that preventing discrimination outweighs the Constitution, so the case is going to the Supreme Court. The case does generate sympathy, so it's exactly the kind of case on which really bad court decisions are based. Hopefully, the Supreme Court will decide in favor of the Constitution, but with Judges, you never know. Once the Federal government gets the right to regulate who gets hired in church, political correctness rather than the Bible will be the highest commandment. Trampling the First Amendment is exactly what the Progressive Left wants to do. After all, what's a "Constitutional Right" to a true believer?