Freedom of Religion

Freedom of Religion
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
March 1, 2014

26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
Genesis 1

I am free to believe. To believe that God started all of it, no matter how much we get wrong. Even Albert Einstein said "There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.

I am free to believe that Jesus was the Son of God and that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit live within me and I walk with them, no matter how many times I stumble, fall, lose my way and sin, I am forgiven. Forgiven, not because of me or anything I did, but because of what Jesus did.

I am free do love and to do good just as much as I am free to hate and do selfish things. I am not free of guilt if I do those things to someone else instead of for someone else.

I am free to walk into any house of worship as I see fit to attend but I am not free of their rules. If I decide to attend, then I am obligated to live within their rules.

I am free to walk away from what I do not believe in as much as I am free walk toward where my soul pulls me.

I am free to hold private that which I choose to leave between my soul and God, who knows all I am, just as I am free to speak and make public that which I will. I am not free to stop someone else from doing the same.

In this country we are all supposed to be free to believe what we want, do as we will, say what we want and go where we want, but all of this comes with an obligation.

If we seek to retain these freedoms, we must defend the rights of those we do not agree with. It is not our right to take away the freedoms of someone else.

I refuse to trivialize freedom. I refuse to hear fools speak of their rights being taken away simply because someone does not agree with them. I refuse to defend anyone attempting to take rights away from someone else because they do not like the way they live, the way they think or what they do with their own lives.

God did not give me the right to do anything other than make my own choices and leave the choices others make up to them. He gave me the right to freewill but freedom is something men and women risked their lives to retain.

I refuse to allow one religious denomination to force their beliefs on anyone else. To legislate their beliefs while they are supposed to be elected to represent everyones ability to make their own choices.

We have all heard far too much from people screaming their rights are being taken away because they have been prevented from taking the rights of others away.

If everyone is not free to believe, then no one is.