Opinion ID: 1825816
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The right to worship God is an inalienable, God-given right recognized by the Founders of the United States.

Text: For innumerable Americans and Alabamians, from the founding of this Nation to the present, the worship of God and faith in His providence have provided hope for a blessed life on earth and salvation in eternity. Recognizing faith in God as the bulwark of our freedom, the Founders deliberately grounded American independence on the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God. See Declaration of Independence. In this regard, Jefferson asked: Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, 1782, in Andrew M. Allison, M. Richard Maxfield, K. DeLynn Cook, and W. Cleon Skousen, The Real Thomas Jefferson 523 (National Center for Constitutional Studies, Washington, D.C., 2d ed.1983). In his second inaugural address, Jefferson elaborated further on the necessity of reliance on God as the Author and Preserver of our liberties and blessings: I shall need ... the favor of that Being in whose hands we are, who led our forefathers, as Israel of old, from their native land, and planted them in a country flowing with all the necessaries and comforts of life; who has covered our infancy with His providence, and our riper years with His wisdom and power; and to whose goodness I ask you to join with me in supplications, that He will so enlighten the minds of your servants, guide their councils, and prosper their measures, that whatsoever they do shall result in your good, and shall secure to you the peace, friendship, and approbation of all nations. Thomas Jefferson, Second Inaugural Address, 1805; quoted in Allison, 403-04. The Framers of the United States Constitution rightly perceived that the worship of God includes both a corporate and an individual dimension. In the darkest days of the Constitutional Convention, with delegates strongly divided, Benjamin Franklin brought them together by an appeal to the corporate dimension of worship, reminding those gathered of God's role in the formation and preservation of this Nation: In the beginning of the contest with Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayers in this room for the divine protection. Our prayers, Sir, were heard  and they were graciously answered.... I have lived, Sir, a long time; and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings that `except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.' [ Psalm 127:1]. I firmly believe this; and I also believe that, without his concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel.... Benjamin Franklin, June 28, 1787, in James Madison, Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787 209-210 (Ohio University Press, 2d prntg.1985). George Washington also recognized the importance of corporate worship in 1796 when he emphasized that Religion and Morality are the essential pillars of civil society. Ashbel Green, The Life of Ashbel Green, by Himself 615 (1849). Washington further recognized that the irreducible core of religious liberty is the individual's right to worship God: The liberty enjoyed by the people of these States, of worshipping Almighty God agreeably to their consciences, is not only among the choicest of their blessings, but also of their rights. Paul F. Boller, Jr., George Washington and Religion 179-80 (Southern Methodist University Press, 1963). James Madison, a key delegate to the Constitutional Convention and a primary author of the Bill of Rights, also recognized and emphasized the individual right and duty to worship God. In his 1785 Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments, Madison stated: The Religion then of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man; and it is the right of every man to exercise it as these [reason and conviction] may dictate. This right is in its nature an unalienable right.... It is the duty of every man to render to the Creator such homage, and such only, as he believes to be acceptable to him. Madison further stated: This duty is precedent both in order of time and degree of obligation, to the claims of Civil Society. Before any man can be considered as a member of Civil Society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governor of the Universe: And if a member of Civil Society, who enters into any subordinate Association, must always do it with a reservation of his duty to the general authority; much more must every man who becomes a member of any particular Civil Society, do it with a saving of his allegiance to the Universal Sovereign. Norman Cousins, In God We Trust: The Religious Beliefs and Ideas of the American Founding Fathers 308-14 (Harper & Bros., 1958). Given that the Founders of our Nation regarded the right to worship God both corporately and individually as the core of religious liberty, it is no surprise that they placed it at the very beginning of the First Amendment to the Bill of Rights. It therefore stands to reason that they would have regarded any law or court order prohibiting a person from worshipping God as the very epitome of tyranny and would have been shocked by a court order prohibiting a parent from teaching the worship of God to her child. Indeed, no aspect of religious freedom is more treasured than the right of parents to teach their children to worship God, which right has been recognized by the United States Supreme Court. See Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510, 535, 45 S.Ct. 571, 69 L.Ed. 1070 (1925)(The child is not the mere creature of the state; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right, coupled with the high duty, to recognize and prepare him for additional obligations.), and Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205, 213-14, 92 S.Ct. 1526, 32 L.Ed.2d 15 (1972) ([T]he values of parental direction of the religious upbringing and education of their children in their early and formative years have a high place in our society ....). The religious instruction of children is important not only for society generally, but also particularly for parents who believe, as does Laura, that the worship of God through faith in Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation and that God Himself has commanded parents to teach His commands to their children: Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. And you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.