You Can't Be Free Without This | 5 Minute Video — Transcript

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1. 0:02What is religious freedom?
2. 0:03Why is it important?
3. 0:05And why is it now under threat?
4. 0:06"Hold on a second," I can hear you saying.
5. 0:09"Religious freedom is threatened?
6. 0:11Who doesn't have religious freedom in the United States?
7. 0:14You can be a Protestant, a Catholic, a Jew, a Muslim, or a Wiccan.
8. 0:20You can believe in anything—or nothing."
9. 0:22This was true.
10. 0:24But not anymore.
11. 0:26Seems like almost every week a new dispute arises between people of faith and government
12. 0:30agencies alleging that believers are violating the rights of non-believers, or simply violating
13. 0:36government edicts.
14. 0:37Given that the search for religious freedom was central to the founding of America, this
15. 0:41is quite a reversal.
16. 0:43As Thomas Paine put it in his influential 1776 pamphlet, Common Sense, "This new world
17. 0:49hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from every
18. 0:55part of Europe."
19. 0:56It wasn't an accident that the first freedom listed in the Bill of Rights, the first ten
20. 1:00amendments to the Constitution, is about religious liberty.
21. 1:03Here's what it says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,
22. 1:09or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…"
23. 1:11This meant the new United States would have no government-sponsored religion, as Europe
24. 1:16had at the time, and no restrictions on how you practiced your religion.
25. 1:20British historian Paul Johnson draws a stark and telling contrast between the two great
26. 1:25revolutions of the 18th century.
27. 1:28"The essential difference between the American Revolution and the French Revolution is that
28. 1:32the American Revolution, in its origins, was a religious event, whereas the French Revolution
29. 1:37was an anti-religious event.
30. 1:40That fact was to shape the American Revolution...and determine the nature of the independent state
31. 1:45it brought into being."
32. 1:47Now, two centuries after the Bill of Rights, freedom of religion, one of the main goals
33. 1:52of the American Revolution, has morphed into freedom from religion—one of the main goals
34. 1:57of the French Revolution.
35. 1:58That's not what any American should wish for.
36. 2:01Here's why: because when they come for your religious freedom, they're coming for all
37. 2:05your freedom.
38. 2:07It's the totalitarian "tell."
39. 2:09The giveaway.
40. 2:11This is what the Founders understood and why they were so insistent that religious liberty
41. 2:15be in the Constitution.
42. 2:17To them, freedom of liberty was tantamount to freedom of thought.
43. 2:22If you aren't free to think as you wish, you can't claim to be free.
44. 2:26They were right.
45. 2:28There is no example in history of a regime suppressing religious freedom and not suppressing
46. 2:33other freedoms.
47. 2:34One of the first things the communists did in Russia after the Russian Revolution in
48. 2:391917 was to close nearly every church and take control of all religious life in the
49. 2:44Soviet Union—Christian, Jewish, and Muslim.
50. 2:48To this day, all religious life in China is strictly controlled by the Chinese communist
51. 2:53government.
52. 2:55Why do repressive governments fear religious freedom?
53. 2:58Because it challenges the authority of the state more than any other freedom.
54. 3:03People who adhere to a religion believe that there’s something higher than the state,
55. 3:08and no repressive government can tolerate such a belief.
56. 3:12That makes religion the first target of those who want ever more power—and ever more control
57. 3:17over its citizens.
58. 3:19That's why, even if you're not religious, if you care about freedom, you should care
59. 3:23deeply about religious liberty.
60. 3:26My job is to protect religious liberty.
61. 3:27And, let me tell you, the trends are troubling.
62. 3:30Eight years ago, my case load was 47; last year it was over 300.
63. 3:36Here are some recent examples.
64. 3:37Bremerton, Washington high school football coach Joe Kennedy was first suspended and
65. 3:43then fired for going to a knee after a football game to say a brief, silent prayer.
66. 3:49A three-judge panel for the Ninth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals concluded that, because
67. 3:53Coach Kennedy could be seen engaging in religious expression by students and fans, the school
68. 3:59had the right to fire him.
69. 4:01The City of Houston is attempting to ban a small Orthodox Jewish community from worshipping
70. 4:07in the home of its rabbi.
71. 4:09Given that the neighborhood includes a rehab house, a Ghanaian church, and an east Indian
72. 4:14cultural center, the city's action is hard to fathom.
73. 4:18A "peace cross" in Bladensburg, Maryland has stood for almost 100 years in honor of 49
74. 4:24young men who died fighting in World War I.
75. 4:28Yet, in 2017, a court ordered the cross to be torn down.
76. 4:33One judge offered a novel compromise.
77. 4:36She suggested we "chop the arms off the cross" to make it less offensive.
78. 4:40Fortunately, we won that case 7-2 at the United States Supreme Court and that cross is still
79. 4:46standing.
80. 4:48America is also still standing.
81. 4:50But it won't be for much longer, not as the free country the Founders envisioned, if we
82. 4:55don't take these threats to religious freedom seriously.
83. 4:59The great historian of post-revolutionary America, Alexis de Tocqueville, understood
84. 5:03this very well.
85. 5:05"When…men attack religious beliefs, they are following their emotions not their interests.
86. 5:10Tyranny may be able to do without faith, but freedom cannot."
87. 5:15I'm Kelly Shackelford, President of First Liberty, for Prager University.