Does America Respect Religion?

By William Davis

In 1602, a group settlers called Pilgrams came to America from England  so that they could be free to practice their religion away from the King of England who had rejected their beleifs. Freedom of religion was the founding purpose for America. As of 1781, freedom of religion is a right given to every citizen and even though America honors that right, I feel that America as a whole does not respect it. I feel this way because there have been many stereotypes created do to the lack of  understanding and a lack of respect for other religions in American societies.

On September 11 2001 two planes were driven into the World Trade Center. The leader of  the attack is or was believed to be a man named Osama Bin Laden who was Muslim. Ever since that day, many Americans have looked at people of the Muslim faith as terrorist. After 911 the media only focused on Bin Laden and his group Al-Qaeda which became America's impression of the Muslim faith and what it teaches. America did not bother to view the everyday Muslims we see everyday and ask them how that attack made them feel as Americas or if what Bin Laden is doing have anything to with what Muslim faith teaches, but instead we just assumed based on the actions of one man, a man who actions were so bad that he lost his Saudi citizenship and was disowned by his wealthy family. We allowed Muslims to be distrinated aginst. We have allowed the Muslim faith to be disrespected because we allowed the media to project false facts about the Muslim faith to Americans making them feel as if they were the enemy.  Besides  anyone with just a little bit of knowledge would know the Muslim faith does not teach hate. The Ku Klux Klan hung, beat and robbed people because they were another race, political party or Jewish and practiced christianity but no one looks at christianity as religion that teaches hate but they know the KKK was evil and prositcuted them with out attacking the religion.  We have learned and understood  what the Bible teaches and people knew what the Christianity taught even if they weren't Christian. Why didn't we learn about the Muslim faith before we as a country started  linking them terrorism? 

For the most part America tries to keep religion and politics seperate but there are times when politicians use religion to gain votes. The problem most politicians gain their votes by preaching their religous views like family, love for god and the their dislike for gay marrige and abortions. The problem with that is not everyone is feels the same way as you do because not every citizen is the same religion. Besides religous beliefs are personal and should not be a political issue because political issues should be about how things effect the country as a whole. How does stopping 2 men from getting married or telling a women she can't have abortion effect me, it doesn't. I'm more concerned with education, tax increases, gas prices and the war. Those are the issues that people who worry about 2 men getting married forget about and then get mad when stuff start happening wondering how it happened. Why should I care about what a woman I never met do with her body? Because the bible says it is wrong to have abortions. That woman might not be christian and besides this is not a christian country. This is a country of many religions.  When you only support one religion's point of view you disrespect the other religions as to say "your religious point of view does not matter". You can't tell someone they can't do something because of a religious point of view. You are not only violating their rights as American citizens, you may also be disrepecting their religion. What is accepted in a Jewish home may not be tollerated in a Christian home. If your going to make some thing a religious issue should at least have opinions from all religions rather than just your own.

In conclusion I feel that America does not respect religion because it allows mass media to create false sterotypes. When politicians project their own religious aspects they sometimes ignore

other religious opinions, making Americans ignorant to other religions and their beliefs. These are just some of the issues the religion cause, some other issues include religious inequality and religous counter culture. Most important thing is that America forgets that it was founded on religious freedom so we as Americans must to respect other religions and their customes.