The Importance Of Religious Freedom In The United States

According to Smith, many Americans are concerned and even frightened by the systematic growth of evangelism (1). Americans fear that the evangelical dominance could result in the violation of religious freedom in the United States. Although many evangelicals argue that they are the religious minority, they are the ones who often religiously discriminate others since they are often very intolerant of other religions. Some people even argue that evangelicals seek to marginalize and eradicate those whom they disagree with (Smith, 4). The violation of religious freedom by evangelical dominance is particularly problematic for the children with evangelical parents. Many evangelical leaders such as Becky Fisher believe that children need to be in

One of the essential characteristics of democracy is the separation of church and state. It has been argued that democratic regimes function best when religious authority is separated from political authority because religious view can often ben disruptive in making political decisions. The United States is one of the first countries to prohibit the government from endorsing any religion. Therefore, with the rising influence of evangelism would destroy this particular characteristic of democracy. Moreover, one of the key elements of democracy is rule of law, which refers to the idea that laws apply equally to all citizens. This element shows that democracy emphasizes the presence of equality in the society as its core value. However, with preponderance of evangelism in politics, democratic equality would not be guaranteed because evangelicals are intolerant of people who do not live according to the Bible. They are against same-sex marriage since they believe that it is “contrary to the fundamental…truths that have been ordained by God” (Rayside and Wilcox,