Our Constitution is the basic law of America with its Bill of Rights and additional amendments is a blessing from the founding fathers of our land.
Nowhere else in history have the rights of individuals been so explicit. The Supreme Court interprets laws as written and implied by the framers of the Constitution. Religion, gun control, abortion, immigration, free expression, down to personal ideas on morality are just a few of the controversial subjects they try to define for the land.
The fact that the First Amendment covers religion and expression implies its importance. Issues of morality or religion are some of the most controversial. The founders, of course, only considered divisions of Christianity. Today, we must consider religions beliefs from the Middle East, Africa and Asia or the opinions of an atheist with no religious affiliations. Understand the need for gun rights and forming militias is completely different than what was felt and understood immediately following the war with Great Britain.
Moral issues, like sexuality, personal relationships and abortion, are difficult to accept. Issues like that are difficult to accept when we have been raised on specific moral standards. There is general understanding of what is normal. Without an interpretation of what is life, when is a being a separate personal individual? Is it at conception or birth? If a woman is assaulted and miscarries a baby, a person can be criminally charged for the death. That same woman may go in for an abortion and that baby is just regarded as just a part of her body, like removing infected tonsils.
As a society, we must evaluate our understanding of the value of human life. We need to return to understanding there are multiple opinions of what is moral and right in relationships, and many may conflict with our own. That doesn’t make one right and the other wrong.
Regardless of your religious understanding, be it Christian, Muslim or some other oriental concept of God, when it comes to moral questions in the end, we will all answer to the supreme judge. Our opinions will be ignored, and only the righteous judgment and compassion of almighty God will determine who was living a moral, righteous life. That judgment will be final.
The First Amendment indicates a right to express ourselves, not to impose our opinion on others.
Give thanks for the Bill of Rights.
William Gerhard, Scipio