Who Should Give Guidelines for the Community, Religion or Government?

In the United States, we live under a constitution that was carefully crafted to insure each of us the liberal freedom to worship as we choose. Our government is prohibited from dictating to us a set of religious rituals we must follow.

If the government is prohibited from dictating the set of religious beliefs I must observe, they are also prohibited from dictating that I engage in religious worship at all.

In her work on religion and liberal democracy, Mary Sullivan writes that "[T]he affirmative right to practice a specific religion implies the negative right to practice none." (Sullivan, M. 1992)

Churches can and do set boundaries on many aspects of life from keeping Kosher, the Sabbath, suicide, abortion and marriage. Religious communities, like any other special interest are welcome in our democracy to lobby for their causes. These communities, by virtue of not representing "We The People", may not, and should not, impose boundaries on all the citizens of the United States of America without due process of law.

Reference:
Kathleen M. Sullivan, Religion and Liberal Democracy, 59 U. CHI. L. REV. 195, 197 (1992).