Religious Assessments

In James Madison’s article, Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments, Madison talks about the fear that the government favors one religion over the other. This is brought up because of Patrick Henry’s proposed Assessment Bill, suggesting the public funding for teachers of the Christian religion. Within the article, Madison says, ‘Because we hold it for a fundamental and undeniable truth, “religion or the duty which we owe to our creator and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence.”’(Madison, 478) In other words, to pass the assessment bill would be to infringe upon the people’s first Amendment right, freedom of religion. The assessment bill would make the Christian religion a part of public schools, meaning students would be required to learn it.
This fear has been in our society since the birth of religion itself. Everyone is afraid that the government is religion bias, and if you are not a certain religion, then you are public enemy number one. In today’s society, everybody gets offended over everything, religion probably being the number one thing. “Jesus was at the inauguration. Not everyone was pleased.” (Jacoby, 490) Not many people express their religion …show more content…
Davis gives in his article, America’s True History of Religious Tolerance. “Religion has often been a cudgel, used to discriminate, suppress and even kill the…natives already here.” (Davis, 473) This has been true throughout all time. People used to get called witches and were burned to death over their religious beliefs. It is still true today that people use somebody’s faith against them. It is used against people in multiple ways. Just one way is in the workplace. Although it is illegal, many employers will discriminate against someone over their faith, or simply will not hire someone because of