Sentences with phrase «exercise of religion according»

That 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, and therefore all men have an equal, natural and unalienable right to the free exercise of religion according to the dictates of conscience, and that no particular religious sect or society ought to be favored or established by law in preferrence [sic] to others.

Not exact matches

On the contrary, the Constitution extends the highest protection to what the framers believed to be the inalienable right to exercise religion according to the dictates of individual conscience.

One after another the state constitutions had declared that, as North Carolina's put it, «all men have a natural and unalienable right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences» (V: 71) The state constitutions indicated that the right of «free exercise» was meant to be absolute, at least to the point of not «disturb [ing] the public peace or obstruct [ing] others in their religious worship» (Massachusetts, 1780, V: 77) Equally straightforward was the opposition to «an establishment of religion.»

One can see this metaphysical scheme behind the words of Mason and Jefferson in the two acts of the Virginia Assembly quoted above: «that all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and that it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity towards each other.»

George Mason, a member of the Con - sti - tu - tion - al Convention and recognized as The Father of the Bill of Rights submitted this proposal for the wording of the First Amendment All men have an equal, natural and unalienable right to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience and that no particular sect or society of Christians ought to be favored or established by law in preference to others.

According to the bill, any restriction on the free exercise of religion is valid only if:

That 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; and therefore all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and that it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity towards each other.»