Religious freedom is a fundamental right. Since the United States began, this right has been recognized. The nation’s founders insisted on free religious choice.
The U.S. Constitution expressly protects religious freedom. The Bill of Rights states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” in the First Amendment. James Madison, as chief author of the Bill of Rights, believed that religion “must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man.”
Today, all major world religions are present in the United States. People of all faiths practice freely and openly celebrate their holidays. Interfaith cooperation and mutual respect is valued in American society.
The first U.S. president George Washington said, “We have abundant reason to rejoice, that, in this land, the light of truth and reason has triumphed over the power of bigotry and superstition, and that every person may here worship God according to the dictates of his own heart.”
Download this free poster of the stained glass ceiling of Philip Johnson’s Chapel of Thanksgiving, an interfaith chapel in Dallas, Texas.