A Study Of The Principle Of Conscience Freedom In U.S. Constitutional Documents

The freedom of conscience is the basic human rights of modern society.Contemporary international human rights documents and the constitutions of various countries have generally stipulated the terms about the freedom of thought,conscience and religion.However,the original meaning of the freedom of conscience is not the freedom in the sense of humanism.So pinpointing the conscience of freedom from the perspective of Christian theology becomes the most important thing.The freedom of conscience is divided into two parts.One is conscience and the other is freedom.The freedom of conscience is a word with strong relevance,linking God's sovereignty,human's sin,and Christ's salvation.It's a bridge,as a constitutive nature existing in the freedom of religious belief.This definition is not groundless but based on the history of the Reformation.Although the freedom of conscience was already the core element of Christianity during the Roman period,it's established as a principle in the Reformation.In addition,the existence of the principle of the freedom of conscience not only has a historical foundation,but also has profound theoretical support.There are four concepts that support its development in Europe and later in North America including the Puritan concept,the evangelical concept,the concept of the Enlightenment,and the concept of Civic Republicanism.The Reformation as a fuse in Germany opened the path of Sola Scriptura and touched the sensitive nerves of British Puritans.Because the Reformation in British has strong political motives,there were always transigent throughout the Reformation.After the succession of the monarchs,the freedom of conscience of British Puritan was still unable to obtain complete protection,so they decided to leave Britain to search for a place full of the freedom of conscience.However,when they came to Netherlands with several twists and turns,they found the situation of the Netherlands had not improved much for them.Although they had obtained a certain degree of freedom of conscience,they could not pass on the seeds of the gospel in the temptation of Netherlands.In other words,their conscience is still not free to obey God's will.In the end,the Puritans decided to take a risk for the glory of God.They decided to go to North America and establish a place of freedom of conscience based on the God they believe in.This constitutes the foundation of freedom of conscience in North American colonies in the early days.The signing of the Mayflower Convention means Christians freely conclude a Civil Covenant under the Covenant,creating a paradigm of citizenship;The Declaration of Independence further proclaimed the establishment of a country of freedom of conscience favored by God;the Constitution of the United States ensures the City upon a Hill does not perish in crisis and protects the freedom of religion and conscience in a negative manner;the promulgation of the First Amendment indicates Congress guaranteed the freedom of conscience of citizens in a way that prohibits their own power.Although the development of American history highlights Americans' protection of freedom of conscience,many complex situations have appeared in legal practice.In the State of Tennessee v.John Thomas Scopes,the secular curriculum began to gain the same status as a religious curriculum in a public school;McCollum v.Board of Education continues to advance the secular curriculum,directly replacing the religious curriculum and isolating the religious curriculum outside the campus;Stone v.Graham completely shows symbolic religious expression is unpopular.The court inflexibly defining the separation of religion from the state and the range of courses that public schools should teach not only suppressed the freedom of conscience for citizens,but also restricted the freedom of expression protected in the First Amendment.The principle of freedom of conscience is developing towards relativism by secularists.The right to freedom of conscience has also been eroded by relativism.In other cases related to the Sabbath,from McGowan v.Maryland to Braunfeld v.Brown to Gallagher v.Crown Kosher Super Market,the Supreme Court ruled the state law did not violate the First Amendment each time,but the impact still moved in the opposite direction.The lack of necessary immunity for non-Christians in a series of Sabbath cases caused non-Christians in the United States inconvenient.Although the court emphasized that the Blue Law has sufficient secular basis and is conducive to improving the general welfare of citizens,being consistent with many other labor regulations that protect workers from exploitation,but the court ignored the fact that American society has become more and more diversified.In the process of development,modern countries will inevitably experience different degrees of cultural pain.However,due to the lack of flexible and open application of immunity,the principle of freedom of conscience in the process of secularization has become more intense with the native culture in the United States.