The Freedom of Religion

     Amendment I of the U.S. Constitution says,"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;..."
     The very first right listed in the Constitution is known as the freedom of religion. This right has two points:
1. The government cannot force anyone in the country to follow a religion.
2. The government cannot create a law that makes following a religion illegal.
I think that the Founding Fathers built this right into our government because they looked back on their own history (remember, they were British before the Declaration of Independence) and saw all of the trouble with the British government having control of religion. One of these examples is the voyage of the Mayflower. The pilgrims came here to have the freedom to worship as they knew was right. Before they came, they had to have church meetings in secret. Also, know that not every person who thought like a pilgrim boarded the Mayflower. The Mayflower was a small ship and did not have room for every persecuted Christian in Great Britain. If they were found, they could be imprisoned or even killed because the government had a different idea of what worship should look like and could get away with enforcing it. Based on this knowledge, I think that the Founding Fathers never wanted people to have to flee America. Security and freedom were on their minds as they strategically wrote the document America is built on: The Constitution.