Texas A and M University - Aggieland Yearbook (College Station, TX)

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R DOM

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FREEDOM OF RELIGION Believing with yon that religion is a mat¬ ter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legis¬ lative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibit¬ ing the free exercise thereof,” thus building a wall of separation between Church and State. J efferion

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1 i— RELICIOIU N TIMES of peace and ease we Americans have permitted depredations against those Rights guaranteed in the Bill of Rights. We have been lax in guarding those inherent privileges that the founders of this nation risked their lives and for¬ tunes to secure. In these troubled times, however, every American should take stock and give thanks that those founders had the wisdom and forethought to make pro¬ visions in the first amendments for the safeguarding of our freedoms even from our own blind and complacent attitudes. We are fortunate that we cherish in our na¬ tion the ideal of man’s liberty to worship his God as he pleases. We need only to look to the example of re¬ ligious suppression and intolerance in many nations of the world to realise that our heritage of religious free¬ dom is a precious one. In many countries there is stress and violence in the name of religion, making a mockery of beliefs that we hold fundamental in our way of life. In our own nation there have been cries against religious and racial minorities, patterned after the totalitarian plan. These are a direct contradiction of the guarantees of our constitution and at no time is the need greater for the preservation of religious freedom than at the present.