First Amendment is freedom of religion, not from it | Opinion

Last week, Jackson Mayor Scott Conger opened a minor can of worms when he shared a Christmas card quality photo of himself and his family in Downtown Jackson.

He opened the post by asking how we can honor the birth of Christ and then posted James 1:19-20 – “My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.”

He then wished everyone reading a Merry Christmas.

By the time Christmas was over, there were more than 400 comments on the post with many of them wishing Merry Christmas back to the mayor and some even acknowledging their appreciation that he would mention Jesus Christ’s birth in his holiday message, something that many government officials opt not to do for varying reasons.

But among the more than 400 comments were a few that accused him of violating the First Amendment, specifically the part about freedom of religion.

Conger actually replied to a couple of them defending his statement with another part of the First Amendment, freedom of speech.

Now I’m all for constructively criticizing Jackson’s mayor as much as the next person when it’s warranted, but I don’t think this is one of those times.

A lot of people seem to misunderstand the freedom of religion part of the First Amendment.

They seem to expect that when a person is elected to office or hired for a job within the government that they’re expected to leave their religion outside City Hall or the Courthouse or the White House or wherever they’re serving.

But that’s not the case.

When the nation’s founding fathers wrote the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, they were trying to make a nation that was the exact opposite of the nation they were breaking free from in England.

And that country imposed a national religion and expected all citizens to follow that religion if they wanted to be a part of that country or its empire.

So freedom of religion keeps the United State of America’s federal government and every state and local government within its borders from forcing a certain religion – or any religion for that matter – on its citizens.

It doesn’t keep religion out of government.

It doesn’t mean that a person who claims to be a Christian and runs for mayor is to refrain from praying or going to church or reading the Bible or anything like that while he or she is in office for four years every time he or she is elected.

If we’re to use Conger in this example, he just can’t make any executive orders or push the City Council to pass any resolutions forcing or prohibiting one particular religion on Jackson’s citizens.

I can tell you that one of Conger’s early executive orders during the pandemic had a line that was difficult to decipher regarding churches meeting, and I had conversations with city officials on a specific Friday in the spring of 2020 letting them know we at The Sun were prepared to do appropriate reporting that weekend and the following week if the executive order did restrict gatherings at church and law enforcement did enforce it before I was assured that the order was not prohibiting religious gatherings.

Faith may play a role in decisions he makes. At the state level, Gov. Bill Lee isn’t shy about how his Christianity influences him to make some of the decisions he makes. And of course that brings out similar accusations against Lee that Conger’s Merry Christmas post did.

Of course a Merry Christmas wish from a city mayor and a policy declaration by a state governor are two different things with different ramifications.

But the checks and balances system of our government is in place for when that gray area of religion in government tends to get too dark on the side of religion if a policy affects a person or group of people too much.

But checks and balances do not affect whether or not someone can say Merry Christmas. And no one’s First Amendment rights were violated last week with Conger’s post.

Save that argument for when it matters.

Brandon Shields is the editor of The Jackson Sun. Reach him at bjshields@jacksonsun.com or at 731-425-9751. Follow him on Twitter @JSEditorBrandon or on Instagram at editorbrandon.

This article originally appeared on Jackson Sun: First Amendment is freedom of religion, not from it | Opinion