No, You Don’t Have the “Freedom” To Impose Your Religion On Me

On November 12, 2020, Justice Samuel Alito warned the Federalist Society of “unimaginable restrictions” on “religious freedom” due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Justice Alito’s comments are not new, nor are they limited to conservative justices. They reflect a long-standing hypocrisy, which goes back beyond the Constitution to the Puritan colonization of North America.

All the Constitution says about the subject, in the First Amendment, is that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” This may be a reference to the official Church of England, and the supposed “persecution” of other Protestant sects, such as Puritans. I say “supposed” because this “persecution,” like Alito’s comments, were more perceived than real. This perceived persecution becomes especially trivial when it is compared to the very real and physical torture and murder of Jews and Muslims under the Spanish Inquisition of the same time period.

What the Puritans, and now Alito, really meant by “religious freedom” is actually the “freedom” to impose their religion on others.

As soon as they became established, the Pilgrims of the Mayflower quickly began persecuting any other religion. Quakers were expelled, and Jews fleeing the Inquisition were barred from the colony. Through Cotton Mather, their religious ideology became the justification…