First Amendment Clauses Analysis

Part Four The establishment of the First Amendment created a sense of change. The First Amendment clauses were different from the “Establishment” Clause, because the Establishment initially stated that no single church or set of beliefs can be predominate over others. While on the other had, the first Amendment allowed a right of free exercise of religion. This ultimately means that any religion has their right to be absolute. These clauses allow people to not feel forced into practicing a specific religion through their government or their residency. They were also able to believe or practice any religion they desire. Free exercise means that anyone has the right to believe in any religion, but they
can also practice it in any way they chose to. During the nineteenth century, there were two religious groups who tested this new form of religious freedom. These religious groups were the Catholics and the Mormons. Catholic believes that Jesus Christ is the son of God. When they are practicing their religion, Catholics have the highest respect or the clergy members, which makes Catholics listen to clergy members without questioning.
When Catholic came to America, they were officially treated like social piranha. They were treated even more like an outcast when they didn’t embrace having a personal relationship with their religion because in the Catholic faith it's more about community than one personal experience. This was also seen as a potential threat America’s new religious freedom because people who were Catholics would blindly listen to the Pope. Evangelicals especially fear that Catholics would become the majority of the country, then the Pope could possibly take over the country. The country would be under one religion and lose all the freedoms they had just achieved. Another religion that surfaced in the nineteenth century American was Mormonism. Mormonism was created by their founder was , Joseph Smith Jr. in the early 1820s. Joseph Smith Jr. was stumbling into the forest, wondering about faith himself, and had had a vision of God the Father, plus Jesus Christ the Son of God initially tells him that Christianity misuses the word of God. It also proceeds into telling him the true meaning of God. God, then told Joseph Smith Jr. that it was his destiny
to fix the religion and get his true message across. In 1823, Joseph Smith Jr. claimed that he was visited by a Christian angel named Maroni, text that had been lost for fifteen hundred years. They holy text supposedly was engraved on gold plates.
Joseph spent the next six years of his life translating the Hebrew text to the real world of God in a book he names “The Book of Mormon”. Ten years after the first vision in 1830, Joseph Smith Jr released “The Book of Mormon” and began his branch of religion called the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.The difference between Christianity and Mormonism is that Mormons practiced things at the time were unimaginable, such as polygamy. Mormons believed they weren’t doing anything wrong because they believed that Joseph Smith Jr. was a prophet and was supposed to correct the world with the correct words of God. Another way that Mormons practiced ‘free exercise” also come with fear because it threatened the new personal and Evangelical view of religion. Evangelicals feared that a religion like Mormonism or Catholicism that had enough supporters, that would become the dominant religion in America. The result would be a singular a religion country again. Mormons and Catholics didn't only focus on more community than individual experience, but they were both also blindly following one single man.Evangelical thought this could threaten their religious freedom, and that the country
would lose all choices in practicing their beliefs.
Through this fear, both members of Catholics and Mormons were targeted because of it. They went through a different version of religious discrimination. Catholics were discriminated against when they tried to find work and housing. Another thing they were hated for was when they propose to get funding for a separate education for education for Catholic children, in regards to not having to learn the Protestant Bible. When they were defined funding, this only brought the member of the Catholic church closer together, like their own school system with Catholic principles in mind and the teaching surrounding their faith. The Evangelicals had similar reactions to the Mormons because they found their religion threatening and troubling Evangelicals were completely threatening the Mormons to the point that they had to flee to Missouri and be able to practice their religious freedom in peace. Both religions handle their discriminations by not letting it stop them from thriving their religions in society by building their membership and their growth of their religion. No one had a complete understanding of what “free exercise” meant, but they did not prepare for the country. This showed that even though it wasn’t a popular decision, that freedom of religion was given to every religion and that meant everyone right to choose their religion