Religious Freedom
President Donald Trump has encouraged religious freedom to exist in America to form a coalition of U.S. businesses for the protection of religious freedom for the first time in order to stand out from other presidents from America’s past. In speculation, he is doing this to appeal to more people in America for his upcoming election. However, it has its own positives and negatives to it. Religious freedom is for religious groups such as Christians, Catholics, and Muslims to have the right to practice their beliefs without the intervention of the federal government.
Religious freedom in America benefits many people living in this country. The benefits are that people have the freedom to practice their beliefs which could vary in ways such as sex after marriage, or the belief in heaven, or the rejection of medicine. This means that many religious groups of people in America will become ethnocentric because there would be no limitation to what they can do within their own religion. When someone is ethnocentric, he or she is evaluating another culture from their own perspective and how it can impact their own culture. In addition, everybody would be treated equally which will also preserve the diversity of America and its identity as “the melting pot.” As faith guides these groups with values and responsibilities, it will encourage them to assist in community- oriented work at homeless shelters, schools, and soup kitchens.
However, religious freedom also has its downfalls regarding what the different religious groups believe in. For instance, homosexuality is considered as a sin by some who identify as Jewish, Christian, or Catholic for example. This is a downfall especially as it regresses the efforts to expanding LGBTQ community platforms in our progressive society that may bring back negativity towards these groups. Conflict is created and the nation is segregated between those religious groups who are not supportive, the religious groups who are, and the outsiders who are not religious at all, bringing me to another downfall. How about those individuals who are not religious? I believe that they can co-exist, but there would be a multitude of different values on life which could also create conflict as discrimination could arise between these groups due to their prejudices about each other. This ties in to the broader picture of why discrimination exists in America today.
In conclusion, religious freedom has its positives and negatives because of what the implications could be. The implications could be conflicting issues such as segregation regarding values on life and various beliefs. The only way to get over these issues is for dialogue to be taken which I am certain could take place. This needed dialogue has expanded within issues that related to race and mental health and people have to open their minds to those conversations in order to truly understand each other.
