First Amendment Day is upon us once again, and students at UNC will have the chance to learn more about our First Amendment freedoms, while having a little fun too. Panels, speakers and trivia — it is a fantastic educational experience that I hope you all partake in. There is, however, a slight problem with First Amendment Day.
Despite its name, the day tends only focuses on some of the rights protected by the First Amendment, those of free speech and a free press, something that unfortunately happens often when the amendment is discussed. A quick refresher for those who have been out of their high school civics classes for some time, it reads as follows:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
It is understandable that the organizers of First Amendment Day choose to focus predominately on speech and the press — it is organized by the UNC Center for Media Law and Policy after all — but in doing so they fail to celebrate the full breadth of the First Amendment. Assembly and petition are occasionally touched upon during First Amendment Day, though not as much as they deserve and religion enters the conversation even more rarely.
It's a pity, because the other rights the First Amendment guarantees are important to the survival of our republic as well. And as fundamental as freedom of speech and press are, many consider the freedom of religion the most significant protection of the First Amendment, making it rather odd it isn’t mentioned in the conversation surrounding First Amendment Day.
Religion is something that is deeply personal to many of us on campus, an integral part of our identities and day to day life. My ability to practice my Christian faith freely and without fear of coerced heretical behavior is more important to me than my freedom to express controversial political ideas, a sentiment I’m sure is shared by fellow Christians and practitioners of other faiths — and the areligious too, nobody wants to be forced to practice a religion they don't believe in or even find abhorrent.
And yet as important as this aspect of the First Amendment is, during tomorrow's festivities there are no religious leaders sitting on any panels, no discussion of Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission or the stigma, and even bans, against Muslim veils that exist in several countries across Europe and something tells me no religious texts will be recited during the banned book reading, despite the fact that some countries still have bans placed on certain holy tomes.
What I'm trying to say here isn't that First Amendment Day is bad, merely that it is incomplete. Freedom of speech and press are great, and absolutely necessary to the continued survival of our republic, but so are the freedom of assembly, petition and, especially, religion. Let’s give them all their due.
