Religious Freedom
Which Politician Stood Before 65 Mill Viewers and Labeled Our National Debt Immoral? — Revelation 11:15-19
(Thanks for sharing this sermon on Facebook over a 200 times!) by Reverend Anthony R. Locke Sermon Series in Revelation # 22 Preached on Pulpit Freedom Sunday 2012 Revelation 11:15-19 English Standard Version 15 Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has…
Read MoreThe Powerful Legacy of William Tyndale

A hundred years ago a comet made of frozen gas entered our atmosphere and made impact in Russia, in a swampy forest in western Siberia. When an ice comet travels through Earth’s atmosphere, the friction melts and atomizes the frozen gas into a trail of flammable vapor that spreads from the Earth’s crust all the way back to the highest parts of our stratosphere. When the explosion happens on the surface of the earth, the fire ball has the potential to reach thousands of miles high with the explosive power of a thousand atomic bombs.
The shock wave from that explosion flattened 80 million trees over 800 square miles. The center of the impact left all the trees standing straight up with no branches.
The fireball stretched back into the outer atmosphere, as high as there is burnable oxygen to ignite the trial of gas left in the wake of the comet’s path. This produced so much light that a day later Londoners could read their newspapers under the night sky.
The comet struck at 7:17 am on June 30, 1908. Just over a hundred years ago.
But the energy from that event pales in significance to another explosion that happened 500 years ago in London, an explosion of light that set the world ablaze, and still shines today. That light is the glory of the Son of God shining forth from the pages of Holy Writ. That light wasn’t shining very well for a thousand years before Tyndale.
Read MoreFaith, Freedom, and the First Amendment: The Guarantee of Religious Liberty

Freedom of religion is at the heart of the American understanding of liberty. Under our constitutional order, the free exercise of religion is not a mere matter of toleration but an inalienable natural right.
As George Washington explained in his famous letter to the Hebrew Congregation at Newport: “All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights.” There are, of course, some limits to the free exercise of religion. Citizens cannot invoke the First Amendment to break general laws (although exemptions may be granted).
But within the confines of the law, all citizens have the same right of conscience. This essay is adapted from The Heritage Guide to the Constitution for a series providing constitutional guidance for lawmakers.
Visit the Heritage Foundation to learn more
Read More