Editor, Times-Union: The following is the third letter in my series of letters on the subjects of church and state. The first two letters were printed in the Times-Union on Sept. 8 and 12. Those letters listed the sharp and irreconcilable contrast between the authoritarian principle of coerced union of church and state and Freedom of Religion for All. This letter features a proposed and necessary amendment to the U.S. Constitution that will further strengthen first amendment protections concerning freedom of religion plus this proposed amendment can be used as a model for other amendments in the Bill of Rights. Proposed Constitutional Amendment concerning Freedom of Religion and Church and State Neither Congress, the Supreme Court, and lower federal courts, the president and his or her cabinet, the federal bureaucracies, nor the executive, legislative, judicial or bureaucratic branches of government of the various states, counties, localities and territories of the Union nor majorities of participating American voters in elections or referendums; nor a foreign faction, foreign power, foreign alliance, and international or transnational authority shall prohibit or infringe upon during peacetime or war. The inalienable right of the citizens and inhabitants of the United States and its territories or of foreigners residing here or abroad to respectfully engage in an ethical manner whether alone or with others the peaceful, open and free expression and exercise of religion or irreligion according to the dictates of individual conscience without fear of reprisal, interference or coerced conformity. Nor shall such aforementioned entities subject the people domestic or foreign to such horrendous and oppressive acts as extermination or perfection because of one’s beliefs or the lack thereof; forced conversion to any form of theism, mysticism, or atheism; undue intrusion into the internal affairs of one’s congregation, denomination or faith; involuntary aid of any sort of religious establishments or activities; compulsory adherence to sectarian laws, tenents and decrees; he sanctioning and support of religious cartels, public churches, mandatory civic faith (s) and the incremental or outright establishment of a universal state church/state religion or militant state atheism. This amendment shall only be modified for the express purpose of clarifying or strengthening its content. It shall not be repealed or diminished and shall be considered to be in effect throughout the existence of the union and the free people’s yet to come. A brief explanation of this amendment will follow shortly in the letters to the editor column. Alexander Houze Leesburg
