Why is the First Amendment in the Constitution?

Amendment I

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.

The following is an example of why there is a need for nations to have laws that protect their people from leaders of government denying citizens of the freedom of speech and worship:

In 1933, Martin Niemöller, a German pastor, founded an organization of pastors to combat rising government discrimination against Christians, especially those of Jewish background. By the autumn of 1934, Niemöller joined other Lutheran and Protestant churchmen like Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer(who was later executed in early 1945 by the Nazi government) in founding the Confessing Church, a Protestant group that opposed the government leaders, who were seeking the Nazification of the German Protestant churches.

In a celebrated manifesto, produced and smuggled out of the country, and reprinted in the foreign press just prior to the 1936 Olympics, he along with nine other pastors wrote to Hitler, who, in their opinion was attempting to influence the churches to replace their historic Biblical morality and theology with the political beliefs and standards of the Nazis leadership, who controlled the German government.

"Our people(leaders) are trying to break the bond set by God. That is human conceit rising against God...We ask that liberty be given to our people to go their way in the future under the sign of the Cross of Christ, in order that our grandchildren may not curse their elders on the grounds that their elders left them a state on earth that closed to them the Kingdom of God." [from TIME Magazine July 27, 1936]

Arrested on July 1, 1937, Niemöller was brought to a "Special Court" on March 2, 1938 to be tried for activities against the State. He was fined 2,000 Mark and received a prison terms of 7 months. As his detention period exceeded the jail term, he was released by the Court after the trial. However, immediately after leaving the Court, he was re-arrested by Himmler's Gestapo. He was interned in concentration camps from 1938 to 1945. He was released by the allies in 1945. After his release in 1945, he was president of the Evangelical church in Hesse and Nassau from 1947 to 1961. He was one of the initiators in the Stuttgart Declaration of Guilt, signed by leading figures in the German church. The document acknowledged that the church had not done enough to resist the Nazis. In 1961, he became president of the World Council of Churches.

Niemöller is famous from writing a poem that challenges us to stand up for our Christian principles even when powerful forces in government are forbidding us to do so.

The famous poem: The variant found on most English and American posters reads:

First they came for the Socialists, and I didn’t speak up,

because I wasn’t a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I didn’t speak up,

because I wasn’t a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up,

because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me, and there was no one left

to speak up for me.

by Rev. Martin Niemoller, 1945

You will be given the Nations

Psalm 2:1-12 (Paraphrase of the New Living Translation)

1 Why are the twenty first century nations so angry?

Why do they waste their time with a futile plan?

2 The so called national leaders are in a great battle,

Against their own religious historic stand;

The rulers of education and government plot together

To deny the existence of the Creator of the Universe;

Especially against his anointed One.

3 "Let us break our historic national chains," they cry,

"And free ourselves from slavery to faith in God and his Son."

4 But the one who rules in heaven laughs.

The Lord scoffs at them.

5 Then in anger he rebukes their rebellion and sin,

Terrifying them with great recessions in their faces.

6 For the Lord declares, "I will place my chosen ones,

On seats of power in the great cities and in my holy places"

7 The chosen will proclaim the Lord’s decree:

"The Lord said to me, ‘You are my daughters and my sons.

You are the chosen ones.

You, who live like orphans recognize me as your Father.

8 Only ask, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance,

The whole earth is under the stewardship of my chosen ones.

9 You will break the secular rebels with an iron rod

And smash their progressive governments like broken sod."

10 Now then, you leaders, act wisely!

Be warned, you rulers of the earth! God says,

"This world is mine. It is not your turf!

11 Accept your place of leadership with reverent fear.

Rejoice with trembling, and to Me draw near."

12 Submit to God’s royal Son. Then He will not be angry,

And you will not be humiliated by your self proclaimed glory.

For only the obedient will live to tell a victory story.

What joy will be theirs, all who take refuge in Him,

Finding victory over selfishness, rebellion and sin.

-Paraphased by Curtis R. Schofield

Retired United Methodist Minister