There are limits to freedom of religion

The case of the children removed from a Texas polygamy cult last week has brought new attention to questions of religious freedom. Nothing in the U. S. Constitution allows people to break laws in the name of their religion. Nor should it.

The same First Amendment that guarantees freedom of religion also guarantees freedom of speech. Yet we all know there are limits to this freedom. You don't have the right to commit perjury or slander others. You shouldn't incite violence or, as the old example goes, yell Fire! in a crowded theater. You can't deal in child pornography. Few of us would remove such limitations.

Freedom of religion has limits, too. If someone decided they wanted to copy the Mayans and sacrifice human beings to appease their god, they would run head on into laws against murder. And this is the problem that the Mormon offshoot group in Texas faces. Polygamy is against the law in America. So is sex with underage girls. And, in western society at least, there's a real question of slavery if someone is made to marry against their will and not allowed freedom of movement and choice.

These questions are complicated because there is such a variety of religions in America these days. Some have even suggested that laws be waived so Muslims can have more than one wife and resolve at least some of their issues using Sharia, or Muslim law.

This debate has gone on in the United Kingdom, France and other western nations. A few years ago, there was an uproar in Ontario, Canada when a former attorney general encouraged the use of Sharia for divorce and child custody cases involving Muslims. This winter, the Archbishop of Canterbury provoked a similar firestorm in Britain by saying it seemed inevitable that parts of Sharia would be adopted there due to a large Muslim population.

You'd have thought the Archbishop would be wise enough to realize that a democracy can't have different laws for different people. Maybe he missed a basic civics course somewhere along the line.

So far, the West has held true to long-held convictions that there is a separation between church and state, and that all citizens of a country are subject to its laws. When this changes, we can stop talking about the Constitution and Western Civilization, for they will be things of the past.