Essay Sample on Religion: Protected Classes, Civil Liberties & Civil Rights

Introduction

Religion is defined as a belief and worship of deities. All religious organizations and groups fall under the protected classes. As a result, the government has to be keen on the way it handles matters concerning different denominations. In situations where religious beliefs are against the law or promote discrimination against others, the government should take civil liberties and civil rights into consideration in determining whether to protect or discourage such beliefs. Civil liberties refer to the protection that citizens have against the government interfering with their civilian lives. In America, the civil liberties of protected classes, such as religious beliefs, pose a dilemma to the government, whether it should protect them or not. The second point of concern in this matter is civil rights. Civil rights are the freedoms of citizens to take part in social and economic activities of their choice. Religious groups often use their religious freedom to discriminate against those with conflicting religious beliefs (Crashcourse, 2015a).

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The 14th Amendment prevents the government from interfering with the religious practices of its citizens. The clause on equal protection on the 14th Amendment states no state shall formulate or implements laws that deny any person the right to equal protection by the law (Crashcourse, 2015a). Since the constitution gives people the freedom to exercise any religious practice of their choice, the government often avoid interfering with people's religious beliefs. In situations where the affected individuals are from a protected class such as a denomination, the government often loses because the judicial system uses strict scrutiny to determine the legality of the action taken by the state. As a result, the unlawful act falls under the civil case, where the government leaves the conflicting parties to solve the problem by themselves. Additionally, since the religious belief in question is against the law, the government finds it difficult to determine the legality of the behavior since the law may have been unfair to the protected class (Crashcourse, 2015b). The case of Brown versus Board of Education (347 U.S. 483) of 1954 is an example of a situation where the government has no option but to protect the social beliefs of a group breaking the law because the affected party was a protected class (Crashcourse, 2015b).

From the above discussion, it is evident that in situations where a person's religious beliefs are against the law or discriminatory to other groups, such practices are often protected by civil liberties and civil rights. As a result, the government does not have the mandate to interfere with it but to support it.

References

Crashcourse. (2015a, August 29). Equal protection: crash course government and politics #29 [Video file] Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKK5KVI9_Q8&feature=youtu.be

Crashcourse. (2015b, September 4). Sex discrimination: crash course government and politics #30 [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uFh4GTZH-U&feature=youtu.be