Cardinal Mahony, left, and religious leaders, from left, Nirinjin Singh Khalsa, Rabbi Harold Schulweis, Khalil Momand, Rt. Reverend Alexei Smith, Swami Sarvadevananda and Reverend Leonard B. Jackson prepare to begin an interfaith ceremony to bless new Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels on December 13, 2002, in downtown Los Angeles.

Washington – When William J. Bratton was sworn-in as police chief of the city of Los Angeles in 2002, the ceremony featured an interfaith blessing bestowed by a diverse group of religious leaders. Buddhist monks chanted, a Presbyterian choir sang and a rabbi read from Scripture. "Be just and remain conscious of God," Imam Ashraf Carrim told Bratton.

That diversity, a commonplace feature in American life, reflects the very first words in the U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof …."

Each year, the president proclaims January 16 as Religious Freedom Day. The day is the anniversary of the passage, in 1786, of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, written by Thomas Jefferson.

Americans are a religious people. A solid majority pray every day and nearly half attend religious services at least weekly — but, consistent with principles established even before the United States secured its independence, they typically view faith as a freedom reserved to individuals, regardless of their particular beliefs, and one protected from government interference.

A HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

Many early immigrants to the English North American colonies were dissenters from the official state religions of their home countries. A number of the colonies thus enshrined freedom of worship from their very founding, while efforts in others to establish official religions were overwhelmed by the sheer diversity of the newcomers. Americans from the earliest colonists typically numbered religious freedom among their highly prized personal liberties, along with the right to self-government and economic opportunity.

By the time of the American Revolution, the 13 states were adopting constitutions that specified the limits of government power. Virginia’s, on which several of the others were modeled, provided that "all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience." Three years later, Virginia expanded this protection by separating church and state. Not only were Virginians free to worship as they chose, their decision could not be used to limit their civil rights. The 1779 Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, drafted by Jefferson, guaranteed that "all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities."

In 1791, when the U.S. Constitution was amended to limit more explicitly federal power, the First Amendment barred the federal government from establishing a religion or from adopting any law limiting religious freedom: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

From time to time, legal controversies require the courts to interpret this guarantee. Sometimes the issue is whether a federal activity "establishes" even indirectly a particular faith or religion. The Supreme Court of the United States thus has ruled on whether public school policy permitting student-led, student-initiated prayer at football games violates the First Amendment (it does) and whether a public school could bar only religion-themed student groups from meeting on school grounds (it could not).

Disputes raising the "free exercise" of religion usually involve conduct that violates a law but is required by some denomination. The U.S. Supreme Court, for instance, has allowed Amish Mennonites acting in accordance with their religious beliefs to remove their children from school after the eighth grade (about age 14) even when a state law required attendance until age 16. On the other hand, the court also has upheld laws that criminalize the use of certain drugs even where some religions require their use. The justices usually weigh the government’s “interest” in requiring or prohibiting certain behavior against how much those restrictions “burden” the practice of religion.

AMERICA AS A LAND OF RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY

Rana Abdallah, 14, and Annie Rose London, 16, talk at the Palisades Emergency Residence Corporation, a 40-bed shelter for single homeless people, in Union City, New Jersey, January 3, 2006. Abdallah, a Muslim, and London, a Jew, are part of a group of about 20 Muslim and Jewish girls who have been meeting since May to help set up a shelter for homeless families.

The American traditions of individual freedom and tolerance have accommodated a remarkable variety of religious practices and beliefs. Although about four of five Americans identify themselves as Christian, even this majority encompasses many denominations, among them Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran and Methodist — some of which have further divided into subgroups even as movements like fundamentalism and evangelicalism transcend denominational differences. Other religions, including Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism thrive in the United States. About 8 percent of Americans describe themselves as nonreligious, secular or atheist.

Given the atmosphere of religious freedom, it is not surprising that a number of denominations originated in the United States. During the Revolutionary War, American Anglicans broke with the Church of England to found the Episcopal Church. Mormonism, Seventh-day Adventism and the Church of Christ, Scientist, are all 19th century American offshoots of Christianity.

The Nation of Islam, a black Muslim group, dates to the 1930s, and both Conservative (Masorti) and Reform Judaism developed in the United States from European roots, while Reconstructionist Judaism was founded here.

Relations between religions and denominations often are cooperative and close. On Christmas Day 2005, hundreds of Jewish, Muslim, Hindu and Baha’i volunteers took the place of Christian workers at Washington hospitals and other nonprofit organizations, allowing the Christians to spend their holiday with family.

One week later, a Kansas City, Missouri, area Buddhist Center held an interfaith ceremony featuring Tibetan chanting and prayer, Sufi meditation and a Muslim call to prayer. A Protestant pastor was the featured speaker, and two Roman Catholic nuns received the Bodhisattva Award, honoring enlightened persons who work for the benefit of others.

In Northern New Jersey, a group of Muslim and Jewish girls meet jointly to work on charitable projects, and help staff a local homeless shelter. “I made new friends,” said one 14-year-old participant, “and I was able to interact with other people and do something good for society.”

In January, New York state and Washington food banks reported sharp increases in the amounts of meat donated for distribution, attributing the generosity to Muslim Americans helping the less fortunate during Eid al-Adha. A few weeks earlier, New York City’s Sikh community hosted an interfaith Thanksgiving feast. Guests did not have to travel far: the Flushing, New York, Sikh center is located across the street from a synagogue, and a short walk from a Protestant Chinese church. Representatives of the local Hindu, Muslim and Buddhist communities also attended the celebration.

Some American congregations even have elected to share or build jointly their houses of worship. In Ann Arbor, Michigan, the Genesis of Ann Arbor center houses both Reform Jewish Temple Beth Emeth, and the Episcopalian Saint Clare of Assisi Church. In Bethesda, Maryland, the Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church and Bethesda Jewish Congregation have a similar arrangement.

In a nation where individual liberty encompasses the freedom to worship as one chooses, denominational differences pale in the face of common values. On January 16, Religious Freedom Day in the United States commemorates the values Americans of faith hold in common, and the distinctiveness that enriches them all.

See the Library of Congress online exhibition “Religion and the Founding of the American Republic.” Also see “Keeping the Promise of Religious Freedom” and “U.S. Religious Landscape is Marked by Diversity and Change.”