Michael Novak Quotes

A just laicism allows religious freedom. The state does not impose religion but rather gives space to religions with a responsibility toward civil society, and therefore it allows these religions to be factors in building up society.

I beg you be persuaded that no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny, and every species of religious persecution.

The state authorities have no place in the church of God, no right to control and persecute the conscience.

Christianity has sufficient inner strength to survive and flourish on its own. It does not need state subsidies, nor state privileges, nor state prestige. The more it obtains state support, the greater it curtails human freedom.

Congress should not establish a religion and enforce the legal observation of it by law, nor compel men to worship God in any manner contrary to their conscience, or that one sect might obtain a pre-eminence, or two combined together, and establish a religion to which they would compel others to conform

Religious liberty signifies the power of exercising, without molestation, that mode of religion which we think best, or of making the decisions of our own consciences respecting religious truth, the rule of our conduct, and not any of the decisions of our fellowmen

Freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom.

Religious freedom is often referred to as America's first freedom. Our country was founded by religious exiles and built on the belief that God has given all people certain inalienable rights. Government's role in society is to protect these rights and ensure that we are safe from religious persecution and discrimination.

The disconnection of Church and State was a master stroke for freedom and harmony.

Those who accept freedom of religion as a right are obligated by this acceptance to take the maintenance of freedom of religion as a duty.

You cannot drag a man's conscience before any tribunal, and no one is answerable for his religious opinions to any power on earth.

Most conservative atheists I know, including myself, have a really healthy respect for the role of religion in society and this country, in particularly.

In the public realm, secularism should not concede a single inch to religious intrusions.

Religious freedom sits at the core of who we are as Americans.

When they have opened a gap in the ... wall of separation between the Garden of the Church and the wildernes of the world, God hath ever ... made his Garden a Wildernesse.

Men's consciences ought in no sort to be violated, urged, or constrained.

It is curious that atheists have proved to be so intolerant of those who have a faith.

People of faith should not invoke the power of the state to decide what everyone can believe or think or read or do. In such cases, like abortion or prayer or prohibition or sexual identity, the proper role of religion is to appeal to the free conscience of each person, not the coercive rule of secular law.

While we are contending for our own liberty, we should be very cautious not to violate the conscience of others, ever considering that God alone is the judge of the hearts of men, and to Him only in this case are they answerable.

We are a people of faith. We have been so secure in that faith that we have enshrined in our Constitution protection for people who profess no faith. And good for us for doing so. That is what the First Amendment is all about.

Freedom of religion has been replaced by freedom from religion.

Religious liberty is about freedom of action in matters of religion generally, and the scope of that liberty is directly correlated to the civil restraints placed upon religious practice.

The Constitution does not guarantee freedom of worship - it guarantees freedom of religion. And this is what I call America's first freedom...

Religious freedom is a fundamental human right.

All of our effort should be focused on protecting the religious liberties and freedom of conscience for those Americans that profoundly disagree with the decision.