The religion clauses in the First Amendment have been challenged many times in the United States Supreme Court. How does understanding Thomas Jefferson's Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom and Dallin H. Oaks, "Religion in Public Life" help us define religious freedom and what our role is in protecting it?

The American people have the right to freedom of religion and they have the right to defend that freedom.

“The preservation of religious freedom depends upon public understanding of and support for this vital freedom. It depends upon the value the public attaches to the teachings of right and wrong in churches, synagogues, and mosques. Believers and nonbelievers must be helped to understand that it is faith in God—however defined—that translates religious teachings into the moral behavior that benefits the nation.” As members we understand that the United States needed to be a place without an established state religion in order for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to be founded, but that doesn't mean that religious beliefs and their influence should subsequently be banned from public life.”

People today have the right to know their rights so when confronted with issues regarding religious freedom they can be properly prepared.

The founding fathers came to America for religious freedom and defended that with their lives in the revolutionary war. So it only makes sense that people today need to be educated in their civil rights. So they can know what is and not a violation of their civil rights.

The definition of religious freedom is 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 re dress of grievances. So to me that is saying the people of the right to worship the way they choose without the government dictating what they can or can’t believe. It’s also the right of every American to defend the freedom to worship for that is the freedom this country was built on.

So in conclusion the separation of church and state gives the people the right to worship the way they choose. The founding fathers build this nation on the bases of freedom of religion. So it makes sense people of today need to be educated on their civil rights so they can defend the right to free worship. The separation of church and state gives the people the confidence knowing the government can’t force their own religious practices on them. Separation of church and state also protects the people from being oppressed or abused for their religious practices or killed in the name of religion.