Religious entities benefit from being in America. In most cases they enjoy 501(c)(3) nonprofit status. This means Catholics, Protestants,
Mormons, Muslims and all other churches, synagogues, temples and mosques do not pay taxes.
Religious entities are also privileged to promote their religion. This is a good thing for our country. Our forefathers and thousands of Americans have paid the price in effort and blood to guarantee our country this privilege.
The Muslim religion has grown dramatically in this country. From September 11, 2001 until 2010 Muslims grew from one million to 2.6 million followers according to the US Religion Census of 2010. The data was collected by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies and released by the Association of Religion Data Archives. The report is available on the ARDA website. During the same time frame, followers of the Christian faith diminished. The number of people in our country who do not align themselves with any religion was reported to be up to 158 million people. This was the fastest growing group during the same timespan.
I am not aware of any church or religion that teaches that our country or flag should be worshiped. However, every religious entity should stand up for this country, salute our flag and be united in protecting this nation.
When I was a child we often said the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag in Bible school. Part of our worship was respecting and paying tribute to our nation.
All religious groups including Muslims should cry out against ISIS and Sharia law. There is no room in this nation for the mistreatment of people. This includes all people.
Militant Islam, discrimination, Sharia law and hurting other people must be forbidden in this country. We could even go a little further with this. What about churches who forbid women to speak and will not allow the divorced to serve? Christian churches have been offenders of discrimination for centuries.
The practice of religion is the opportunity to promote a faith that helps mankind. We've had enough hurt in this country from discrimination to mistreating our own citizens. While we have come a long way in this nation we must continue to be vigilant to maintain a free and safe America.
If we don't all get on board and help each other protect this nation we could lose all of our religious freedoms. We could also lose any other freedom for which hundreds of thousands of Americans have died.
Dr. Glenn Mollette is an American columnist and author. He is read in all 50 states. He is a graduate of Georgetown College, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Lexington Theological Seminary and Newburgh Theological Seminary. The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily representative of any other group, organization or this publication.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Religious Entities Must Protect Our Freedom or lose our freedom