nor prohibiting the 'free exercise thereof' . . .

"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 redress of grievances."

--The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America (protecting freedom of religion and freedom of speech to include freedom of the press)

I am a military chaplain. I do not say that I am a military chaplain in order to advance a partisan political cause. My views find a home in both the Democrat and the Republican Parties. I am in correspondence with both Democrats and Republicans. I am a Chaplain in the Army Reserves in order to INSURE that the religious freedom of U.S. soldiers is FULLY respected. Whether it is the necessity of attending Catholic mass, the practice of Islamic Friday prayer or the practice of speaking in tongues as part of Christian worship (Pentecostal), I am to insure the 'free exercise' of religion. I am also a military chaplain at a time in our Nation's history in which this second provision of the First Amendment is under attack from BOTH sides of the political spectrum.

The liberal anti-Constitutionalist wishes to eradicate all expressions of religion in the public sphere, which is a violation of the 1st Amendment due to this intrinsically 'prohibiting the free exercise thereof' of religious expression, part of which IS public. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the U.S. Civil Rights movement of the 1960's WELL-demonstrated the need for such PROPHETIC political witness (pressure even) that is necessary for our "polis," (i.e. our government at the Federal, State and Local levels) to be critically scrutinized for potential abuses of power.

The conservative anti-Constitutionalist similarly wishes to eradicate the free exercise of religion. Rather than limiting "other religions," however, usually the conservative anti-Constitutionalist will either subtly or directly pressure fellow Christians to not fully practice the tenets of their respective faith, whether it is limiting Mennonites who wish to remain pacifists (abuses perpetrated against Indiana Mennonite farmers during WW I) OR limiting Trinitarian prayer in the public sphere. To limit the free exercise of religion (with some exceptions that would necessarily violate laws protecting children, animal cruelty, etc) would therefore be anti-Constitutional, and there in turn, anti-American.

No, rather than being an anti-Constitutionalist, of either the Liberal or the Conservative stripe, as a citizen of the United States (and as an Officer in the United States Army), I am to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America, the founding document that has maintained the structural and political integrity of due political and judicial process, albeit imperfectly, but nonetheless powerfully for the past two centuries. To not support the Constitution is to be un-American, and Thank God, I have been BLESSED to be born into a Republic although imperfect, is nonetheless vitally committed to upholding such moral ideals.

God bless,
Rob J King