Do you value your 1st Amendment rights?

Legal & Second Amendment
21

I wasn’t sure if my comment was clear… gotta love text. :smiley: I’m never offended when people ask for clarification. In fact, I appreciate the question and not assuming what I may have meant. Some days words just don’t flow well. :stuck_out_tongue:

I agree with what you’re saying. I think it’s the right to assemble that is being abused - we can only assemble in big box stores, not in churches, small businesses, the beach, etc. And it’s being abused on a bigger scope than religion.

To @Todd30’s point, how are the amendments kept in check? There are legal channels for address when they’re abused, there are peaceful protest options, there are also violent protest options. Do we wait for the government to overstep their bounds and then file suit in court to establish more solid guidelines and precedents? Should they be monitored/enforced by the public?

It’s a very slippery slope trying to figure out where that edge of the protection of the amendments is.

I’m guessing we would all say that there is an end to the rights (hate speech, yelling fire in a crowded room)… but is that end solid or moving? (Sorry, I could go on about this topic for days and days…)

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Dawn, I would like to take your comment where you go to Todd30’s point. My big fear is that too many people have lost faith in the courts to make the constitutional decision. That means if “we” lose in the courts such as going up in the 9th circuit, how do we put together the time, effort, and more importantly, money, to fight a government with unlimited resources, under the hope that the SCOTUS agrees to hear the case.

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DawnCommunity Manager

“I think it’s the right to assemble that is being abused - we can only assemble in big box stores, not in churches, small businesses, the beach, etc. And it’s being abused on a bigger scope than religion.”

I totally agree that this is t being threatened during this whole coronavirus thing.

Yes, it’s a much bigger issue than religion. The Government is telling people where and why they can assemble which I believe is a violation of this right.

Greg1

Jerzy

This statement I 100% agree with

" The most important thing is that the choice was made by the church and its leaders rather than the government. "

Jerzy

I read the article.

Are you Polish? Were you actually in the city of Wroclaw when this happened?

This story is inspiring only 7 people died during a modern Smallpox outbreak because of vaccination and isolation.

Thanks for posting the story.

The beautiful thing about America is we all have the right to have our own opinion and our own voice. Thank you for sharing your perspective.

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You are right Wade5 The PTB has effectively dumb ed down our society and brain washed the upcoming generation through the education,system,and dont even teach the history as my generation knows it.I will not consent to the tracing or vaccination and if they try force I will go down as a free person and will not be a slave on my knees,and if i do go down it will hopefully be very costly to them

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This may be weird but some people keep big beautiful books of trees or flowers or architecture on their coffee tables. I keep a hard bound copy of the United States Constitution.
These days it requires referencing after every news report, fact checking if you will. All the Blue Governors seem to be Communists, am I wrong?
What Blue people don’t understand completely, is you can’t have the First without the Second.
So, yes I value all parts of the 1st Amendment and swore an oath to protect it with the 2nd Amendment.

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@Jonathan4, yes, I’m Polish. Wroclaw’s epidemic happened before I was born. But this story was brought to my attention several times when I lived in Poland. Perhaps it was communist’s announcement how great was communist healthcare, but whole Europe was under impression. If that epidemic wouldn’t be shut down within short period of time, there would have been similar consequences to Covid-19 :mask:

My biggest fear was in 1986. I was 500 miles away from Chernobyl :radioactive:

I’m glad you liked the story :+1:

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27

Dawn,dont know if you heard about this,but in Odesa,Texas a woman opened her Business because she was about to lose it and the sheriff called out the swat team and and arrested the woman and the people that were outside with weapons,and they were legally there and broke no law,So OPEN CARRY Texas are staging a protest June 6th and requesting every one to be armed and ready to refuse being arrested,this very well could be another shot heard around the world,the armored had what looked like a MA DUECE (50 cal machine gun) and pointed directly at the citizens

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Layton

Are you talking about this story?

If this is what you’re talking about and if the article is accurate then the men were arrested for having guns on the property where alcohol was being sold.

I don’t go to bars carrying my gun. Alcohol and firearms don’t mix.

In many places, it is against the law to carry a gun into a bar or any place where alcohol is being served.

The 1st Amendment protects our right to protest and It is legal to open carry while protesting.

However, I would stay on the sidewalk because entering a bar while armed may be against the law. Check your local listings.

I would NOT resist arrest that is risky and to resist arrest while carrying a gun is unwise. The smart thing to do is allow them to arrest you and call your attorney.

29

If police are threatened, they will be justified in use of force. This is not the way.

Odessa,TX is a small town, isn’t it. Everyone knows everyone. If police mistreated small business owners like this, let their families starve, maybe all commercial establishments in Odessa should refuse service to police and their families. Keep it up until the sheriff is out of office, replaced by a more reasonable person. This is a community feedback, no threats, nothing illegal.

30

Wow! Sounds like I will be alive for the revolution. Not young but alive.

31

Perhaps I am very much in the minority here, but it seems we are confusing the purpose of the local church compared to places like WalMart.
Churches are places where people operate in community with one another. Since the days of Christianity, believers gathered together, worshiped together, shared time, food, and labor together. It seems that some feel as if church is simply a place where we go to sing and get a lecture.
When a church is shut down and all services go online, that is NOT church. Small groups are the life’s breath for a church. To block that is to block the church.

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This is example how we should fight for lives before we fight for our rights:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/2020/04/what-new-zealand-did-right-in-battling-coronavirus/

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  1. Not often enough for my own desires, but within the past year.
  2. Freedom of religion. My faith comes first.
  3. Absolutely.
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We need to bear in mind that what may work in a small country with well-defined, closable borders often does not translate well to very large country with long, tangled borders.

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And the Hong Kong flu of 1969 was far more dangerous and we did not shut down. We can see South Dakota did not shut down and has at least as good a result as any state.

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What are the Five Rights contained in the First Amendment?

How many can actually answer that question.

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Kevin29

Good question.

  1. The right to practice your religion
  2. The right to assemble
  3. The right to freedom of speech
    4.The right of the press
  4. The right to petition the government.
  5. I would add in the right to protest which is a combination of 3+5
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38
  1. I never stopped. As long as I remember I’ve thought of laws and morality in terms of the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
  2. All of them, as well as the complete document and all ten of the amendments. It’s not a “pick and choose” kind of thing. And I know that’s not what you meant. But I just don’t think in those terms. You either adhere to the the Constitution and Bill of Rights or you don’t. You don’t get to do it selectively and still claim to respect the document. It’s not a cafeteria where you can only pick the pie you want and don’t have to eat your green beans.
  3. More so than ever. Ask the people in CA that wanted to get the signatures to try and recall the governor but were disallowed the freedom to peaceably to assemble by his standing army.

Kate

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39

Absolutely. I heard one governor (I think NJ) say, “We have to find a new way to worship!” He doesn’t get to tell me that. The document is really quite clear.

I’m not even sure I have a problem with the government exercising emergency powers in a limited fashion where something like this could be done. I am absolutely positive that I am vehemently opposed to it being done without the legislative and judicial branches being involved, being open ended and completely up to a member of the “royalty”, and being enforced by a standing army.

[Hebrews 10:24-25] - And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Tag, you’re it! I was raised on the KJV, went astray, and came back to the NIV about six years ago. Anybody can find biblical scripture to support almost any position. Ever read the book of Joshua?

How about Hebrews 8:11? No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.

I don’t believe you can pick verses out of the Bible to support a position. You have to understand what He meant in the whole. Maybe it is our destiny to be slaughtered in the streets like Jews were in Germany. But I can’t see it in me to bow the need and expose my neck.

Further, the ONLY people Jesus ever had harsh words for (beyond the occasional annoyance with the disciples inability to comprehend His message) were representatives of the government. I think that the 1st Amendment is an EXCELLENT example of following in His footsteps.

However, I am kind of a cranky old woman :slight_smile:

Kate

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40

Texas_Kate

We were talking about Hebrews 10:24 last Sunday during church.

Your right you can use the Bible to justify almost any argument and the devil quoted scripture when he tempted CHRIST. Personally I don’t believe church should have ever been canceled because of the virus. However, a lot of churches submitted and I shared the verse that supported the decision.

Yes, I have read Joshua I used to teach adult Sunday School and was on my way to being an ordained minister at one point. I was raised on KJV but transferred to NIV long ago.

As to your other point If were here when the antichrist comes then we will be persecuted for our faith and thrown in jail for going to church or killed.

So far the USA is nowhere near that point. Part of why the 1 is so vital is because it protects our right to worship GOD.

I prepared a message on " 7 Principles for avoiding Fights and Arguments I found in the Bible"

One of the principles is submitting to those in authority.

I don’t want to turn this into a biblical debate because that was not the point of the thread.

Stephen22

" Churches are places where people operate in a community with one another. Since the days of Christianity, believers gathered together, worshiped together, shared time, food, and labor together. It seems that some feel as if the church is simply a place where we go to sing and get a lecture.
When a church is shut down and all services go online, that is NOT the church. Small groups are the life’s breath for a church. To block that is to block the church."

Blockquote

Stephen

I believe the local church was ordained to help feed the homeless, help clothe the naked, and help the sick. I believe the local church was especially meant to do this for the people in their community.

The church is also meant to be a place where you worship GOD by singing, eating together, listening to a message, and encouraging each other to do the right thing.

In my eyes listening to a lecture and singing a couple of songs are not the point.

Experiencing GOD is the purpose of the church.

But I am not normal.

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