It has been established that the United States compared to other developing nations is exceptionally a religious country. Additionally socialists have held that individuals whose lives is at risk are more likely to be religious, thus countries with high degree of poverty are more religious than wealthier nations, this is contrary to America situation. America is home to various religions such as Christianity, Islamic, Jewish, Mormons, Buddhists, Hinduism among others.
From the American constitution, the First Amendment clearly states that the Congress should at no time come up with laws respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise of thereof. This means that all religions were free to speak, engage in activities that suit them provided they do not infringe on the freedom and rights of others without necessarily being watched by the government. This was aimed at fostering freedom and religious equality.
It has been argued that due to differing cultures, norms, beliefs and values, it would not be possible to attain religious equality. If the government were to ensure that there is religious equality, then the uniqueness of each religion will be lost. The task of this essay is to establish whether it is possible or not to have religious equality in America. This will be derived from the movie Aimee Semple McPherson.
It is worth noting that the movie is a tale of the life of an America woman who was famous with faith healing evangelisms. She started her own church known as the Four Square Gospel. The film clearly shows the two sides of the coin of the famous pastor. Aimee is named Semple after she got married to Robert Semple who was a Pentecostal preacher who later died of malaria while they were in China.
Aimee later married Mac McPherson. Her quest to preach resulted in healing of the congregation. This was not taken well by her husband Mac and the two parted ways. Aimee started her ministry where it grew rapidly due to a radio station she owned.
At one time, Aimee disappeared and it was rumored that she was cohabiting with the chief radio engineer who was a married and handsome man. She later emerged refuting the claims saying that she was kidnapped and taken to Mexico. The case was later dropped since the prosecutor failed to prove the case against Aimee.
Closer analyses of the events reveal that Aimee’s mother was not very concerned about her daughter who was missing. Indeed it is depicted that on numerous occasions, she plotted to take control of the church but failed. Additionally instead of the public particularly media houses to ascertain their claims, they wrote bad things about Aimee while indeed she might have been kidnapped and tortured.
This is what still happens today in both big and small churches in the world including America. People are fighting to gain control of the church particularly when there is huge sum of monies involved.
Interestingly, it is worth mentioning that when her husband, Mac left her because he could not take the issue of religion in his family, this clearly depicts that the issue of religious equality cannot be realized. Equality means that no one will despise the other person; however this is not the case.
From the review of the issue of religious equality in America, it is evident that despite the fact that the constitution clearly states that there is religious freedom, there are cases of some quotas being treated unfairly particularly when they flourish and prosper. To that effect, I don’t think that it is possible to have religious equality in America.