Our precious first amendment is being shredded

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;" The first phrase of the first amendment of our Bill of Rights, ratified Dec. 15, 1791. So speech, press and assembly all rest on this one--freedom of religion without government interference. We take religion so lightly in the 21st century, but our founders didn't. In the European countries from which they and their forefathers came, one's religion depended on the Monarch. When Henry VIII wanted to divorce his wife, the whole country had to become Anglican, and when his daughter Mary took the throne, they became Catholic again. Then Calvin's ideas infected the Anglicans and those people became Puritans resulting in a civil war; Knox influenced Anglicans and they became Congregationalist and eventually they all ended up across the pond so our founders needed to take steps that all had freedom of religion, not just one or whoever was pleasing to a central government.

Hillary Clinton has said publicly a number of times that we must change cultural norms and religious doctrines as they concern sexuality and abortion. But sexual freedom and gender are not in the Bill of Rights, not even the 19th, which specifically applies to women voting; and religion is. There is no criteria for gender identity except feelings; it is not based on biology, science, religion or law. Changes in the meaning of the word sex were made in the back rooms of the federal bureaucracy by Obama's LGBTQ staffers in 2012 (around the same time they convinced him to rule on gay marriage). Americans never had any say in this.

Massachusetts has passed a law taking effect October 1 that restricts churches to having only worship events in their buildings unless they have transgender bathrooms. Violators will be jailed. Think of all the festivals, day care, voter registration, weddings, funerals, debate matches, home schooling events, public concerts, ESL classes, and food pantries that churches now have open to the public that are not worship. Someone needs to sue the state of Massachusetts for violating the First Amendment rights of its citizens.

Large or recently built churches often have a handicap, family, or one stall restroom for which they can slap a sign on the door to meet government sex police standards, but why should they have to, and what about older, smaller buildings?