Just as Louis XIV took away religious freedom in France, the Scum King from El Paso wants to do the same here in America.
I want to talk a little about the Edict of Nantes. And before you nod off, trust me, I will be brief. And clearly from the ‘shop image of the Scum King, you know I have a point to make that is relevant to today.
Some of you may already know about the Edict of Nantes and its subsequent revocation by King Louis XIV (the Sun King, not the Scum King – though, he was pretty scummy).
But for those of you who don’t, here’s the Readers Digest condensed version.
In the late sixteenth century, King Henry IV of France signed the Edict of Nantes. This edict effectively permitted religious freedom in France. Prior to it, Protestants – the Huguenots as they were called – were considered heretics. But with the Edict of Nantes, religions would not be the prevue of the State. In other words, by royal decree, the French of all religions were granted civil rights.
The problem, of course, was it was a royal decree. And when rights are bestowed by the State, they can be taken away by the State whenever the King feels like it.
What the State giveth, the State can taketh away.
And that’s exactly what Louis XIV did. He revoked the edict of Nantes – slowly at first starting in 1661, but then completely with the Edict of Fontainebleau in 1685.
The Protestants who for nearly a hundred years enjoyed civil rights found themselves once again the subject of persecution.
They were forced to convert to Catholicism or face punitive action from the State.
And as Louis liked to remind everyone, “L’etat, c’est moi.”
Churches were destroyed, their pastors expelled from France (if not outright executed).
Protestants were barred from leaving for more tolerant places like Holland. So if you refused to convert, you were stripped of your property, your children would be taken from you and forced to be raised Catholic. And of course, imprisonment and execution were on the table as well.
Doctors or lawyers could not practice unless a priest certified that they were a Catholic in good standing.
Though not permitted to leave of their own accord, many Protestants were forcibly placed on ships and exiled to the American colonies.
Sure, you could still have Civil Rights in France so long as you were Catholic.
This sort of State-imposed religion was common in Europe. From the persecution of
Catholics in Protestant countries to the persecution of Protestants in Catholic countries — Europe did not brook dissent from the State’s preferred religion.
Catholics in Protestant countries to the persecution of Protestants in Catholic countries — Europe did not brook dissent from the State’s preferred religion.
So it is any surprise that when forming our system of government, the Founders enshrined religious freedom in our Bill of Rights?
You think those guys were ignorant of recent European history?
You think they didn’t know that many settlers to the Americas were there to escape religious persecution?
That was the very backdrop that gave us the First Amendment’s freedom of religion.
We established a government that inherently recognizes the unalienable Rights of its citizens.
Unalienable.
Not Rights granted by the State, but Rights that exist regardless of the State.
Unalienable Rights can’t be given or taken away.
They cannot be infringed.
But apparently Robert Francis O’Rourke doesn’t know that.
He wants to treat our First Amendment religious freedom with the same disregard that Louis XIV treated the Edict of Nantes.
And for Beto XIV, the Scum King, if your faith does not conform to the State you will face punitive action from the State.
This is at the heart of what Beto declared at last night’s absurd CNN town hall (AKA Transpander Fest).
Democrat presidential candidate Robert Francis O'Rourke says that he will take away the tax-exempt status of churches if they do not believe in same-sex marriage pic.twitter.com/CcHyiUVCAs— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) October 11, 2019
And apparently “there can be no” religious freedom. So says the Scum King.
Though, I’m sure that sounds better in the original French.
Just think of this as Beto’s Edict of Fountainebleau.
Conform to the religion approved by the State, or face the State’s wrath.
But the First Amendment is not a government-granted Right that can be ignored or revoked on the whim of a tyrant.
Neither is the Second Amendment for that matter.
But like most on the Left, the Scum King doesn’t understand that.
For the Left, Rights come from the State. And what the State bestows, it can easily take away.
We fought a Revolution to free us from crap like this.
And yet here we are again with wannabe tyrants and their sycophantic clapping seals and media court jesters reveling in dragging a once free people back into tyranny.
Anyone who has been paying attention over the last couple decades shouldn’t be surprised about this at all. The only thing that’s changed is now they’ve become so emboldened that they’re saying the quiet parts out loud.