Ugh. Another naysayer of the 1st amendment.
Sure, many will abuse their freedom and go the way of dissipation and false worship. Others will follow God, use their giftings and give to others. Freedom tests who has true faith and who does not. But one should never denigrate this precious, precious gift which is full of God's blessing and which St. Paul continually advocated in the Epistles.
To say that the Church in the Sudan (or even France under socialism) is "thriving" nowadays is quite naive :(
Ugh. Another naysayer of the 1st amendment.
You'll notice that I was talking about Christianity and how it has thrived under persecution and how it has grown weak and flacid under freedom of religion, and that has happened many times. That says nothing about the 1st Amendment.
But, if I were to say something about it, which is this....
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.
I would say that Christianity, itself is being done no service by freedom of religion, as that's been used against it many times, including the wording "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion" -- to remove even the speaking of Christianity in government to be illegal.
That's doing Christianity no favors at all. There's nothing good about that, in terms of Christianity.
In addition to that, other religions have used it as a "hammer" on Christianity, to either get it removed from some venue -- or -- to get themselves installed in the same venue, if Christianity is there. Again, that's no favor for Christianity.
And going further, the so-called "Religion of Peace" is actually no religion at all, but is really a "governmental idealogy" which is masquereding as a religion, in order to become established enough to overthrow the government of the United States and install their own government (not "religion" and not "freedom of religion" either).
And with them, that is Islam, that should be made illegal and totally removed from this country, because it's a governmental idealogy designed specifically for the overthrow of governments around the world and establishing themselves as the governing authority and outlawing others.
So, we "allow" them in here long enough until they can overthrow us, and then we're outlawed... in the process... LOL... that's what they'll do... :-)
Sorry, in terms of Christianity and what "favor" it is to it -- from "freedom of religion" -- it hasn't been getting too much in the way of "favors" there lately and it's going to get worse -- under the "name" of freedom of religion.