What does "Freedom of Religion" mean?

Has the meaning of "freedom of religion" changed over the years? Does freedom of religion mean you are free to force your religion on others through cultural laws and corporate financing in our government?

When the founding fathers of the original colonies made the first amendment what did that mean to them?

Well it was an emancipation from religion imposed by the individual states laws.

It was a decree passed down from the government that would guide all states from there on. What did freedom of religion mean to them?

Well the United States was not just a group of protestants like Rick Santorum.

In fact these protestants like Rick Santorum were some of the least respected of all religions. Why? Well it was because of an incident that happened in the United States nearly 100 years earlier.

Excerpt:
"From June through September of 1692, nineteen men and women, all having been convicted of witchcraft, were carted to Gallows Hill, a barren slope near Salem Village, for hanging. Another man of over eighty years was pressed to death under heavy stones for refusing to submit to a trial on witchcraft charges. Hundreds of others faced accusations of witchcraft; dozens languished in jail for months without trials until the hysteria that swept through Puritan Massachusetts subsided"

http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SAL_ACCT.HTM

This is not the only reason. We have the colonization of the Americas where the indigenous people were enslaved and slaughtered for their land and subjugated to religious tyrannies: American Indians, Aztec Mexicans, Northern Eskimo, Peruvians, Caribbean Islands inhabitants etc.

Freedom of Religion meant the forced indoctrination of others by any state sponsored religion became forbidden.

Is there any religion that accepts all forms of faith and practice? Not really... Only the freedom of religion. There is religion and then there is freedom of religion. Definitely not all people who believe in religion believe in freedom of religion.

Religion radicalizes people turning them into conquistadors and witch hunters, but, freedom of religion unites people into a nation that respects all others and their beliefs within reason.

Example: When one sees a parade of people dressed as Indians or as Aztec warriors marching down the street, do they whisper under their breath "Oh those pagan devil worshipers are going to hell!" Or does one marvel! And say, What colorful feathers and I hope their rain dance brings the much needed rain for our crops in the fields and our dried up riverbeds... In other words do you accept and admire the diversity or do you revel in fear and hatred toward anyone that does not meet your "religious standards and preference"?

This is not about what we profess on the outside but what we really feel on the inside... Can people not be so serious about their own religion to accept someone else's religion also?

During the revolution there were Amish, Anabaptists, the Pilgrims, Congregationalists, the church of England, Lutherans, Catholics, Methodists, Calvinists, spiritualists of all stripes, Deists, Atheists, free thinkers, Masons, many clubs, scientists, inventors. There were Jews, Muslims, Hindus and people from all lands and religions present here by the time freedom of religion became self evident. There was so much support for this freedom because we would never have been able to stand up to the church of England and its powerful influence in America had we not all banded together as a diverse group of all parties "outside" the Church of England.

So it took the support of the Mexicans and the support of the American Indians and their vote (What Rich Santorum would call "appeasers" and "heathens") all indigenous peoples and the vote of all NON church of England religions to rid the United States of England's state sponsored christian religion ruled by its king. All religions outside the church of England helped in the revolutionary war that was fought under the guise of freeing the United states from, mainly, "Christian tyranny".

So when we hear Rick Santorum talking about "his standards". We are back to Salem and the time before our emancipation from these religious zealots. We see that Rick and his powerful millionaires have forgotten or never understood the lessons of our country's past.

We are Listening to a person who vomits every time he hears the words "separation of church and state". Someone who whispers that people are going to hell under his breath just because they worship a different god than his. Rich Santorum is un-american and non patriotic and stands against the very first amendment that our founding fathers set in our declaration of Independence and bill of rights. In fact the whole republican movement and their rich corporations are the very people who tried to enslave America in the first place (conquistadors and witch hunters) where our founding fathers saw it fit to decree freedom of religion to be the most basic and fundamental right, rule and law of the land.

To say our country is founded on Judeo-Christian (Or Muslim) values is completely false. Judeo-Christian (Muslim) values are religion not freedom of religion.

Jews of the old testament used to kill and "utterly annihilate" those who did not conform to their religion and race. The crusades of both the Muslims and the Christians indicate that neither of these religions have much religious tolerance or acceptance. The Catholics have their own bloody and immoral past. These religions are still killing one another today... It is the secular movement that has ushered in unity of culture, reason, social harmony and peace. So, freedom of religion is, most generally, not a "religious" value... it is our most civilized, humanistic, cultural and fundamental moral and social American value...

Freedom of religion is the mortar that bonds the diverse foundation of the United States towards the goal of our own enlightened path.