Summer 2000 has been a time of relentless religion in the news and politics, with Jefferson’s “wall of separation” alternately being lowered and raised again during constant state/church skirmishes. The Freedom From Religion Foundation enjoyed a sweet victory at the end of May, winning its significant federal lawsuit against state entanglement with the Christian “Marriage Savers” agenda. On June 10 the constitutional principle of separation of church and state took a symbolic blow with a “Jesus Day” proclamation by Gov. George Bush. (We thought every day was Jesus Day in Texas. See story page 3.) In mid-June separationists exulted when the U.S. Supreme Court issued a solid 6-3 decision reaffirming its 40-year precedent against worship in public schools, in a case involving “student-initiated” Texas football prayers. It was not a surprise, but it was gratifying to see such a lopsided vote.
The intemperate dissent by Chief Justice William Rehnquist, complaining the majority decision bristled “with hostility to all things religious in public life,” was unfortunately a presage of worse to come. Along came the 5-4 ruling permitting Boy Scouts to discriminate against gay members, with its obvious impact on atheist Scouts.
Then on June 28, the Supreme Court issued a 6-3 ruling disastrously opening the door to unprecedented public hand-outs to religious schools. The decision by Justice Clarence Thomas could be said to bristle with hostility to all things secular. In late June the U.S. House voted overwhelmingly to lend support to Ohio’s New Testament state motto, “With God, all things are possible,” which had been declared unconstitutional earlier this year. In July, not to be outdone by the ignorance of the Colorado State School Board, the U.S. House passed by voice vote a resolution calling on our public schools to display the words “In God We Trust.”
These actions are without teeth, but signal the alarming willingness of spineless officials to sacrifice the Establishment Clause for pious political expediency. As Foundation member and attorney Robert R. Tiernan points out in his astute article “Triple Trouble in the Federal Courts” (page 4), what separationists need are some laws with teeth in them holding public officials accountable for violating the separation of church and state, namely the Kentucky and Indiana legislatures, which just passed laws to display the Ten Commandments in schools. Encouraging rulings so far are striking down such attempts, but it is dismaying to witness the religious hype. Most threatening is the constant push to expand public funding of and “partnerships” with what are euphemistically referred to as “faith-based organizations.”
Proposed public subsidy of vouchers, religious schools and organizations is the ripest threat of all. In his passionate “Memorial and Remonstrance” against a broad Virginia proposal to support “the Christian Religion,” James Madison warned that “it is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties.” Twenty-first century Establishment Clause incursions have gone far beyond the experimentation stage. The alarm bells are ringing. –Annie Laurie Gaylor
