Separation Of Church And State
The separation of the state from the church has been present in the constitution ever since it was written. The first amendment relates to a citizens freedom. This freedom does not only allow this practice speech but on thought as well. It states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” (Barton, America: To… p.15). When the constitution was formed society in general belonged to Orthodox Christian. John Quincy Adams, in a speech on July 4,1837 asked the crowd, “Why is it, that next to the birthday of the Savior of the World, your most joyous and venerated festival returns on this day?” He goes on to explain the important ties between the birthday of the nation and the birthday of Jesus Christ. He says that the Declaration of Independence was first organized on the foundation of Jesus' mission on Earth, and that the Declaration “laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity. Adams stressed that the major impact of the Revolution was that Christian principles and civil government were connected in an “indissoluble” bond. (Barton, America's p.17) Other Founding Fathers were very outspoken about Christian beliefs. John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and one of the men most responsible for the Constitution declared, “Providence(heaven) has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest, of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christian rulers.” (Barton, America's p.8)
The law always stated the seperation of the two, the actual limitation was in its implementation in the cases of Everson v. Board of Education and Engel v. Vitale, the Supreme Court uses Jefferson and Madison's Virginia Statute, a bill that both men pushed in Virginia legislature, as a basis for the intent of the 1st Amendment. Jefferson and Madison pushed for the Virginia Bill for Religious Liberty, also called the Virginia Statute. In 1978 a few lawyers got together and considered a constitutional law. The original law said that public school teachers in grades 1-6 "shall announce that a period of silence, not to exceed one minute, shall be observed for meditation." This law did not work for long, because it still allowed oral prayer in public high schools. Later in 198...
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"School Board Bans Open Forums to Prohibit a Student Group Prayer."Christ Today(February 1, 1985) 48-49.
Bosmajian, Haig. "To Pray or Not to Pray"The Humanist Magazine,(January/February, 198 5) 13-17.
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In 1971 in Mobile County Alabama the School Board created a state statute that set aside time at the beginning of each day for silent ’meditation’ (statute 6-1-20), and in 1981 they added another statute 16-1-20.1 which set aside a minute for ‘silent prayer’ as well. In addition to these, in 1982 the Mobile County School Board enacted statute 16-1-20.2, which specified a prayer that teachers could lead ‘willing’ students in “From henceforth, any teacher or professor in any public educational institution within the State of Alabama, recognizing that the Lord God is one, at the beginning of any homeroom or any class, may pray, may lead willing students in prayer, or may lead the willing students in the following prayer to God… “ (Jaffree By and Through Jaffree v. James). Ishmael Jaffree was the father of three students, Jamael Aakki Jaffree, Makeba Green, and Chioke Saleem Jaffree, who attended a school in Mobile County Alabama. Jaffree complained that his children had been pressured into participating in religious activities by their teachers and their peers, and that he had requested that these activities stopped. When the school did nothing about Jaffree’s complaints he filed an official complaint with the Mobile County School Board through the United States District Courts. The original complaint never mentioned the three state statutes that involved school prayer. However, on June 4, 1982 Jaffree changed his complaint. He now wanted to challenge the constitutionality of statutes 16-1-20, 16-1-20.1 and 16-1-20.2, and motioned for a preliminary injunction. The argument against these state laws was that they were an infringement of the Establishment Clause within the First Amendment of the Constitution, which states that Congr...
Schultz, David, and John R. Vile. The Encyclopedia of Civil Liberties in America. 710-712. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Gale Virtual Reference Library, n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2010. .
Church and State seem to be two words which are entirely inseparable from each other. Religion in politics and the government has been present since the federal government was first put into place. The issue of religion is present in such varied topics as the public school system, presidential elections, right down to the National Anthem. The fact of the matter is, Church and State are very far from being separate in the United States.
The First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States establishes religious freedom, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Against the Constitutional background, Thomas Jefferson, a Founding Father, wrote a Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom. The Bill was passed in the Virginia General Assembly in 1777. However, Jefferson thought that it was not enough to have a Constitutional provision that debars Congress from establishing a religion for all; it was equally important to separate the Church from the state to allow Religious Freedom, so that each and every one will practice their religions freely without government restrictions. Thus, he opposed the interference of the state in religious practices. Secondly, Jefferson argued that if the state was allowed to interfere with the affairs of the church it will give the government the power to persecute those who oppose its policies. The man, whose ideas and ideals have been shaped by experience and practice,...
The separation of church and state is an important concept that helps our country to continue to prosper. The people that first came over to this country left their own generally beca...
The strongest phrase in Thomas Jefferson’s 1802 letter, “…or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,…” goes to the heart of American strength. It provides the foundation upon which this nation’s strength and resolve is built. It is the groundwork laid to allow American citizens to be who they are without government interference and that freedom allows the citizens to learn and grow from each other, building the foundation with the strength of cultural and religious diversity. America was built on this foundation and it is instilled in the heart of every proud American citizen. The content of this single letter and the resultant mirrored text within the United States Constitution has not only defined the way American society functions, but has lead to the growth of the country’s diversity and power in the world as a whole. The effect of separation of church and state in the United States evolved through hard won struggles and battles, resulting in great diversity among ...
* Longley, Robert. "Public Schools Don't Have a Prayer." U.S. Gov Info/Resources n.d. 15 Nov. 2001 .
How many times have you heard the term "separation of church and state"? Some people believe these five words have not been emphasized enough and other people think the government has taken them too far. How could you take that direct quote made by the founding fathers of the United States of America too far? You couldn’t. Unquestionably, Christian beliefs, or any religious beliefs, should not play a role in United States government.
Rieff, Burt. "Conflicting Rights and Religious Liberty: The School-Prayer Controversy in Alabama, 1962-1985." Alabama Review 3(2001):163. eLibrary. Web. 31 Aug. 2011.
When the Constitution was submitted to the American public, many people complained the document had slighted God, for it contained "no recognition of his mercies to us ...or even of his existence." Religion was left out of the Constitution for two reasons: first, many delegates were committed federalists, who believed that the power to legislate on religion, if it existed at all, lay within the domain of the state, not the national, governments; second, the delegates believed that it would be a deliberate mistake to introduce such a politically controversial issue as religion into the Constitution. The only "religious clause" in the document--the proscription of religious tests as qualifications for federal office in Article Six--was intended to defuse controversy by disarming potential critics who might claim religious discrimination in eligibility for public office.
Separation of Church and State should not be judged based on ones religion, in fact it should not even matter what religion you are as long as it does not invade on other peoples rights. In the Yahoo! News article written by Lee-Anne Goodman, entitled Santorum says he doesn't believe in separation of Church and State, Republican Rick Santorum was interviewed for his response on John F. Kennedy’s speech on Separation of Church and State in 1960. Santorum, a Catholic, has been very open about the role of religion in his life and in his political beliefs. "I don't believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute," Santorum said in an interview from Michigan on ABC's "This Week” (Goodman para 2). Out of many founding fathers, John F. Kennedy actually supported absolute separation between church and state. All Kennedy was stating in the beginning of his speech was that “It is not what kind of church I believe in, for that should be important only to me -- but what kind of America I believe in” (JFK Speech). Santorum has no right to judge Kennedy’s speech in such a negative way. America is all about embracing diversity, expressing our freedom and believing in our own values.
Since the early history of our country, the protection of basic freedoms has been very important to Americans. The American voice on freedom has been shaped throughout history. The Bill of Rights was originally drawn up in June, 1789. On December 15th, 1791, the Bill of Rights were ratified and added to the United States Constitution. James Madison said that a bill of rights was good for the “tranquility of the public mind, and the stability of the government” (Burgar, Michael, 2002). Free speech and free press were most important to the drafters of the Bill of Ri...
Spaeth, Harold J. and Edward Conrad Smith. The Constitution of the United States, 13th ed. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1991 (paper). ISBN 0064671054.
Education Week talks about the freedom and practice of religion stated in the United States Constitution and how the government has altered that in their article, “Religion in Schools”. They touch base on how “under God” was taken out of the Pledge of Allegiance and elaborate how students can participate in religious clubs outside of school because of the placement of the federal Equal Access Act of 1984.
Gaylor, Annie Laurie. The Case Against School Prayer. “Keep the Church and State Forever Separate.” Madison, Wisconsin: Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc., 1995. ( www.ffrf.org/pray.html )