(From the Janesville Messenger, 2-18-07)
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” – First Amendment of United States Constitution, 1789
"Erecting the 'wall of separation between church and state'...is absolutely essential in a free society." - Thomas Jefferson, 1808
Recent local events have gotten me to thinking about the concept known as “the separation of church and state.”
It is clear the Founding Fathers did not want the USA to be like England, with a national church that held governmental power. Unfortunately, the wording of the amendment – and Jefferson’s later explanation of it - has led to two unintended consequences. First, that public officials – particularly schools – now run and hide from anything even remotely smelling of religious significance because of fear of lawsuits. Second, that conservative religious groups decry even the reasonable intentions of the measure and declare that America is becoming a godless, atheistic society.
Two recent school-related decisions bear out the first point. After the tragic murder of Janesville Parker High School student Nicole Lentz, it was suggested that the high school choir – in which Nicole participated – should perform at the funeral. The school said no. A prepared statement by Principal Dale Carlson stated, "The district believes it is not appropriate for a school choir to perform at a funeral service that includes a religious focus and is held in a church.” Fortunately, more than 50 individual choir members stepped forward and volunteered to sing. But it’s still sad that a sweet, touching gesture at a tragic time was initially refused.
Ironically, Jefferson himself regularly attended Sunday religious services held in the House of Representatives. Jefferson believed the services did not violate the Constitution because they were ecumenical and voluntary. In Parker’s case, the school could have offered choir members the option of declining participation. But still, what heartless slug would have sued the school?
Then there is Milton High School’s recent cancellation of an assembly featuring “The Power Team.” Rather than being lectured about making good life choices by guys in suits, the Power Team gets its message across to students with feats of strength, like ripping license plates in half. Schools in which they have appeared rave about the effectiveness of their program. However, this group also appears in churches and has a ministry that goes beyond their basic message of good choices and brings young people to God. Even though the Power Team’s web site clearly states that their school assemblies make no mention of religion, Milton’s lawyers told them not to take their chances. There went another missed opportunity for young people who need to hear positive messages.
When these things happen, you of course hear the backlash that the United States is going to Hell because we have eschewed our Christian beginnings. But have we? Witness this statement from 1797’s Treaty of Tripoli, approved by President John Adams and ratified unanimously by the Senate: "As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion..."
Recently, I received an e-mail from the American Center for Law and Justice, a group of lawyers that lobby for religious rights in government. They were frothing because one of the sections of a lobbying reform bill in Congress would force churches and religious organizations to register as lobbyists if they spend at least $50,000 per quarter (!) to influence legislation. Of course, this group was ranting that such a law would silence Christians and muzzle free speech. Have you ever heard of a lobbyist being silenced?
The ACLJ even stated that the new law would have “stopped Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. from gathering support for the Civil Rights Act of 1964.” (If you want to legitimize your cause, always invoke the name of God or Martin Luther King.) To which one commentator astutely responded, King endured beatings and imprisonment in his civil rights crusade - do you think registering as a lobbyist and filing quarterly reports would have bothered him in the least?
Regardless, the ACLJ’s efforts succeeded in the U.S. Senate, where the provision was removed from the bill. But religious groups have long complained about being unjustly shut out of government, and politicians have not been amused. Witness this quote from Thomas Jefferson in 1800: “The clergy...believe that any portion of power confided to me [as President] will be exerted in opposition to their schemes.”
We need to recognize that “freedom of religion” and “separation of church and state” are a two-way street. Going to either extreme doesn’t advance the cause of the nation, the church, or its people. My personal hope is that extremism recedes and reason wins the day.
Then maybe someday, a school choir will be allowed to sing at the funeral of a classmate.
2 comments:
I'm the fellow who led to the cancellation of the Power Team appearances in five Wisconsin school districts, including Milton. My web site explains the full story.
Why were they cancelled? Fort Atkinson's superintendent put it this way: "Would it be a fair compromise to all concern that we welcome the Faith Community Church to hold the evening programs as booked and scheduled, but that upon reflection not hold the assemblies thus eliminating any notion that the schools were connected with the promotion of a crusade."
I also alerted the administrators in the Houston area a few weeks ago, too. Again, as in Milton and the other Wisconsin districts, they changed their mind after they did a little research. A principal cancelled it because he determined "it was not appropriate for a school setting."
The Power Team performed in May 2007 in the Chicago suburbs. Here's an opinion piece in the Daily Herald newspaper in NW IL,
(archived copy) from their schools reporter Jeff Gaunt, who attended the school assembly. He was unimpressed, saying "Sure, they broke some bricks, snapped a baseball bat and smashed soda cans in their hands. But those feats were few and far between. The rest of the presentation was split between an advertising campaign for their church performances, and some cliches about how there’s a seed of greatness in everyone. [...] The story was pretty good. The rest was not. And overall, I didn’t find their performance inspiring - maybe because they are trained as ministers, not motivational speakers. Which brings me to the real question. Why would district administrators bring in a mediocre act that walks a fine line bordering on promoting religion in schools?"
It's easy to say "let religion into the schools." It's much more difficult to define rules that let you do that while respecting everyone's rights to unpressured beliefs. In the Lentz choir case, the kids took the right approach. If they do it on their own, it's within their rights.
John: I'm glad you commented on this, because upon further reflection of this article, I have changed my views on the Power Team. While I still maintain my original point that common sense needs to be used to determine what constitutes bringing religion into the schools and what doesn't, a couple of things changed my mind on this particular example.
One, I saw the Power Team in Fort. My son and his friends wanted to go see these big dudes break things. Their strength was pretty impressive. Their brand of over-the-top blood-and-guts evangelism, however, was not my cup of tea. I took their web site message about school assemblies at face value, but after actually seeing them, I don't know how they could have toned it down for a school performance.
Second, I read a commentary that basically wondered, "What if we took all of the Power Team's promotional materials about themselves and both their school and religious performances, and replaced the words 'Christian' and 'Jesus' with 'Muslim' and 'Mohammed'? How would we feel about having them in the schools then?" It was a powerful point.
So Fort's superintendent did the right thing. I stand corrected. Thanks for commenting, John.
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