DOCSLIB.ORG

University of Oklahoma

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
University of Oklahoma UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE THE NEW AMERICAN SETTLEMENT: RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY, DEMOCRACY & PUBLIC SCHOOLING A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY By RIAN ADA HUNTER-OTT Norman, Oklahoma 2016 THE NEW AMERICAN SETTLEMENT: RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY, DEMOCRACY & PUBLIC SCHOOLING A DISSERTATION APPROVED FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP AND POLICY STUDIES BY ________________________________ Dr. Courtney Vaughn, Chair ________________________________ Dr. Allen Hertzke ________________________________ Dr. Mark Davies ________________________________ Dr. Jeffrey Maiden ________________________________ Dr. Joan Smith © Copyright by RIAN ADA HUNTER-OTT 2016 All Rights Reserved. Except thyself may be Thine enemy Captivity is consciousness So’s Liberty - Emily Dickenson (1830-1886) To the spirit of Liberty within all souls. TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ……………………………………………………………………………….. vi I. INTRODUCTION Introduction ……………………………………………………………………. 1 Discussion of Concepts & Terms ……………………………………………… 4 Education & Religious Liberty ……………………………………………….. 21 Why Now? ……………………………………………………………………. 33 A Way Forward: The American Settlement ………………………………….. 41 II. THE SCHOOL QUESTION & THE PRIVATIZATION OF RELIGION Introduction …………………………………………………………………... 46 The School Question: Historical Considerations …………………………….. 49 Secularization & Secularism …………………………………………………. 55 Privatizing Religion: School, Faith & the U.S. Supreme Court ...……………. 58 Concluding Thoughts: Privatizing Religion ………………………………….. 73 III. MAKING RELIGION A LIVE OPTION IN SCHOOLS: EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATIONS Introduction ………….……………………………………………………….. 80 The Deep Structure of Educational Thought …………………………………. 83 Religion as a “Live Option” ………………………………………………….. 88 What We Bring to the Table: John Dewey & Paolo Freire …………………... 90 Whole Student Transformations: Jane Roland Martin’s Educational Metamorphoses ……………………………………………………………….. 95 The Challenge to Care ………………………………………………………... 97 Conclusion: Educating for Live Options ……………………………………. 108 IV. THE SACRED COMMONS: RELIGION & EDUCATIONAL PRAXIS Introduction ……………………………………………………………….… 111 Conceptualizing the Journey ………………………………………………... 118 Interrelationality …………………………………………………………….. 123 Loving-Kindness ……………………………………………………………. 129 Kenosis ……………………………………………………………………… 134 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………... 140 V. THE NEW AMERICAN SETTLEMENT Introduction …………………………………………………………………. 142 The Old Settlement ………………………………………………………….. 143 The New Settlement ………………………………………………………… 148 Whispers of New American Settlement: Interfaith Initiatives …………….... 163 Applying New Settlement within Public Schools …………………………... 170 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………... 188 iv VI. CONCLUDING THOUGHTS: CLIMATE CONTROL, RELATIONSHIP & THE NEW AMERICAN SETTLEMENT Introduction …………………………………………………………………. 190 Summary of the New American Settlement ……………………………….... 196 Tasked with Climate Control ………………………………………………... 201 Our Relationships …………………………………………………………… 203 BIBLIOGRAPHY ……..……………………………………………………………. 208 APPENDIX …………………………………………………………………………. 225 v ABSTRACT As the United States becomes increasingly religiously diverse, public schools must also face the implications of such diversity. While all public schools may not witness such diversity in the classroom, it is a socio-cultural phenomena impacting the greater public conversation about what it means to be a democratic nation with the constitutional provision of religious liberty. Because of an increasingly secularistic norm promoted in many schools and religious exclusivism dominating others, public schools risk marginalizing religious minorities. Furthermore, most public schools do not provide adequate education on religious thought or religious liberty, resulting in religious illiteracy that threatens to undermine an understanding of other nations in the international community, many of which are devoutly religious. However, attention to teaching about religion is not sufficient; schools must become places in which religious liberty may thrive and new understandings of the concept can continue to develop. This dissertation proposes a “New American Settlement” in the form of a thought experiment as a way for public educators and public schools to take religious liberty seriously and address continually expanding religious diversity – and the issues sparked by it – in keeping with constitutional commitments. The New American Settlement is a blend of educational thought and philosophy, including theories of multiple educational agency, experience, and care theories, as a way to regard religion as a live option – a critical component of taking religious liberty seriously. Furthermore, the New American Settlement considers specific religious notions that can be legitimately incorporated into secular educational thought to develop a system that takes religious liberty seriously. Practical application within schools is also considered as a thought experiment; the vi results of which conclude that the New American Settlement is much more feasible for most public school teachers than is dedicating more time, which many do not have, to teaching about religion. vii I. Introduction “If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion, or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.” - Justice Robert H. Jackson, West Virginia State Board of Education v Barnette1 “Having bought Truth deare, we must not sell it cheape, nor the least graine of it for the whole World, no not for the saving of Soules, though our owne most precious; least of all for the the bitter sweetning of a little vanishing pleasure.” – Roger Williams, The Bloudy Tenent2 Of the ideals that dot the canvas of American imagination, liberty is surely among the most compelling. Americans sing proudly of it: “Oh, say! Does that star-spangled banner yet wave/O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?” “Our country ‘tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.” Allies give gifts in honor of it: the Statue of Liberty sits proudly on the banks of New York Harbor. Poets spin prose around it: Walt Whitman (1819-1892) declares, “more precious than all worldly riches is Freedom.”3 Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) weaves a poignant vision: No rack can torture me/My soul’s at liberty/Behind this mortal bone/There knits a bolder one. You cannot prick with saw/Nor rend with scymitar/Two bodies therefore be/Bind one, and one will flee. The eagle of his nest/No easier divest/And gain the sky/Than mayest thou. Except thyself may be/Thine enemy/Captivity is consciousness/So’s liberty.4 Soldiers die striving for it, and entire movements are emboldened by it, forming their framework around it. Nineteenth century Abolitionist Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) 1 West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (No. 591) (United States Supreme Court 1943). 2 Roger Williams, The Complete Writings of Roger Williams, Volume 3: Bloudy Tenent of Persecution (Eugene, Or: Wipf & Stock Pub, 2007). 3 Walt Whitman, Walt Whitman: Poetry and Prose, ed. Justin Kaplan (New York, N.Y: Library of America, 1982), 1073. 4 Emily Dickinson, The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, ed. Thomas H. Johnson (Boston: Back Bay Books, 1976), 181. 1 proclaims, “No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man, without at last finding the other end of it fastened about his own neck.”5 The remarkable Abolitionist Harriet Tubman powerfully remarks, “I had reasoned this out in my mind, there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other.”6 Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902), among the most famous of American Suffragettes, spoke pointedly of liberty, “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal.”7 Nineteenth century Poetess Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919) sagely resounds: Therefore I do protest against the boast/Of independence in this mighty land. Call no chain strong, which holds one rusted link. Call no land free, that hold one fettered slave. Until the manacled slim wrists of babes/Are loosed to toss in childish sport and glee/Until the mother bears no burden, save/The precious one beneath her heart, until/God’s soil is rescued from the clutch of greed/And given back to labor, let no man/Call this the land of freedom.8 Hinmatóowyalahtq’it (Chief Joseph, 1840-1904) of the Nez Perce, observes, “You might as well expect the river to run backward as that any man who was born free should be content penned up and denied liberty to go where he pleases.”9 Civil Rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. reinforces the American ideal of freedom: “I say to you that our goal is freedom, and I believe we are going to get there because however much 5 Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass on Slavery and the Civil War: Selections from His Writings (Mineola, N.Y: Dover Publications, 2003), 29. 6 Sarah Bradford, Harriet Tubman: The Moses of Her People (Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2004), 17. 7 Lori D. Ginzberg, Elizabeth Cady Stanton: An American Life, First Edition edition (New York: Hill and Wang, 2009), 58. 8 Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Poems of Problems (Chicago: W.B. Conkey Company, 1914), 154–155. 9 Thelma Moore and Carolyn Durling, Whispers on the Winds: Messages of Wisdom from the Ancients (S.l.: Strategic Book Publishing,
Load more

Recommended publications
  • A Contextual Examination of Three Historical Stages of Atheism and the Legality of an American Freedom from Religion
    ABSTRACT Rejecting the Definitive: A Contextual Examination of Three Historical Stages of Atheism and the Legality of an American Freedom from Religion Ethan Gjerset Quillen, B.A., M.A., M.A. Mentor: T. Michael Parrish, Ph.D. The trouble with “definitions” is they leave no room for evolution. When a word is concretely defined, it is done so in a particular time and place. Contextual interpretations permit a better understanding of certain heavy words; Atheism as a prime example. In the post-modern world Atheism has become more accepted and popular, especially as a reaction to global terrorism. However, the current definition of Atheism is terribly inaccurate. It cannot be stated properly that pagan Atheism is the same as New Atheism. By interpreting the Atheisms from four stages in the term‟s history a clearer picture of its meaning will come out, hopefully alleviating the stereotypical biases weighed upon it. In the interpretation of the Atheisms from Pagan Antiquity, the Enlightenment, the New Atheist Movement, and the American Judicial and Civil Religious system, a defense of the theory of elastic contextual interpretations, rather than concrete definitions, shall be made. Rejecting the Definitive: A Contextual Examination of Three Historical Stages of Atheism and the Legality of an American Freedom from Religion by Ethan Gjerset Quillen, B.A., M.A. A Thesis Approved by the J.M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies ___________________________________ Robyn L. Driskell, Ph.D., Interim Chairperson Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Baylor University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Approved by the Thesis Committee ___________________________________ T.
    [Show full text]
  • Supreme Court Case Studies to the Teacher the Supreme Court Case Studies Booklet Contains 68 Reproducible Supreme Court Case Studies
    Supreme Court Case Studies To the Teacher The Supreme Court Case Studies booklet contains 68 reproducible Supreme Court case studies. These cases include landmark decisions in American government that have helped and continue to shape this nation, as well as decisions dealing with current issues in American society. Every case includes background information, the constitutional issue under consideration, the Court’s decision, and where appropriate, dissenting opinions. Each two-page study requires students to analyze the case and apply critical thinking skills. An answer key is provided in the back of the booklet. Glencoe/McGraw-Hill Copyright © by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to reproduce the material contained herein on the condition that such material be reproduced only for classroom use; be provided to students, teachers, and families, without charge; and be used solely in conjunction with Glencoe Social Studies products. Any other reproduction, for use or sale, is prohibited without written permission from the publisher. Send all inquiries to: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill 8787 Orion Place Columbus, Ohio 43240 ISBN 0-07-830788-0 Printed in the United States of America 123456789100470706050403 Table of Contents To the Teacher ...................................................................................................................................................... ii Supreme Court Case Studies Case Study 1: Marbury v. Madison, 1803 ...........................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title A Crenelated Wall: The Rise and Fall of Southern Baptist Institutions for the Separation of Church and State, 1936-1979 Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/94z3m5b3 Author Ruckle, John Timothy Publication Date 2015 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California A Crenelated Wall: The Rise and Fall of Southern Baptist Institutions for the Separation of Church and State, 1936-1979 By John Timothy Ruckle Jr. A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor David A. Hollinger, Chair Professor Richard Cándida Smith Professor Richard E. Hutson Spring 2015 © 2015 by John Timothy Ruckle Jr. All rights reserved. Abstract A Crenelated Wall: The Rise and Fall of Southern Baptist Institutions for the Separation of Church and State, 1936-1979 by John Timothy Ruckle Jr. Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Berkeley Professor David A. Hollinger, Chair This dissertation centers on the origins and projects of the Baptist Joint Committee (BJC), founded and funded in 1936 by the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), and the Protestants and Other Americans United for the Separation of Church and State (POAU), founded in 1948 as the brainchild of Southern Baptist elites. I argue these organizations were primarily concerned with opposing American Catholic projects, especially those which sought public monies for parochial schools. Ironically, the structures and organizations which greatly aided this effort to expand religious tolerance and liberty in this period had their origins in concerns about the Catholic Church and American Catholicism held by many Baptists.
    [Show full text]
  • Religious Liberty and the Supreme Court of the United States
    Fordham Law Review Volume 17 Issue 2 Article 1 1948 Religious Liberty and the Supreme Court of the United States Godfrey P. Schmidt Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/flr Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Godfrey P. Schmidt, Religious Liberty and the Supreme Court of the United States, 17 Fordham L. Rev. 173 (1948). Available at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/flr/vol17/iss2/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by FLASH: The Fordham Law Archive of Scholarship and History. It has been accepted for inclusion in Fordham Law Review by an authorized editor of FLASH: The Fordham Law Archive of Scholarship and History. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FORDHAM LAW REVIEW VOLUME XVII NOVEMBER, 1948 NUMBER 2 RELIGIOUS LIBERTY AND THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES GODFREY P. SCHMIDTt ON JUNE 28, 1787 the Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia had listened to a rather boring, two-day harangue by Luther Martin, the delegate from Maryland. He had been speaking in favor of an equal vote for each state as an essential to the federal idea. He made long quotations from Locke, Vattel, Somers, Priestley and Samuel Rutherford, all of them contemporary intellectual leaders, to support his particular theory of emphasized states' rights. According to James Madison, Martin spoke "with much diffuseness and considerable vehemence"; and ac- cording to Oliver Elsworth, he spoke with "eternal volubility." When at last Luther Martin had finished his plea to the Convention, others joined in the discussion.
    [Show full text]
  • The Grievance and the Remedies Charles E
    Notre Dame Law School NDLScholarship Journal Articles Publications 1978 Conscientious Objection to Public Education: The Grievance and the Remedies Charles E. Rice Notre Dame Law School, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/law_faculty_scholarship Part of the Education Law Commons, and the Religion Law Commons Recommended Citation Charles E. Rice, Conscientious Objection to Public Education: The Grievance and the Remedies, 1978 BYU L.Rev. 847 (1978). Available at: https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/law_faculty_scholarship/53 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Publications at NDLScholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal Articles by an authorized administrator of NDLScholarship. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Conscientious Objection to Public Education: The Grievance and the Remedies Charles E. Rice* "This is a quiet place," said John Fink, an 18-year-old sen- ior at Norfolk Christian School in Norfolk, Va. "The Lord helps us work things out." The hallways of Norfolk Christian are lined with student lockers that have no locks. A sign at one entrance reads, "This is my Father's world." Across the street is a public school, its pupil ranks thinned by the growing enrollments of private schools like Norfolk Christian.' An estimated 4,804,000 children-9.8% of the total elemen- tary and secondary school enrollments-attended nonpublic schools in 1976. Of these children, 86% were enrolled in church- related schools.2 The most notable development in this area has been the rapid growth of so-called Christian schools.3 "A Chris- tian school," said Pastor Levi Whisner, a party in one of the leading court cases in the area,' "has a Bible-oriented curriculum, Bible standards and a Christian atmosphere, a born-again true Christian leadership with Bible discipline."' At these schools, students are exposed to a learning environment that is considerably more conservative and narrow than the environment found at most older, more traditional church schools.
    [Show full text]
  • Religion and First Amendment Prosecutions: an Analysis of Justice Black's Constitutional Interpretation
    Pepperdine Law Review Volume 10 Issue 2 Article 2 1-15-1983 Religion and First Amendment Prosecutions: An Analysis of Justice Black's Constitutional Interpretation Constance Mauney Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/plr Part of the Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, Constitutional Law Commons, Courts Commons, First Amendment Commons, Judges Commons, Jurisprudence Commons, and the Religion Law Commons Recommended Citation Constance Mauney Religion and First Amendment Prosecutions: An Analysis of Justice Black's Constitutional Interpretation, 10 Pepp. L. Rev. Iss. 2 (1983) Available at: https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/plr/vol10/iss2/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Caruso School of Law at Pepperdine Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Pepperdine Law Review by an authorized editor of Pepperdine Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]. Religion and First Amendment Protections: An Analysis of Justice Black's Constitutional Interpretation DR. CONSTANCE MAUNEY* Justice Hugo L. Black served on the United States Supreme Court over a period of thirty-four years, encompassing Supreme Court terms from 1937 to 1971. During this period, the subject of the constitutional limitations of the freedom of religion was increasingly subjected to intense social pressures. Justice Black figured prominently in the development of constitutional law as the Supreme Court attempted to give meaning to the establishment and free exercise clause of the first amendment. He wrote the majority opinions which dealt with the establishment clause in the Everson, McCul- loin, Engel and Torcaso cases.
    [Show full text]
  • Better a Catholic Than a Communist: Reconsidering Mccollum V. Board of Education and Zorach V
    Better a Catholic than a Communist: Reconsidering McCollum v. Board of Education and Zorach v. Clauson James Edward Zucker Cincinnati, Ohio B.A., The College of William and Mary, 1998 A Thesis presented to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Virginia in Candidacy for the Degree of Master of Arts Department of History University of Virginia May 2007 Ta b l e o f Co n t e n t s Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 1 I. E v e r so n : An t i -Catholicism and e d u c a t i o n ......................................................... 7 A. Historical Background........................................................................................... 7 B. The Debate Over Released Time in 1947...........................................................15 C. The Justices ’ A wareness o f the Religious Tension........................................... 17 ii. M c Co l l u m . E v e r so n r e v is it e d ............................................................................... 20 A. McCollum as a Catholic Case.............................................................................20 B. Reaction to McCollum.........................................................................................28 III. To w a r d Z o r a c h ........................................................................................................ 30 A. The Impact ofMcCollum in New York..............................................................30 B. The
    [Show full text]
  • Religious Minorities and the First Amendment: the History, the Doctrine, and the Future
    RELIGIOUS MINORITIES AND THE FIRST AMENDMENT: THE HISTORY, THE DOCTRINE, AND THE FUTURE Stephen M. Feldman INTRODUCTION Progressive or liberal constitutional scholars who focus on reli- gious freedom have not been pleased with the Rehnquist Court.' For more than a decade, it seems, the Court has been handing down de- cisions that have twisted the Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses in an unduly conservative direction. Most notably, Employment Divi- sion v. Smith radically transformed free exercise doctrine, while Zel- man v. Simmons-Harris,3 the voucher case, consolidated the Court's re- cent Establishment Clause cases into a modified doctrinal approach. As a consequence, First Amendment protections have apparently shrunken to their smallest since World War II, especially for religious minorities.4 Jerry W. Housel/Carl P. Arnold Distinguished Professor of Law and Adjunct Professor of Political Science, University of Wyoming. I thank Richard Delgado, Barry Friedman, Sally Gordon, John Jeffries, Mark Tushnet, Mo Bernstein, and Marty Belsky for their helpful com- ments on earlier drafts. SeeJesse H. Choper, The Rise and Decline of the ConstitutionalProtection of Religious Liberty, 70 NEB. L. REv. 651, 687 (1991) (arguing against the Court's rejection of a compelling interest analysis for Free Exercise Clause challenges to general statutory prohibitions of certain con- duct); Noah Feldman, From Liberty to Equality: The Transformation of the Establishment Clause, 90 CAL. L. REv. 673, 678-79 (2002) (arguing that the Court has changed its Establishment Clause jurisprudence in adopting an equality, rather than liberty, rationale); Richard K. Sherwin, Rhe- torical Pluralism and the Discourse Ideal: Countering Division of Employment v.
    [Show full text]
  • The Legality of Using Public Funds for Religious Schools As Interpreted "By Federal Court Decisions
    71-26,943 SMITH, Michael Robert, 1939- THE LEGALITY OF USING PUBLIC TUDDS FOR RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS AS INTERPRETED BY" FEDERAL COURT DECISIONS. University of North Carolina at Greensboro., Ed.D., 1971 Education, religion University Microfilms, A XEROX. Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan © 29*71. MICIUEL ROBERT SMITH ALL RIGHTS RESERVED THE LEGALITY OF USING PUBLIC FUNDS FOR RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS AS INTERPRETED BY FEDERAL COURT DECISIONS by Michael Robert Smith A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Education Greensboro February, 1971 Approved by fes&F#ation Adviser APPROVAL SHEET This dissertation has been approved by the following committee of the Faculty of the Graduate School at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Dissertation Adviser Oral Examination Committee Members 9 * « r ~ (?- JLlIj March 12, 1971 Date of Examination ii SMITH, MICHAEL ROBERT. The Legality of Using Public Funds for Religious Schools as Interpreted "by Federal Court Decisions. (1971) Directed by: Dr. Thomas Joseph McCook:. pp. 388 The purpose of the study was to determine, as far as possible, the legality of using public tax funds for* the support of religious elementary and secondary schools in the fifty United States of .America through the perusal and analysis of: historical relationships between selected reli­ gions and governments, certain constitutional and statutory provisions, and, in particular, pertinent federal court decisions. The study is factual in its presentation; it deals with a legal question, and no attempt was made to relate it to social or economic factors.
    [Show full text]
  • Common School Religion: Judicial Narratives in a Protestant Empire
    COMMON SCHOOL RELIGION: JUDICIAL NARRATIVES IN A PROTESTANT EMPIRE MICHAEL DEHAVEN NEWSOM TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION.........................................................................222 II. THE COMMON SCHOOL IN THE AMERICAN PROTESTANT EMPIRE ...............................................................................................231 A. Religion and the Common School ..............................................231 1. The Colonial Origins..............................................................231 2. The Founding.........................................................................232 3. The Early National Period, the Modern American Common School, and the Emergence of Common School Religion ...............233 B. Resistance to and Persistence in Support of Common School Religion.............................................................................................238 1. Resistance ..............................................................................238 2. Persistence: 1840 to 1960......................................................242 III. STATE COURT CASES ON COMMON SCHOOL RELIGION .............................................244 A. The State Cases Summarized .....................................................244 1. The “Bible” Cases..................................................................244 2. The “Prayer” Cases ................................................................246 3. The “Service Exercises” Cases ...............................................247 B. Cases Supporting
    [Show full text]
  • Are Atheists Tolerable? American Nonbelievers and Irreligious Freedom Leigh E. Schmidt Washington University in St. Louis A
    1 Are Atheists Tolerable? American Nonbelievers and Irreligious Freedom Leigh E. Schmidt Washington University in St. Louis Abstract: Modern constructions of religious liberty often left atheists and nonbelievers out. Long after the ratification of the First Amendment, it remained an open question whether religious freedom included irreligious freedom. Counted an intolerable danger to the commonwealth, atheists were frequently denied equal rights and liberties; several states barred them from holding offices of public trust, and their competence as witnesses was routinely questioned. The picture changed dramatically in the middle decades of the twentieth century as the principle of neutrality—that the state was to treat believers and nonbelievers with impartiality—became the constitutional norm. Yet, in scoring a series of wins at the Supreme Court level, atheists only looked all the more intolerable. Dwelling on the experiences of a handful of atheist objectors, particularly Garry and Mary De Young, the paper examines just how limited the toleration of the irreligious remained in this heyday of secularist activism—and often still remains. Woven into modern constructions of religious liberty is an enduring conundrum: Does religious freedom include irreligious freedom? In his foundational essay, A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689), John Locke decidedly thought not. Arguing for sharp limits on the state’s power to impose or suppress particular modes of worship, Locke concerned himself especially with accommodating different varieties of Protestant Christianity, but he did not end there. His principle of religious toleration was much more sweeping than that. “Neither Pagan, nor Mahumetan, nor Jew ought to be excluded from the Civil Rights of the Commonwealth, because of his Religion,” he wrote.
    [Show full text]
  • The Rise and Fall of Southern Baptist Institutions for the Separation of Church and State, 1936-1979
    A Crenelated Wall: The Rise and Fall of Southern Baptist Institutions for the Separation of Church and State, 1936-1979 By John Timothy Ruckle Jr. A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor David A. Hollinger, Chair Professor Richard Cándida Smith Professor Richard E. Hutson Spring 2015 © 2015 by John Timothy Ruckle Jr. All rights reserved. Abstract A Crenelated Wall: The Rise and Fall of Southern Baptist Institutions for the Separation of Church and State, 1936-1979 by John Timothy Ruckle Jr. Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Berkeley Professor David A. Hollinger, Chair This dissertation centers on the origins and projects of the Baptist Joint Committee (BJC), founded and funded in 1936 by the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), and the Protestants and Other Americans United for the Separation of Church and State (POAU), founded in 1948 as the brainchild of Southern Baptist elites. I argue these organizations were primarily concerned with opposing American Catholic projects, especially those which sought public monies for parochial schools. Ironically, the structures and organizations which greatly aided this effort to expand religious tolerance and liberty in this period had their origins in concerns about the Catholic Church and American Catholicism held by many Baptists. A crisis point for the BJC and the POAU occurred when, in 1963, in the Schempp case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the devotional use of the Bible and prayer in public schools was unconstitutional.
    [Show full text]