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The Religion of Secular Humanism in Public Education Steven M Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy Volume 3 Article 4 Issue 4 Symposium on Values in Education 1-1-2012 Smith v. Board of School Commissioners: The Religion of Secular Humanism in Public Education Steven M. Lee Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.law.nd.edu/ndjlepp Recommended Citation Steven M. Lee, Smith v. Board of School Commissioners: The Religion of Secular Humanism in Public Education, 3 Notre Dame J.L. Ethics & Pub. Pol'y 591 (1988). Available at: http://scholarship.law.nd.edu/ndjlepp/vol3/iss4/4 This Commentary is brought to you for free and open access by the Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy at NDLScholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy by an authorized administrator of NDLScholarship. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STUDENT COMMENTS SMITH V. BOARD OF SCHOOL COMMISSIONERS: THE RELIGION OF SECULAR HUMANISM IN PUBLIC EDUCATION STEVEN M. LEE* [A] religious evacuation of the public square cannot be sus- tained, either in concept or in practice. When recog- nizable religion is excluded, the vacuum will be filled by er- satz religion, by religion bootlegged into public space under other names .... 1 INTRODUCTION In a society which has experienced both a dissipation of moral consensus and a revival of religious fundamentalism, moral education in public schools is a sensitive and poten- tially volatile issue. Some would attempt to avert controversy by placing morality beyond the purview of public school cur- ricula. This solution, however, is highly specious. Both courts and educators generally agree that some form of public moral education is desirable, with the Supreme Court going so far as to conclude that moral education is necessary to the maintenance of a democratic society.2 Further, even if de- sired, the elimination of moral education from public schools * B.A. 1986, Doane College; J.D. 1989, University of Notre Dame; Thos. J. White Scholar, 1987-89. 1. R. NEUHAUS, THE NAKED PUBLIC SQUARE: RELIGION AND DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA 80 (1984) (emphasis in original). 2. In Bethel School Dist. No. 403 v. Fraser, 478 U.S. 675 (1986), the Court stated that public education's objective is "the 'inculcat[ion of] fun- damental values necessary to the maintenance of a democratic political sys- tem.' " Id. at 681 (quoting Ambach v. Norwick, 441 U.S. 68, 76-77 (1979)). See also Purpel & Ryan, infra note 3, at 3 ("There is an increasing demand for the schools to be a more forceful agent of moral development .... "); Note, Humanistic Values in the Public School Curriculum: Problems in Defining an Appropriate "Wall of Separation," 61 Nw. U. L. REV. 795, 804-06 (1966). JOURNAL OF LAW, ETHICS & PUBLIC POLICY [Vol. 3 is not possible. Indeed, "[iut is inconceivable for the schools to take [a] child for six or seven hours a day, for 180 days a year, from the time he is six to the time he is eighteen, and not affect the way he thinks about moral issues .... "' The issue, then, is not whether public schools should en- gage in moral education, but rather how public schools should engage in moral education. Traditional theistic reli- gion once provided the framework." However, theistic reli- gion's presence in public schools has declined, abetted by Su- preme Court decisions calling for a strict separation of church and state.' Public schools have replaced the theistic framework with moral relativism,6 an approach that encour- 3. Purpel & Ryan, Moral Education: What Is It and Where Are We?, in MORAL EDUCATION ... IT COMES WITH THE TERRITORY 9 (Purpel & Ryan eds. 1976). 4. T. HILLWAY, EDUCATION IN AMERICAN SOCIETY 103 (1961). See W. GRIFFITHS, RELIGION, THE COURTS, AND THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS 1 (1966) (exer- cises in public schools usually included reading the Bible, reciting prayers, and singing hymns); Purpel & Ryan, supra note 3, at 4; Whitehead, judicial Schizophrenia: The Family and Education in a Secular Society, J. CHRISTIAN JU- RISPRUDENCE 49, 56-61 (1982). 5. See Stone v. Graham, 449 U.S. 39 (1980) (per curiam) (striking down a law requiring the posting of the Ten Commandments in public schools), reh'g denied, 449 U.S. 1104 (1981); School Dist. of Abington Township v. Schempp, 374 U.S. 203 (1963) (prohibiting encouragement to pray); Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421 (1962) (prohibiting compelled prayer in public schools); McCollum v. Board of Educ., 333 U.S. 203 (1948) (prohibiting schools from allowing voluntary, on-campus religious instruction). The secularization of public education was not completely a matter of constitutional exclusion. The teaching of traditional Christian morality de- clined as society's concepts of morality became more diverse. Industrializa- tion depleted the role of the family as a morally unifying force, and mass immigration introduced concepts of morality that conflicted with the for- merly predominant Protestant view. Purpel & Ryan, supra note 3, at 4. In order to accommodate an increasingly diverse constituency, public educa- tion began to emphasize open inquiry as opposed to teaching set religious values. Hafen, Developing Student Expression Through Institutional Authority: Public Schools as Mediating Structures, 48 OHIO ST. L. J. 663, 668 n. 21 (1987). See also N. WOLTERSTORFF, RELIGION AND THE SCHOOLS 6-7 (1965) (discussing the "erosion" of religious values from public education). 6. See Note, supra note 2, at 804 ("The major purpose behind the emphasis upon moral and spiritual values in schools is to attempt to fill the void created by the removal of religion from the schools."); Purpel & Ryan, supra note 3, at 4 ("Cultural relativism and a supposed scientific objectivity replaced Protestant moral theology" in public education.). For a discussion of moral relativism, see Harman, Is There a Single True Morality?, in MORALITY, REASON AND TRUTH: NEW ESSAYS ON THE FOUNDA- TIONS OF ETHICS 27-48 (D. Copp & D. Zimmerman eds. 1985) (contrasting moral relativism with moral absolutism). 19881 SECULAR HUMANISM ages children to rely solely on internal referents in defining their morality. Moral relativism has developed into an inte- gral part of public education, apparent both as a general principle and in designed curricula." While moral relativism may be an appealing approach to moral education in a pluralistic society, it has been argued that moral relativism is tantamount to a secular religion. If tantamount to religion, its presence in public classrooms cre- ates an obvious disharmony with the Supreme Court's adher- ence to the separation of religion and government. Smith v. Board of School Commissioners' examines this disharmony by addressing the religious nature of moral relativism. In Smith, a group of parents and teachers in Alabama's Mobile County argued that certain elements of the curriculum advanced a ''secular religion," violating the establishment clause of the first amendment.9 The Smith plaintiffs convinced a federal district court to ban a number of textbooks found to incul- cate moral relativism through a humanistic approach to val- ues education." Subsequently reversed," the district court's decision illustrates the problems inherent in the Supreme 7. Note, The Establishment Clause, Secondary Religious Effects, and Hu- manistic Education, 91 YALE L.J. 1196, 1205 (1982) (discussing the curricu- lum of humanistic education). 8. 655 F. Supp. 939 (S.D. Ala.) (on remand), rev'd, 827 F.2d 684 (11 th Cir. 1987). Part of a continuing line of cases: Jaffree v. James [I], 554 F. Supp. 727 (S.D. Ala. 1982), later proceeding Jaffree v. Board of School Comm'rs, 554 F. Supp. 1104 (S.D. Ala.) and Jaffree v. James [II], 554 F. Supp. 1130 (S.D. Ala.), affd in part and rev'd in part, Jaffree v. Wallace, 705 F.2d 1526 (11th Cir.) (reconsolidated), reh'g denied, 713 F.2d 614 (11 th Cir. 1983), cert. granted in part, 466 U.S. 924 (1984), aff'd, 472 U.S. 38 (1985). 9. Smith, 655 F. Supp. at 946. The first amendment provides in full: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." U.S. CONST. amend. I. The first clause is referred to as the establishment clause. The second clause is referred to as the free exercise clause. Taken together, the clauses are known as the religion clauses. 10. Smith, 655 F. Supp. at 973. The plaintiffs also argued that the promotion of secular humanism inhibits theistic religion by denying the existence of absolute morality. The district court stated that "some reli- gious beliefs are so fundamental that the act of denying them will com- pletely undermine that religion." Id. at 987. 11. Smith v. Board of School Comm'rs, 827 F.2d 684 (11th Cir. 1987). JOURNAL OF LAW, ETHICS & PUBLIC POLICY [Vol. 3 Court's current establishment clause analysis, especially in the sensitive area of public education.12 This note makes two main contentions: (1) that secular humanism is a religion within the meaning of the first amendment and (2) that humanistic approaches to values ed- ucation in public schools impermissibly promote the religion of secular humanism through the inculcation of moral rela- tivism. To begin, Part I of this note briefly discusses the de- velopment of the Supreme Court's existing establishment clause jurisprudence. Part II summarizes Smith within that ju- risprudential context. Part III considers the religious nature of secular humanism, concluding that it is a religion for es- tablishment clause purposes. Part IV examines the religious effect of humanistic values education and offers a possible so- lution to the secular humanism/humanistic values education quandary.
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