Recently, I have been monitoring a variety of Pagan school civil liberties stories that center on religious freedom or, in popular terms, the Separation of Church and State. In monitoring the events and subsequent community response, I find that people often forget one simple fact: We are a nation of laws.
Without this simple concept, we’d live in anarchy.
Whether we like it or not, we have to follow those laws or face the consequences. Our actions, or lack thereof, must conform to these agreed upon rules. Fortunately for us, our system is somewhat malleable allowing us to effect change on the laws through political means. But, as they stand at any given moment, the laws are what they are. We must obey.
So let’s discuss the one law that is common to all of these cases – the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, which reads: ”Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ….”
More often than not, this is confused with the phrase “Separation of Church and State.”
The former statement contains the actual words of the Constitution. As written, the Amendment prohibits our Government, including its agencies, from actively demonstrating a preference for one religion over another. Moreover, it allows personal religious freedom in both choice and worship.
The latter quote, credited to Thomas Jefferson, is merely a statement that illustrates a conceptual understanding of the First Amendment. It is not the wording of the Amendment itself. For example, the First Amendment’s objective was to create a separation between church and state; thereby, preventing a theocracy.
As such, our Constitution does allow for religious worship anywhere even within government entities like schools or libraries. Contrary to many an evangelical argument, our Constitution does not kick religion out of public schools. It merely calls for an environment of total equality. In other words, if a school kowtows to one religion, it must do the same for ALL religions.
Therein lies the rub, as is said.
In a community with one or two dominant religions, this might never be a problem. Such in the case in many of the American rural towns that are dominated by the Christian faith. In such places nobody would care if Bible passages were read over the loud speaker. At worst, you might have to read passages from two different Bibles or from two different prayer books to ensure the Baptists and Methodists are equally represented.
However, as our world changes and cities become diversified, the simplicity of the issue is lost. Today, in many communities, a similar morning announcement could take you well into the noon hour before it managed to include a religious passage that sufficiently represented every religion. Frankly, this is inefficient and just plain silly. In the end, it is much easier to eliminate all religiously-based “stuff” from the school system entirely. As such, the removal of religion from government schools becomes the most efficient way to observe a Constitutional law.
For those who argue that this removal of religion from government is a product of an increasingly God-less, amoral modern society, I must remind them that the Constitution and its Amendments were written some time ago. The first amendment itself was ratified in 1791. The law requiring equality in government is nothing new.
What is the precipitous for this perceived change? Over the past 50 years, our society has evolved in both its look and feel – demographics, religious trends and population growth and decline. As demonstrated by Gallup polls, there is an increasing segment of the population who identify as non-Christians. These people are no longer concentrated in city centers. Transportation innovations make them more mobile. The internet gives them connection to community. The sprawling suburbs turn once rural areas into populated, cultural centers with mixed populations. Where once there was religious homogeneity, there is now heterogeneity.
No matter what changes happen or don’t happen, the law is still the law.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ….”
That includes Wicca, Druidism and other Pagan religions. Because, like it or not, a variety of rulings have clearly stated that they are religions. The laws apply.
Oh…and one more thing. Yes, I would argue the same point if a school chose to use Pagan prayers in those morning announcements. If the law says “include everyone,” then it must be done. It’s as simple as that.
(Photo Credits: Brian Turner (Flickr: My Trusty Gavel) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)
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