Do You Know When The Infamous “separation Of Church And State” Entered American Juris Prudence?
Everson v. Board Of Education (1947)
The Supreme Court decision Everson v. Board of Education 330 U.S. 1. (1947) prepared the dismissal of religion from American public schools. We are hidden by more than a half-century from the shock and numbness this new doctrine of “separation of church and state” occasioned, a great bewilderment caused in part by the absence of any hint of such a separation doctrine in the Declaration, Constitution, or the Bill of Rights.
The Court, which erected the wall of separation, went on to radically change the entire face of American jurisprudence, establishing firmly a principle which had only operated spottily in the past, the “judicial review” power which made the judiciary final arbiter of which laws were legal. No longer could the people’s representatives expect that by working for legislation, their will would be honored by the courts. A new and higher power had spoken, a power with the ability to dispense with religion in government facilities, including schools and the towns and villages of America where public property was concerned.
Everson was no simple coup d’etat, but an act of Counter-Reformation warfare aimed at the independent and dissenting Protestant-Christian traditions of America. To understand the scope of this campaign, you have to look at a selection of court decisions to appreciate the range of targets Everson was intended to hit:
Item: A verbal prayer offered in a school is unconstitutional, even if it is both denominationally neutral and voluntarily participated in. Engel v. Vitale, 1962; Abington v. Schempp, 1963; Commissioner of Ed. v. School Committee of Leyden, 1971.
Item: Freedom of speech and press is guaranteed to students unless the topic is religious, at which time such speech becomes unconstitutional. Stein v. Oshinsky, 1965; Collins v. Chandler Unified School District, 1981.
Item: If a student prays over lunch, it is unconstitutional for him to pray aloud. Reed v. van Hoven, 1965.
Item: It is unconstitutional for kindergarten students to recite: “We thank you for the birds that sing; We thank you [God] for everything,” even though the word “God” is not uttered. DeSpain v. DeKalb County Community School District, 1967.
Item: It is unconstitutional for a war memorial to be erected in the shape of a cross. Lowe v. City of Eugene, 1969.
Item: It is unconstitutional for students to arrive at school early to hear a student volunteer read prayers. State Board of Ed. v. Board of Ed. of Netcong, 1970.
Item: It is unconstitutional for a Board of Education to use or refer to the word “God” in any of its official writings. State v. Whisner, 1976.
Item: It is unconstitutional for a kindergarten class to ask during a school assembly whose birthday is celebrated by Christmas. Florey v. Sioux Falls School District, 1979.
Item: It is unconstitutional for the Ten Commandments to hang on the walls of a classroom. Stone v. Graham, 1980; Ring v. Grand Forks Public School District,1980; Lanner v. Wimmer, 1981.
Item: A bill becomes unconstitutional even though the wording may be constitutionally acceptable, if the legislator who introduced the bill had a religious activity in his mind when he authored it. Wallace v. Jaffree, 1984.
Item: It is unconstitutional for a kindergarten class to recite: “God is great, God is good, let us thank Him for our food.” Wallace v. Jaffree, 1984.
Item: It is unconstitutional for a graduation ceremony to contain an opening or closing prayer. Graham v. Central Community School District, 1985; Disselbrett v. Douglas School District, 1986.
Item: In the Alaska public schools in 1987, students were told that they could not use the word “Christmas” in school because it had the word “Christ” in it.
Item: In Virginia, a federal court ruled in 1987 that homosexual newspapers may be distributed on a high school campus, but religious newspapers may not be.
Item: In 1987, a 185-year-old symbol of a Nevada city had to be changed because of its “religious significance.”
Item: In 1988, an elementary school principal in Denver removed the Bible from the school library.
Item: In Colorado Springs, 1993, an elementary school music teacher was prevented from teaching Christmas carols because of alleged violations of the separation of church and state.
Item: In 1996, ten-year-old James Gierke, of Omaha, was prohibited from reading his Bible silently during free time in the Omaha schools.
Item: In 1996, the chief administrative judge of Passaic County, New Jersey, ruled juries could no longer be sworn in using the Bible.
Item: In 2000, Ohio’s state motto, “With God, all things are possible,” was ruled unconstitutional by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals because it expressed “a uniquely Christian thought.”
I don’t know. Maybe he has a point on some of these.
Amendment 1: “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.”
“or abridging the freedom of speech,”
// Item: If a student prays over lunch, it is unconstitutional for him to pray aloud. Reed v. van Hoven, 1965.
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;”
// Item: It is unconstitutional for students to arrive at school early to hear a student volunteer read prayers
“or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press;”
// Item: It is unconstitutional for a Board of Education to use or refer to the word “God” in any of its official writings. State v. Whisner, 1976.
“or abridging the freedom of speech”
// Item: In the Alaska public schools in 1987, students were told that they could not use the word “Christmas” in school because it had the word “Christ” in it.
“or of the press;”
// Item: In Virginia, a federal court ruled in 1987 that homosexual newspapers may be distributed on a high school campus, but religious newspapers may not be.
“or of the press;”
// Item: In 1988, an elementary school principal in Denver removed the Bible from the school library.
“or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;”
// Item: In 1996, ten-year-old James Gierke, of Omaha, was prohibited from reading his Bible silently during free time in the Omaha schools.
Sounds to me like a very biased, slanted description of certain carefully selected descisions.
Not to mention apallingly ignorant of history.
I see lying for Jesus is still in style.
If you need a new constitution, I hear Iran has one you can use to copy and paste from.
Oh you poor baby! If only you could pray at home WHENEVER YOU PLEASE! If only there were one or more churchs IN EVERY TOWN OR CITY! You poor PERSECUTED VICTIM! I weep salty tears.
Item: Your obsession is showing.
Um, you might try reading the items you posted. Most of them explicitly state that your position is sh!t.
Rant on!
ADDENDA
“Majority rule can not hinder minority rights.”
Wanna bet? Witness Proposition 8 in CA.
===
“Are you incapable of thinking for yourself?”
Don’t you just love rhetorical questions?
It must be very hard to accept for a fanatic such as yourself
When they wrote the First Amendment.
Btw, plagairism is theft. Isn’t stealing a sin?
It’s nice to see our constitution working as it should.
Cry me a river baby.
Thomas Jefferson (remember him? Author of the Declaration of Independence? President?) first used the phrase in 1802. It is quite clear that the framers of the Constitution intended to establish a country which did not favor one religion over another. It’s appalling that it took that long for the courts to notice.
This rant was copied from John Taylor Gatto’s site. Are you incapable of thinking for yourself?
Thanks to our courts for bringing some rational thought to our world. Though some of the items above never went to court– were just stupid ideas by school principals that had no merit. Anyone can pray anytime anywhere, and that is their perogative. It was not up to my third grade teacher to force her religious beliefs upon me by forcing me to pray with her, or under her direction. The religious zealots scream alot about how we have taken prayer from school, but if you went in and had a muslim leading the prayer to allah or a buddist conducting the prayer, that would be “wrong”. As to our US christian traditions– a lot of bunk. Until the later 1800s there were very few churches in any towns or cities, and very few people went to church on a regular basis. Then the fundamentalists started up, and established churches all over the place. So suddenly we were a christian nation, in their minds and that supposedly it was from the beginning. Just go to any major eastern city– look how many older churches are there- very few. Religion didn’t didn’t get to be mainstream and a social culture until the late 1800s early 1900s.
And “Under God” in the pledge of allegiance was added to piss off the communists in the cold war when the communists wanted loyalty to the government and not to religion.
Although I don’t know about the one with James Gierke. My high school library had a bunch of bibles and a translated version of the Torah and other stuff. But think about a mother who is trying to raise their child Wiccan or Hindi or another religion that isn’t Christian.
Majority rule can not hinder minority rights.
If you consider the concept of separation of church and state to be “infamous” then you really have no appreciation for the principles this country is founded on. Instead of copying and pasting from agenda driven web sites, you should spend time actually reading some history.
You had me interested until you bashed the ones who answered you with your simple put down.
Shows how smart you are huh? Show off all that marvelous knowledge then lose the answers by showing disdain for us.
One of the “simple” people who believes in respect.