Jefferson: Religion Confirms Our Government's Principles

President Thomas Jefferson is often quoted today, but his now-famous phrase about "separation of church and state" seems to have overwhelmed many of his other statements. Certainly Jefferson would be surprised to lean how popular that phrase, taken from a single letter he wrote, has become today. He would also be shocked to see the courts use his words to limit freedom of religious expression.

But Jefferson did not intend to limit the way people express religion, as long as such expression did not break our civic laws. He even trumpeted the value of religion to a civil society. Here is one of his statements on that subject:

"Religion, as well as reason, confirms the soundness of those principles on which our government has been founded and its rights asserted." --Thomas Jefferson to P. H. Wendover, 1815. ME 14:283

Read more of Jefferson's thoughts here:
http://etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/jeff1650.htm

Locality Raises Half Million Dollars to Fight ACLU for Religious Rights

In a previous post I described how Forsyth County in North Carolina was prohibited by a judge from continuing their tradition of opening meetings with prayer. The ACLU brought the suit, claiming (probably correctly) that most of the prayers had a Christian theme.

So in this case, a judge was not saying that prayers were unconstitutional, but that the content of these prayers made them unconstitutional. It's hard to imagine, knowing our history, that the Founders would have written a constitution that somehow enabled judges to effectively censor a prayer because of its content. Even Thomas Jefferson, from whom we get the often quoted phrase "separation of church and state," talked much, much more about "freedom of religion" than "separation." (Jefferson also was on record as fearful that the courts would gradually take on too much power. Until 1947 the courts did not object to such prayers, but after that they gradually became more active.)

Any country facing such a suit could easily be afraid that fighting it might lead to a costly legal battle. In this case, the country is going to fight the suit. Local concerned citizens raised a half million dollars to fight this decision on appeal. It's too bad that locals had to commit that much money for this cause, but they believe they are fighting for rights they are given by the U.S. Constitution.

Read more here:

Ruling against prayer appealed

North Carolina: Giving a Bible Is a Hate Crime?

In North Carolina, a Wake County middle-school teacher is in the middle of a controversy because of conflict between her and her students. The coverage of the story seems to join the events a bit on the late side, so it is hard to tell exactly what led up to this.

If seems the teacher is Muslim and has taken offense at some Christian t-shirts some students have worn. She was particularly offended when someone left a Bible on her desk. She called it a "hate crime." I could write a very long post just on the misuse of strong terms such as "hate crime" being applied to acts like this. Was it a pointed act? Yes, I suspect leaving the Bible was intended as a message.

But one has to wonder what exactly the students were responding to. Middle school students are not known for evangelizing to teachers. However, middle- and high-school students ARE known for pushing back when they feel pushed. The class had previously covered a unit on evolution. This teacher is said to have sent students to the office for asking about the role of God in creation.

The movie "The Sound of Music" has become an icon in this country and is shown at least once a year, usually around the Thanksgiving/Christmas holidays. There is a scene where the Trapp children leave a pine cone on Maria's chair, which she unknowingly sits on. Was that a hate crime?

If a teacher is know to be especially crabby with students, that teacher may be the target of pranks, or at least acts that were called "pranks" when I was growing up. Are those now to be called "hate crimes?"

For that matter, if a teacher sends a student to the office for asking about God's role in creation, could the teacher be accused of a hate crime?

Read the story here:

http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/02/16/341361/on-facebook-out-of-class.html

Jefferson on Religion's Importance to Good Government

President Thomas Jefferson is one of our most famous Founders. He has a gift for crafting documents and contributed enormously to beauty of our Declaration of Independence. As with anyone who wrote a lot, his quotes can sometimes be used in ways he did not intend. The most frequent example I can think of is his phrase "separation of church and state." Some would have us believe via those words that Jefferson did want religion to come anywhere near government. Yet that was not his own practice.

Perhaps the best way to better understand Jefferson is to look at more of his quotes about the relationship between religion and government. Many such are already posted on this blog and here is one more example. Jefferson used the "separation" phrase in a particular way. He meant to assure the reader that government would not create a national religion and force others to follow it; he more frequently uses the theme "freedom of religion." Consider the following quote, found within the University of Virginia's Jefferson collection (Jefferson founded the U. of VA):

"Among the most inestimable of our blessings, also, is that... of liberty to worship our Creator in the way we think most agreeable to His will; a liberty deemed in other countries incompatible with good government and yet proved by our experience to be its best support." --Thomas Jefferson: Reply to John Thomas et al., 1807. ME 16:291 

Read more here:
http://etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/jeff1650.htm

Court Says How We Can Pray

In North Carolina, the Forsyth County Commission has a tradition of opening meetings with a prayer. Often the prayer is Christian, although no specific words are specified. It depends on who is doing the praying.

But a court said that are violating the First Amendment when they do this. To remind you, the Amendment addresses religion in the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;"

That's it. That's all it says. So for the judge to protest, he was relying on the first half of that phrase (Establishment Clause). The article about this conflict points out that there is no written-out prayer specified. The person doing the praying is the one responsible for the words. How can that be equated with creating a law that establishes a particular religion? It can't, but courts have said that government may not even endorse, or appear to endorse, a particular religion. (I must have missed that part in the quote above.)

And what about the free exercise clause? If you invite someone to pray, which apparently is allowed by the judge, is it not limiting their free exercise (or free speech, another part of the First Amendment) to specify what they can and can not say? Did our founders intend that courts will tell anyone how to pray? One can not read the founders' words and think that.

Read more here:

Forsyth County commissioner prayer ruled unconstitutional; Buncombe next?