The First Amendment of the Bill of Rights states: “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.” The section that deals with religion, known as the Establishment Clause, has become one of the most debated pieces of the document.
First Amendment Center Senior Scholar Charles C. Haynes believes the Establishment Clause stands for "no establishment" -- which, by definition, requires separating church from state.
However, he said, the disagreement comes with how much separation is required to protect religious liberty. He said both sides go too far and the answer is somewhere in the middle.
That term separation of church and state originated with one of the country’s founding fathers, in a letter Thomas Jefferson penned in 1802 to the Danbury Baptist association in Connecticut.
In the letter, Jefferson states that he believes, as do members of the association, that the religion is a matter between man and his God. Quoting part of the First Amendment, he wrote, “’make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.”
Since that time, the debate has continued about what is separation of church and state, with courts determining whether the line has been crossed.
Recently, the 6th U.S. Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 in favor of allowing a Ten Commandments display on public property. In ACLU of Kentucky v. Grayson County the court found that a Ten Commandments display in a Kentucky county courthouse did not violate the establishment clause because it was displayed in conjunction with nine other historical documents, including the Declaration of Independence.
In another recent case, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina ruled that opening meetings with sectarian prayer by the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners violates the First Amendment.
U.S. District Court Judge James Beaty wrote "In making this determination, the Court concludes that the invocation Policy, as implemented, has resulted in Government-sponsored prayers that advance a specific faith or belief and have the effect of affiliating the Government with that particular faith or belief."
However, that doesn’t mean that governmental bodies cannot open meetings with prayer. In fact, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that government bodies are constitutionally permitted to open their meetings with a prayer if the prayers are nonsectarian.
At least some of those on both sides of the debate have reached common ground. Muslim, Jewish, Sikh and Christian leaders from the evangelical, mainline and Catholic traditions joined with civil liberties leaders to draft Religious Expression in American Public Life: A Joint Statement of Current Law.
“The role of religion in public life has long been a source of controversy and litigation,” said Melissa Rogers, director of Wake Forest University Divinity School’s Center for Religion and Public Affairs, which produced the document. “We have brought together a diverse group of experts on law and religion to clarify what current law has to say about some of these matters.”
This document is the first of its kind to address a wide spectrum of issues related to the role of religion in public life, Rogers said. While it addresses that elected officials are not required to take the oath of office with their hand on the Bible, the document also states that elected officials may refer to religious ideas and communities and talk about their personal beliefs.
However, the debate outside of the group continues, including the Texas State Board of Education’s work on its curriculum. After public outcry, the board did not remove Christmas from a list of religious holidays and observances in a sixth-grade world cultures class, but debate continues on how much emphasis should be given to the religious beliefs of the nation's founding fathers. Some want to highlight their Christian faith, while others want to emphasize the separation of church and state.
