scholarly journals Constitutional Law: Separation of Church and State: Bible Reading in the Public Schools

1957 ◽  
Vol 55 (5) ◽  
pp. 715
Author(s):  
Frederic F. Brace
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Constitutional Law ◽  
Church And State ◽  
The Public ◽  
Bible Reading

Prayers from on high: Religious expression in outer space during the Apollo era, 1968–76

2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 297-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kari Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Space Exploration ◽  
Outer Space ◽  
Religious Expression ◽  
Public Attention ◽  
The Public ◽  
Bible Reading ◽  
Twentieth Century America

In the wake of the Apollo 8 mission on 21–27 December 1968, infamous atheist activist Madalyn Murray O’Hair threatened a lawsuit against the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). O’Hair, who had successfully fought against mandatory Bible reading and prayer in the public schools earlier in the decade, argued that NASA’s administrators knowingly violated the separation of church and state by allowing astronauts Frank Borman, William Anders and James Lovell to read from Genesis during their Christmas Eve broadcast from the moon’s orbit. The threat instantly garnered public attention due to O’Hair’s notoriety, particularly among evangelical Christians. Although the lawsuit was quietly dismissed a year later, letter-writing campaigns defending religious expression in outer space continued unabated, even after the last Apollo astronaut set foot on the moon’s surface in 1972. This article examines defences of prayer and Bible reading in outer space during the later Apollo missions from 1968 to 1976. It argues that these efforts reveal a favourable shift in evangelical attitudes towards the space programme – attitudes that were divided sharply prior to Apollo 8 were subsequently more unified as evangelicals combined the fight for prayer in outer space with other major battles over religious freedom. O’Hair’s lawsuit linked Apollo with evangelicals’ earthly concerns, prompting them to interpret American outer space exploration as an endeavour inextricably endowed with religious purpose. The emotional letters-of-thanks they penned and the strongly worded petitions protesting O’Hair they signed in the years following the Apollo 8 mission make a compelling case for incorporating the space programme more prominently into the broader historical discussion of evangelicalism in twentieth-century America.

The Church and State in the Public Schools

1935 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 283
Author(s):  
M. M. Chambers ◽  
Alvin W. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Church And State ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Church

The School Prayer Cases

2019 ◽  
pp. 249-300
Author(s):  
Steven K. Green
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
The Public ◽  
School Prayer ◽  
Public Reaction ◽  
Bible Reading ◽  
State Separation

This chapter examines the background to and the holdings in the two seminal cases involving prayer and Bible reading in the public schools: Engel v. Vitale and Abington Township v. Schempp. It discusses how the justices were cognizant of the potential reaction to the holdings and sought to mollify that response by using particular language in their opinions. It then examines the public reaction to the decisions that precipitated a split among Protestants over church–state separation. Finally, the chapter considers the congressional efforts to amend the Constitution to permit prayer and Bible reading in the public schools.

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