scholarly journals Constitutional Law: Church and State: Freedom of Religion: The Constitutionality under the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment of Compulsory Sex Education in Public Schools

1970 ◽  
Vol 68 (5) ◽  
pp. 1050
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Sex Education ◽  
First Amendment ◽  
Constitutional Law ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Freedom Of Religion

Church and State: Separation or Accommodation?

1981 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 373-394 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martha McCarthy
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Public Education ◽  
First Amendment ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
Parochial Schools ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
State Involvement ◽  
Religious Influences ◽  
State Separation

Martha McCarthy analyzes litigation pertaining to state involvement in sectarian education and religious influences in public education. She maintains that there is some indication that the judiciary is becoming more lenient in allowing state aid to parochial schools and religious accomodations in public schools. Since legislative bodies, responding to the mounting political influence of religious groups, are enacting laws that strain the wall of separation between church and state, she concludes that First Amendment religious guarantees may be in jeopardy.

scholarly journals Constitutional Separation of Church and State: The Quest for a Coherent Position

1963 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 865-882
Author(s):  
William W. Van Alstyne
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
First Amendment ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Law School ◽  
Constitutional Amendment ◽  
School Prayer ◽  
Open Questions ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
State Separation

This clause of the First Amendment, recently applied by the Supreme Court to invalidate certain religious practices in the public schools, has called down a new storm over the Supreme Court. The storm has not consisted merely of the political bombast of predictable critics. Rather, it has included Dean Griswold of the Harvard Law School who perceived in the first school prayer case an unyielding and unwarranted absolutism in the position of the Court. It includes also highly regarded church figures, such as Episcopal Bishop Pike, who has called for a constitutional amendment to alter the Court's mandates. It has percolated within the law schools, and within the Court itself where lengthy separate opinions were composed to clarify what has and what has not been done. Yet, even within the Court, as within the larger academic and public forums, wide disagreement remains as to the applied meaning of the opaque language of the religion clause.This article cannot quiet the storm over the Supreme Court, but it can make clear which parts of the storm are entitled to be taken seriously and which are merely bluster. Beyond this, there are more significant purposes to be served. The first of these is to make sense of existing cases in terms of some coherent doctrine, responsive to the First Amendment and possessing substantial predictive value: to describe the standard of church-state separation which the Supreme Court applies in fact. The second is to demonstrate that a number of open questions remain to be answered before a more precise boundary of church-state separation can be known.

Dissent in the Atlantic World, 1787–1830

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Carté Engel
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
African Americans ◽  
First Amendment ◽  
Church And State ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Population ◽  
Simple Fact ◽  
General Role

The very term ‘Dissenter’ became problematic in the United States, following the passing of the First Amendment. The formal separation of Church and state embodied in the First Amendment was followed by the ending of state-level tax support for churches. None of the states established after 1792 had formal religious establishments. Baptists, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, and Methodists accounted for the majority of the American population both at the beginning and end of this period, but this simple fact masks an important compositional shift. While the denominations of Old Dissent declined relatively, Methodism grew quickly, representing a third of the population by 1850. Dissenters thus faced several different challenges. Primary among these were how to understand the idea of ‘denomination’ and also the more general role of institutional religion in a post-establishment society. Concerns about missions, and the positions of women and African Americans are best understood within this context.

Broadening the Picture of Nineteenth-Century Baptists: How Battles with Catholicism Moved Baptists Toward Separationism

2009 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 453-486
Author(s):  
Marty McMahone
Keyword(s):  
Southern Baptist ◽  
First Amendment ◽  
Church And State ◽  
The United States ◽  
Southern Baptist Convention ◽  
Religious Liberty ◽  
The Other ◽  
Biblical Authority ◽  
American Experience ◽  
American Society

Discussions about the historical meaning of religious liberty in the United States often generate more heat than light. This has been true in the broad discussion of the meaning of the First Amendment in American life. The debate between “separationists” and “accommodationists” is often contentious and seldom satisfying. Both sides tend to believe that a few choice quotes that seem to disprove the other side's position prove their own. Each side is tempted to miss the more nuanced story that is reflected in the American experience. In recent years, this division has been reflected among those who call themselves Baptists. One group, best represented by the work of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, tends to argue that the Baptist heritage is clearly steeped in the separation of church and state. The other group, probably best represented by the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, tends to reject the term separation and sees value in promoting an American society that “affirms and practices Judeo-Christian values rooted in biblical authority.” This group tends to reject the separationist perspective as a way of defending religious liberty. They argue that Baptists have defended religious liberty without moving to the hostility toward religion that they see in separationism. Much like the broad story of America, the Baptist story is considerably more complicated than either side makes it appear.

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