Separation of church and state isn’t going away

Oklahoma’s state superintendent of public instruction ordered all teachers in the state to apparently violate both state and federal laws separating religion from public schools last month.

According to Reuters, he said: “Every teacher, every classroom in the state will have a Bible in the classroom and will be teaching from the Bible in the classroom to ensure that this historical understanding is there for every student in the state of Oklahoma.”

His rationale makes no sense for science, math or other classes unrelated to history and culture. Nor is there any mention of the non-Christian religions of Native Americans who constitute a significant portion of Oklahoma’s history and culture. And would the Catholic Douay version of the Bible that would have been dominant in the early Spanish Conquistador history qualify?

In news interviews, the superintendent’s partisan rants revealed his action was more political than legal and exceeds what can actually be taught in public classrooms.

Separation of church and state dates back to the founding fathers. It is well-explained in “How Jefferson and Madison’s partnership — a friendship told in letters — shaped America’s separation of church and state” just published June 25 by Willamette University Professor of Law Steven K. Green in “The Conversation” and readily available online.

Green cites Pew Research Center surveys showing “73% of adults agree that religion should be kept separate from government policies” and “ … only 19% of Americans say the United States should abandon the principle of church-state separation.”

Green explains how Thomas Jefferson “… wrote the Virginia Bill for Religious Freedom in 1777, the most comprehensive declaration of religious freedom at the time. That bill guaranteed freedom of conscience, protected religious assemblies from government oversight, prohibited government funding of religious institutions and boldly declared that religious opinions were outside the authority of civil officials.”

The First Amendment enacted in 1791 clearly states that “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof …” Thomas Jefferson said this clause was to establish a “wall of separation between church and state.”

In 1947, the U.S. Supreme Court relied on Jefferson and Madison’s actions to reinforce that the government must remain neutral toward religion. Justice Hugo Black wrote in that decision: “In the words of Jefferson, the clause against establishment of religion by law was intended to erect ‘a wall of separation between Church and State.’” And public schools are state agencies.

SIGNIFICANT COURT DECISIONS

Case                                                    Year         Holding

Everson v. Board of Education          1947        Government cannot provide aid to one religion, or all religions, but must be neutral toward religion.

Engle v. Vitale                                    1962         School-sponsored prayer or official recitation of prayers violated the Establishment Clause. Schools cannot write or choose a specific prayer and require all students to say it.

Abington v. Schempp                         1963        If the study of the Bible and religion is presented objectively in a non-religious program of study, it is not unconstitutional.

Lemon v. Kurtzman                           1971        Statutes regarding establishment of religion must have a legitimate secular purpose, neither advance or inhibit religion, and not foster excessive government entanglement.

CPERL v. Nyquist                             1973         The First Amendment does not forbid all mention of religion in public schools, just its purposeful promotion or inhibition.

Wilson v. Board of Ed.                      1975          Use of religiously objectionable textbooks does not violate the establishment clause.

Breen v. Runkel                                1985          Teachers cannot take actions that promote religion while performing their duties.

Mozert v. Hawkins Co.                     1987          Use of religiously objectionable textbooks does not violate the free exercise clause.

Lee v. Weisman                                 1992          Graduation prayers are not permitted as long as public schools are involved insofar as this constitutes a “state action.”

The Equal Access Act of 1984 clarified that public secondary school students can meet as student prayer clubs during lunch or before and after school, as long as it is student-organized and does not involve teachers or outside organizers.

Also important and ironic is the June 25 ruling by the Oklahoma State Supreme Court that just rejected a Catholic school from serving as a state charter school, the first attempt to provide taxpayer funds to a religious charter school in the U.S.

Two years earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Carson v. Makin that parents in rural Maine districts that lacked public high schools and received state aid to send their children to private schools could use the aid to pay tuition at schools with faith-based curricula.

And on June 27, 2022, in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, a school coach was given the right to kneel in silent prayer on a playing field’s 50-yard line after games.

But neither of these rulings, nor the Oklahoma superintendent’s overhyped announcement, in any way allow religious proselytizing back into the public classroom.

John Richard Schrock is a Roe R. Cross distinguished professor and biology professor emeritus at Emporia State University.

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