Much has been said in the past about religions in societies, and particularly
about
the United States’ bold experiment in religious liberty and secular
public education. A wealth of material exists regarding the themes of this
website. There are, for example, significant statements made by noted individuals,
position papers of established groups, lengthy court opinions, newspaper editorials,
writings of academics, and so on.
In this section, we supply very brief quotations from such
material. Please consider how lessons involving minority and nonreligious worldviews
may
benefit from teachers' creative application of such "snippets" as are
included here. As examples, consider how well the quotes below speak to
how religion and education interrelate within the special U.S. context.
Only in America! (3 snippets)
Example A: America is a state in which church and synagogue, religion and irreligion are
equal before the law and where citizens are neither to enjoy any advantages nor
to suffer any disadvantages because of their religion. America is a state which
seeks neither to promote nor to hinder the free exercise of religion, in which
neither religion nor irreligion is to enjoy any official status or support on
the part of the government.
James E. Wood, Jr. Director of J. M. Dawson Institute of Church-State
Studies, Baylor University, “Religious Pluralism and American Society” in Ecumenical
Perspectives on Church and State, (Baylor University Press, 1988), p. 16
Example B: The public school is at once the symbol of our democracy and the most
pervasive means for promoting our common destiny. In no activity of the state is
it more vital to keep out divisive forces than in its schools, to avoid
confusing, not to say fusing, what the Constitution sought to keep strictly
apart.
Justice Felix Frankfurter concurring opinion in McCollum v. Board of
Education (1948), at 231
Example C: It is implicit in the history and character of American public education that
the public schools serve a uniquely public function: the training of American
citizens in an atmosphere free of parochial, divisive, or separatist influence
of any sort—an atmosphere in which children may assimilate a heritage common
to all American groups and religions. This is a heritage neither theistic nor
atheistic, but simply civic and patriotic.
Justice William J. Brennan concurring opinion 374 in Abington School
District v. Schempp (1963), US 242
More Snippets
Some of the most eloquent and profound statements about religion (as it
relates to the extraordinary situation of the United States generally and our
public education context specifically) can be found
in The Great Quotations on Religious Freedom [Centerline Press,
1991, ISBN0-913111-37-06], compiled by Al Menendez and Edd Doerr. We have
excerpted with permission from that useful resource numerous brief quotations
for inclusion in these three categories.
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