Blog #2 - Schools and Religion

The association between church and state has been a long and tenuous relationship. Early in our nation’s history, religion was closely tied with education. If fact, education was originally utilized to train young people in understanding their roles in living religious lives. However, the role of education has evolved over time and the focus transformed from serving religion to serving the country (Spring, 2008).

Both articles focus on religion in education, but have very different takes on the issues at hand. Throughout both documents, one thing becomes clear in that there is a lot of passion and fervor related to the topic of religious influence in education.

The religion in schools article has two different religious issues. Though they are in the same article, the focus of each issue is quite different. First, there is an issue related to a moment of silence observed for prayer and personal reflection each day in Illinois schools. Second, there is the issue of the wording of Texas science curriculum for exploring merits of scientific theories. The article focuses on the separation of church and state and how both of these have been unconstitutional breaches.

The Billy Gobitas document describes the boy’s opposition to reciting the Pledge of Allegiance based on his opinion that the flag was serving as a false idol. His view was that by standing and pledging to the flag, he was placing his country above his God. Courts ultimately determined that Gobitas had the right to refuse to say the Pledge. This decision was not based on keeping with the separation of church and state, but rather ensuring free speech, or in this case the choice not to speak.

The first part of the religion in schools article (the Illinois moment of silence) and the Gobitas document are very similar in that they deal with the First Amendment. However, the interpretations by courts on the First Amendment components are different for each. For the Illinois moment of silence, the focus is on the religious elements while Gobitas document focuses on freedom of speech. Additional notes on the U.S. Constitution are available at http://www.usconstitution.net/constnotes.html#Am1.

It seems particularly interesting that the issue with the Pledge of Allegiance surfaced prior to the addition of the words “under God” to the Pledge. The words “under God” were added to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954 in response to the Cold War and in an effort to differentiate between American Christian values and Soviet Atheist views. Following this change, President Eisenhower proclaimed that students will show their dedication to the United States and God (Religious Tolerance, 2008).


Resources:
Religious Tolerance (2008). The U.S. Pledge of Allegiance background materials. Retrieved September 19, 2009, from http://www.religioustolerance.org/nat_pled1.htm.
Spring, J. (2008). The American school: From the Puritans to No Child Left Behind (7th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.