Court's Example Regarding Religious Liberty example essay topic

What Went Wrong: An Examination of Separation of Church and State By the middle of the 20th Century, the United States had emerged as a world power. It accomplished this through its leadership in defeating Germany and Japan in World War II. These two countries' main objective was to enslave the world and destroy political, religious, and economic freedom. In Germany or Japan, anyone who disagreed with these goals, or was different was destroyed. This was a common practice in these two fascist countries. Unfortunately, at the same time of its emergence as a world power, the United States began to slip into a form of judicial fascism.

This slide began when the U.S. Supreme Court began to abandon the religious principles on which this nation was founded. The abandonment officially began in 1947 in Everson vs. Board of Education, when the court announced, "The 1st amendment has erected a wall between church and state. That wall must be kept high and impregnable. We could not approve the slightest breach".

(Barton, Original... p. 13) This exact case began the reversal of Supreme Court trends and opinions that had lasted for one hundred and fifty years. Now, for almost fifty years, the Supreme Court, and the United States population in general, has used the phrase "separation of church and state" when referring to the religion clause of the 1st Amendment. The 1st amendment's actual wording is "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof". (Barton, America: To... p. 15) But, because of the Supreme Court's continuous citing of a "wall of separation" and "separation of church and state", the public's idea of the 1st amendment's religion clause has been shaped by phrases which do not appear anywhere in the Constitution. The First Congress, which passed this Amendment in 1789, intended to prohibit the establishment of a national religion. In fact, they didn't mind the establishment of "official" religions by states.

At the start of the American Revolution, nine of the thirteen colonies had established religions, so obviously no one was opposed to the coupling of church and state. Unfortunately, this separation talk has been so furiously pounded into our heads, that a picture is painted falsely into our heads; a picture of a roomful of godless atheists, agnostics, and deists framing our Constitution in 1789. This picture is gruesomely distorted. Most of the Founders belonged to orthodox Christian religions, and some were even evangelical Christian ministers. (Barton, America's p. 3) The Supreme Court says that these men's intent was to keep religion and politics separate. John Quincy Adams, in a speech on July 4, 1837 asked the crowd, "Why is it, that next to the birthday of the Savior of the World, your most joyous and venerated festival returns on this day?" He goes on to explain the important ties between the birthday of the nation and the birthday of Jesus Christ.

He says that the Declaration of Independence was first organized on the foundation of Jesus' mission on Earth, and that the Declaration "laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity. Adams stressed that the major impact of the Revolution was that Christian principles and civil government were connected in an "indissoluble" bond. (Barton, America's p. 17) Why is the Supreme Court blind to such evidence as this? John Quincy Adams was an extremely well educated man, so he is a very reliable source. Other Founding Fathers were very outspoken about Christian beliefs. John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and one of the men most responsible for the Constitution declared, "Providence (heaven) has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest, of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christian rulers".

(Barton, America's p. 8) Doesn't this tell our Supreme Court anything? Shouldn " they follow the suit of their predecessor? Tragically, the group that suffers the most from these "separation of church and state " rulings are the children of America. We are headed into the third generation of people that do not know what it's like to pray in school in the morning. Luckily, Catholic and private schools aren't affected by this legislature, so some children can be free. School prayer and religious liberty became hot debates following the 1962 supreme court case Engel vs. Vitale.

Following this case, the Supreme Court began attacks on the traditional practice of praying at the start of a school day. (Barton, America: To... , p. 14) Since 1962, lessons which were commonplace in school texts have vanished, because of their religious nature. For example, history textbooks for 150 years contained a story about George Washington that most adults today have never heard. It takes place during the French and Indian War, and a young colonel of the Virginia militia, by the name of George Washington, had joined forces with the British General Braddock.

Their Goal was to march on Fort Duquesne, which is now Pittsburgh. On their way, they were attacked by the French and the Indians. These men were used to European war tactics, and were slaughtered by the guerilla warfare tactics of the French and the Indians. It is a story of how Washington's life hung in the balance for two hours and that only by the direct intervention of God was his life spared. Washington wrote home, explaining that his coat had four bullet holes, but he was untouched.

Fifteen years after the bloodbath, Washington went back to those woods, and he met an Indian Chief who had fought that day. He said that he had ordered his braves to shoot down all of the officers, but after the Chief himself had shot at Washington seventeen different times, he ordered his men to ignore Washington, believing him to be under the care of the Great Spirit. (Barton, America's... , p. 3, 4) Students today aren't told much about Washington's "Farewell Address", they a retold it is hard to find, and that it is rarely seen printed. When the teacher does mention it, it is taught that Washington warned America about getting involved in foreign affairs, and the growth of political parties. This speech was commonplace in history texts prior to the 1960's. The problem with Washington's famous speech was that out of the twelve warnings he gave, four were overly religious, and therefore unsuitable for students to be exposed to.

(Barton America's... , p. 8) Washington said, "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports". He also states, "Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds... reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principles". How blatant can you get? The first president of the United States, the man that the Founders unanimously chose as their leader, says that religious principles and morality are vital to the success of a government!

How could the Supreme Court ignore this evidence? Nobody knows. ("George Washington") In the cases of Everson vs. Board of Education and Engel vs. Vitale, the Supreme Court uses Jefferson and Madison's Virginia Statute, a bill that both men pushed in Virginia legislature, as a basis for the intent of the 1st Amendment. This, of course is wrong. In Virginia, the Anglican Church was the only legal religion, despite the fact that Quakers, Lutherans, and Baptists outnumbered the Anglicans. Jefferson and Madison pushed for the Virginia Bill for Religious Liberty, also called the Virginia Statute.

This occurred in 1786. This was not the first example of this, other states had Religious Liberty bills, including New Jersey, North Carolina, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York, Georgia, and Vermont. (Barton, Original... p. 202) Jefferson and Madison did not consider themselves to be authorities on the 1st Amendment, or the Constitution as a whole. The Supreme Court insists that the yare the only men responsible for the Religion Clauses of the 1st amendment. Jefferson was not even in the country when the Constitution was written, and he himself said that he had nothing to do with it. Madison told a close friend that he did not like being called the "writer of the Constitution", and that it was "the work of many heads and many hands.

Madison, although very influential during the framing of the Constitution could hardly be considered the spokesman for the entire group of Founders. 40 of his 71 proposals failed, and his original idea of the document was completely different from the final draft. (Barton, Original... , p. 204) Many state courts and schools have considered it their duty to follow the Supreme Court's example regarding religious liberty. Because of this, many odd decisions have been delivered, some of which make people wonder, were these people serious? In Commonwealth vs. Chambers, a case heard by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, a prosecuting attorney mentioned seven words from the Bible in the Courtroom... Because of this, the jury sentence was overturned for a man convicted of brutally clubbing a 71 year-old woman to death.

(Barton, Original... , p. 16) In Alaska Public Schools, students were prohibited from using the word "Christmas" in school, from exchanging Christmas cards or presents, or from displaying anything with the word "Christmas" because it contains the word "Christ" (Barton, Original... , p. 16) The Supreme Court has overlooked the 150 years prior to 1947, in which religious expression was encouraged in public, and a case such as Commonwealth vs. Chambers would be unheard of. Before Everson vs. Board of Education, the Supreme Court made countless decisions regarding religion that directly contradict the past 50 years of religious oppression. Some of these decisions refer to the U.S. as a Christian country. One, Davis vs. B eason, in 1889, strikes down bigamy and polygamy, rejecting arguments that they were religious exercises.

The Court states Davis, a Mormon, was wrong, and that his actions were crimes by "the laws of all civilized and Christian countries". This decision clearly shows the intent of the legislators of the era. (Barton, Original... p. 64-65) The solution to this problem lies in educating the people of this great republican to the intent of the Founders. In the evidence presented, it can be clearly seen that the judicial fascism being practiced today and now, is clearly not what the Founding Fathers intended for our country. The solution to the religious liberty / school prayer debate lies in the hands of Congress. (Barton, A guide... p. 36) The media portrays supporters of a school prayer amendment as a radical fringe minority, when recent studies and surveys have shown that 71% of people favor an amendment for school prayer.