Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 14, 1993 TAG: 9302150278
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: D-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN B. FLEMING
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
MONTGOMERY'S SCHOOL WARS
THE ONGOING controversy in Montgomery County over the name for school holidays is really the tip of the iceberg. This dispute is symbolic of the deep-seated emotional feelings held by many citizens with strongly differing views over the place of religion in public schools.The controversy over church and state relationships has been going on throughout the history of our nation and the world. As a result of religious disputes, millions have died with both sides claiming God as their ally. Even today, we find brutal conflicts between Christians, Jews, Hindus, Muslims, and so on it goes.
Adding to the confusion in the United States, we find a chaplain opening meetings of Congress with a prayer and In God We Trust on our coins - and yet there is a legal wall of separation between church and state in our public schools.
Despite these inconsistencies, people need to recall why it is illegal to advocate a specific religion in our public schools.
That the recent controversy has flared up in Western Virginia is ironic, because the frontier citizens of this region were active in the movement two centuries ago to achieve religious freedom.
In the early years of the Virginia colony, the state church was the Anglican. Persons who failed to attend daily prayers were deprived of their food for a first offense, whipped for a second and sent to the galleys for a third. If you gambled or missed church on Sunday, the third offense resulted in death. You could also be executed for blasphemy against God.
Everyone also had to support the Anglican church with taxes. By the mid-1770s, several religious groups had developed in Virginia, particularly the Baptists and Presbyterians. These two groups strongly opposed the establishment church.
Led by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, religious freedom in Virginia was established by law in 1785. This effort later resulted in the First Amendment to the Constitution, part of which states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
There is little doubt that the intent of these early laws was to provide for religious toleration. The United States is unique in the world in respecting differing religious beliefs. Yet intolerance for many religions has existed throughout our history.
Acts of discrimination against Baptists, Catholics, Mormons, Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses and many other religious groups have taken several forms ranging from discriminatory tax policy to limits on the rights to vote and to hold public office.
The tremendous influx of Catholic immigrants in the 1800s produced the Know Nothing political movement with its slogan, "America for Americans." This group had as its goal the placing in office of only native-born Protestant citizens. The Klu Klux Klan also attacked Catholics and Jews.
In some of the history textbooks widely used in American schools in the past, Catholics were described as having a "most bigoted, superstitious and tyrannical character" and Mormons were called "a strange, half-heathen sect." The Bible was also constantly used to justify slavery.
Not until 1960 could a Catholic, John F. Kennedy, be elected president. In that campaign, virulent anti-Catholicism was active. One example was circulation of a counterfeit oath of the Catholic Knights of Columbus organization.
The phony oath included the statement that Knights of Columbus members would "wage relentless war," secretly or openly against "all heretical Protestants" to "extirpate them from the face of the [E]arth." It went on saying, "I will burn, waste, boil, flay and burn alive these infamous brutes, rip up the stomach and wombs of the women and crush the heads of their infants against the wall in order to annihilate their execrable race." Some people actually believed the ludicrous and falsified oath.
Since the election of JFK, the political taboo for Catholics has generally been lifted. Yet the religion of a candidate is still a factor in many parts of the country, and today we still find private clubs and organizations discriminating against members of certain religious groups or sects.
Jefferson's Virginia Statute of Religious Liberty, establishing the separation of church and state, was very revolutionary, and we still have great difficulty in determining where the line should be drawn. A fundamental belief of religious freedom is that although the majority is free to practice its religion, it may not use agencies of the state to impose these beliefs on others.
The Founding Fathers made it very clear that they wanted a separation of church and state. When this premise is applied to public schools, we find the battle still raging - over holiday observance, prayer in schools, the teaching of evolution and school finance. Ironically, some of the same minority religious groups who benefited most from this new freedom in 1785 are now in the lead for a single religion to be dominant in our public schools.
The United States is rapidly undergoing great social and demographic change, including the growth of diverse religions and beliefs, so we become more and more a pluralistic society. The public schools are on the front line of coping with these changes. School leaders need to listen to citizens voicing dissent, but have a responsibility to protect the minority. We all should consider the possibility that the majority of today may become the minority of tomorrow.
Many people, it appears, are unaware of the long struggle in the United States for the religious freedom that makes us unique in the world. Led by Virginians two centuries ago, we have the boldest and most successful experience in religious freedom ever attempted.
One concrete step that could be taken is to examine what is being taught in our public schools today about the history of the struggle for religious freedom. Such study would focus on the persistent issues of the role of church vs. state that individuals, lawmakers and the courts have grappled with for centuries.
Public schools may also need to give greater attention to the study of religions, including holidays. Teaching about religious holidays from differing cultures is permissible. Celebrating religious holidays is not.
This delicate issue requires great sensitivity and understanding and cooperation between many groups. Shouting at each other is not the answer.
Dan B. Fleming, an education professor at Virginia Tech, is author of "Kennedy vs. Humphrey, West Virginia, 1960."