Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 20, 1993 TAG: 9304200384
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
A group of panelists, representing a variety of viewpoints, agreed that the Constitution forbids government from promoting religion and also demands that government not interfere with an individual's religious beliefs.
The panel - consisting of a rabbi, a Jewish lawyer, a Methodist minister, a member of the Montgomery County Christian Coalition, and a lawyer from an institute concerned with religious freedom - fielded questions at a public forum sponsored by the Montgomery County Human Relations Council.
About 100 residents turned out for the meeting at Christiansburg High School. It was one of several public discussions on the topic of religion's role in education since a group of residents approached the Board of Supervisors in December to complain about the use of secular names for what years ago had been the "Christmas" and "Easter" school holidays.
Rebecca Sheckler of the Human Relations Council found another night of talk useful.
"We got stuff out in the open," she said. "We got people talking about the issues."
Bonnie Margulis, a panelist and rabbi at the Blacksburg Jewish Community Center, noted the appropriateness of the forum being held on the same day that Jews have set aside to remember the horrors of the Nazi-led Jewish Holocaust.
If nothing else is learned from the Holocaust, it is that to prevent it from happening again people need to see what happens when prejudice is allowed to flourish, Margulis said.
Melanie Davis, a lawyer for the Charlottesville-based Rutherford Institute, said religious people should not get special treatment, but should be treated the same as everyone else.
That was a sentiment on which the panelists seemed to agree.
Children would benefit from studying comparative religion and gaining an understanding of the different values that sometimes hinder understanding between one culture and another, said the Rev. Charles McHose of St. Paul United Methodist Church in Christiansburg.
"We're in a small world," he observed.
The only real disagreement of the night was between Raylyn Terrell, who argued that the United States was founded as a Christian nation, and John Lichtenstein, a Roanoke lawyer representing the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith. Terrell of Blacksburg represented the Christian Coalition.
Lichtenstein said he would agree at the time the Constitution was written the majority of Americans were Christians, but the Constitution provides for the free exercise of religion by individuals. While that protection has always been there, over time society has grown more diverse and the protection more significant, he pointed out.
At the forum's close, more people found it easy to agree with Brian Storrie of the Human Relations Council, who made the concluding remarks.
The proper relationship between government and religion, he said, "is an issue with which we are going to live for many, many years."
by CNB