Experts discuss proper role of religion in public education_40504

Posted: 4/02/04

Experts discuss proper role
of religion in public education

By Ferrell Foster

Texas Baptist Communications

DALLAS–A “strong consensus” has developed regarding the appropriate role of religion in public schools, a church-state legal expert said.

Oliver Thomas, a constitutional lawyer who helped draft the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, spoke during a recent “Finding Common Ground” meeting in Dallas sponsored in part by the Christian Life Commission of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

“There is no such thing as a legal safe harbor,” Thomas said, referring to how legal interpretations vary and change. But in relation to religion and public education, “fortunately, we have been able to create as safe a harbor as one can conceive.”

“You are on very safe footing, not only legally but politically,” he noted, referring to very similar interpretations of current law coming from both the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations.

This consensus has developed around the notion of “substantive neutrality,” Thomas said.

“We don't want government in the business of playing church,” he said. “But, on the other hand, we don't want the government in the business of, in any way, discouraging or failing to protect religion and religious liberty.

“Substantive neutrality is a way to talk about living in a society where one's religious affiliations or lack thereof do not advantage or disadvantage you in the republic.”

During a question and answer time, he noted that “teachers are understandably confused about some of these issues” because accurate information is not always getting to them.

Charles Haynes, senior scholar with the First Amendment Center in Arlington, Va., also spoke at the Dallas gathering. He said the Clinton Administration sent every public school principal in the nation information reflecting the consensus regarding religion in schools. One year later, a survey indicated that many of the principals had no knowledge of it.

A Dallas school teacher at the event said religion is kept out of schools for 12 years, then, she complained, it surfaces in commencement exercises.

Thomas responded that “no school district has no religion” in it. “Church-state separation does not mean you do not have religion in schools,” he said

Each student brings his religion to school with him, and textbooks should “take religion seriously,” he said, citing the role of religion in the civil rights movement and in the founding of the nation.

At commencement exercises, Thomas said, it is OK for a student speaker to refer to God, but it is not appropriate to ask other students to participate in a religious expression such as prayer.

Haynes described the importance of public schools being “laboratories for democracy and freedom.” The “civic mission” of schools in turning out good citizens needs to be renewed.

“There are more than 16 words in the First Amendment” to the U.S. Constitution, Haynes said, referring to the religious freedom portions.

While religious freedom and the liberty of conscious it implies are critical, all five freedoms ­ religion, speech, press, assembly and petition ­ are all “deeply important.” Those freedoms have been used over and over to call Americans to “live up to the founding principles.”

Other sponsors of the Finding Common Ground event were the American Jewish Committee, the Esther A. and Joseph Klingenstein Fund and the Jack Lowe Foundation Fund.