tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/church-and-state-32278/articles
Church and state – The Conversation
2024-03-20T12:29:15Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/225868
2024-03-20T12:29:15Z
2024-03-20T12:29:15Z
A century ago, one state tried to close religious schools − a far cry from today, with controversial plans in place for the nation’s first faith-based charter school
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582250/original/file-20240315-30-6vl8a7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1024%2C663&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Catholic schoolroom in the U.S. around 1930.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/catholic-elementary-school-class-portrait-usa-circa-1930-news-photo/629453645?adppopup=true">Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Almost 100 years ago, a group of nuns joined a suit against the state of Oregon – <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100326625">and made it all the way</a> to the U.S. Supreme Court.</p>
<p>Their cause? Keeping Catholic schools open. In 1922, voters approved an initiative requiring almost all children ages 8-16 to attend public schools – a motion <a href="https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/pierce_vs_society_of_sisters_1925_/">aimed at closing faith-based schools</a> in particular.</p>
<p>But the Supreme Court’s 1925 ruling in their case, <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1900-1940/268us510">Pierce v. Society of Sisters of the Holy Name of Jesus and Mary</a>, favored the nuns. The ruling became a Magna Carta of sorts for private schools, including faith-based ones, safeguarding their right to operate – both secular and religious. Equally as importantly, Pierce <a href="https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/udetmr78&div=25&id=&page=">has been used to protect parental rights</a> to make choices about their children’s education.</p>
<p>Nonpublic schools such as the ones run by the Society of Sisters no longer must defend their rights to exist. Today, the pendulum has swung the other way: In recent years, the Supreme Court has increasingly <a href="https://theconversation.com/state-funds-for-students-at-religious-schools-supreme-court-says-yes-in-maine-case-but-consequences-could-go-beyond-184618">allowed public funding</a> to go to faith-based schools, their students or both.</p>
<p>On April 2, 2024, Oklahoma’s Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in <a href="https://www.aol.com/oklahoma-supreme-court-hear-arguments-015922066.html">a case that could reshape rules</a> even further: whether to allow <a href="https://theconversation.com/oklahoma-oks-the-nations-first-religious-charter-school-but-litigation-is-likely-to-follow-207103">a Catholic charter school</a> to open its doors, which critics say would all but <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/06/06/oklahoma-s-new-state-funded-religious-charter-school-isn-t-ok/d50b4e5a-047d-11ee-b74a-5bdd335d4fa2_story.html">demolish the line between church and state</a> in education.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582848/original/file-20240319-8759-3673sk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A dark wooden platform with several seats built in, and dark green velvet curtains behind them." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582848/original/file-20240319-8759-3673sk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582848/original/file-20240319-8759-3673sk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582848/original/file-20240319-8759-3673sk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582848/original/file-20240319-8759-3673sk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582848/original/file-20240319-8759-3673sk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582848/original/file-20240319-8759-3673sk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582848/original/file-20240319-8759-3673sk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The state Supreme Court bench in Oklahoma City in 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/SupremeCourtOklahoma/2400a4bf66084ec9bda3b443d26adf81/photo?Query=oklahoma%20supreme%20court&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:asc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=195&currentItemNo=127">AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki</a></span>
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<h2>Property and parenting</h2>
<p>In 1922, Oregon voters approved an initiative requiring parents of children ages 8-16 to send them to public schools. The act carved out many exceptions, including for children who had already completed eighth grade or lived too far away, but did not include private schools among them.</p>
<p>The law would have effectively outlawed nonpublic schools. This push came just as the influence of nativist groups such as the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Know-Nothing-party">Know-Nothing Party</a>, which <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/nativism-american">opposed the largely Catholic waves of immigrants</a> as un-American, began to wane.</p>
<p>Officials from a Catholic school challenged Oregon’s act, as did officials from the secular Hill Military Academy. After the federal trial court in Oregon decided that the statute could not go into effect, Gov. Walter M. Pierce appealed, acting on behalf of the state. The U.S. Supreme Court then unanimously affirmed <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1900-1940/268us510">in favor of the schools</a>.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court made two major points, both of which rely on the 14th Amendment’s <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxiv">due process clause</a>, which declares that no state shall “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”</p>
<p>The justices recognized the power of the state to “regulate all schools, to inspect, supervise, and examine them, their teachers and pupils,” whether private or public – though apart from health and safety issues, states typically impose fewer rules on nonpublic institutions. Yet, the Court agreed that the law would have seriously undermined the owners’ ability to operate their schools, while greatly diminishing the value of their properties. </p>
<p>Second, the justices turned to parental rights, identifying them as one of the liberties protected by the 14th Amendment. In often-quoted language, the court declared that <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/268/510/">the child “is not the mere creature of the state</a>; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right, coupled with the high duty, to recognize and prepare him for additional obligations.”</p>
<p>The justices thereby invalidated Oregon’s statute, because it “unreasonably interfere[d] with the liberty of parents and guardians to direct the upbringing and education of children under their control.”</p>
<h2>Nonpublic schools, public funds</h2>
<p>Recent battles over <a href="https://udayton.edu/directory/education/eda/russo_charles.php">religion and education</a> at the Supreme Court are not about faith-based schools’ right to exist but about how much state funding they and their students can receive. Starting in 2017, the Supreme Court handed down a trilogy of cases greatly increasing the governmental aid available.</p>
<p>The first, <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/16pdf/15-577_khlp.pdf">Trinity Lutheran Church v. Comer</a>, arose after officials in Missouri prevented a Christian preschool and day care center from purchasing recycled, cut-up tires to resurface their playground to enhance safety – a state program available to other nonprofits.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/16pdf/15-577_khlp.pdf">ruled in the church’s favor</a> in 2017. The <a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-1/">free exercise clause</a> of the First Amendment forbids the government from prohibiting the “free exercise” of religion. The majority reasoned that the free exercise clause means states cannot single out institutions or people by denying them generally available benefits, for which they are otherwise eligible, solely on the basis of religion.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582849/original/file-20240319-26-ssjqm7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A small statue of a child holding a book sits in the foreground, with a large columned white building in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582849/original/file-20240319-26-ssjqm7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582849/original/file-20240319-26-ssjqm7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582849/original/file-20240319-26-ssjqm7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582849/original/file-20240319-26-ssjqm7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582849/original/file-20240319-26-ssjqm7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582849/original/file-20240319-26-ssjqm7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582849/original/file-20240319-26-ssjqm7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 22, 2024.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/SupremeCourt/2df44ba2a63d402092e7559a7e8d5f71/photo?Query=supreme%20court&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:asc&dateRange=now-30d&totalCount=243&currentItemNo=31">AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein</a></span>
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<p>In 2020, the court again expanded the limits on aid for students at K-12 religious schools. This case, <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/cert/18-1195">Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue</a>, stemmed from a state program that allowed tax credits for parents sending their children to private schools. However, the state’s constitution prohibits public funding for religious education programs, so parents who sent their children to faith-based schools were barred from participating.</p>
<p>Using a rationale similar to the one it applied in Trinity Lutheran, the court held that this no-aid provision <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2019/18-1195">discriminated on the basis of religion</a>, violating the <a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-1/">free exercise clause</a> of the Constitution.</p>
<p>Most recently, in 2022, the court further expanded public funding for faith-based schools in <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/carson-v-makin/">Carson v. Makin</a>, a case from Maine. The Supreme Court invalidated a statute excluding “sectarian” schools from a tuition program for parents living in districts lacking public secondary schools. Because Maine’s constitution guarantees a free public education, the tuition payments allow parents in these districts to send their children to schools of their choice.</p>
<p>The justices also <a href="https://theconversation.com/state-funds-for-students-at-religious-schools-supreme-court-says-yes-in-maine-case-but-consequences-could-go-beyond-184618">struck the law down</a> because it violated the free exercise clause by treating religious people and institutions differently than others. Moreover, echoing Pierce, the court found that Maine’s statute failed to protect parents’ rights to send their children to the schools of their choice.</p>
<h2>Pushing the boundary</h2>
<p>Pierce also laid the groundwork for the “parental choice movement” in education, including charter schools. Typically, these schools operate under performance contracts, or “charters,” with public sponsors: either local school boards or occasionally colleges. While charter schools have more freedom to design their own standards and curricula, they can, <a href="https://www.law.com/thelegalintelligencer/almID/1202727802943/">unlike regular public schools, be closed</a> for failing to reach stated targets on student achievement.</p>
<p>In June 2023, Oklahoma’s statewide virtual school board authorized the creation of <a href="https://theconversation.com/oklahoma-oks-the-nations-first-religious-charter-school-but-litigation-is-likely-to-follow-207103">the nation’s first faith-based charter</a>, demonstrating how far the pendulum of allowing government aid into religious schools may be swinging. But <a href="https://stisidorevirtualschool.org/">St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School</a>, which plans to open under the direction of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa, will not start classes without a fight.</p>
<p>Oklahoma’s highest court has <a href="https://www.aol.com/oklahoma-supreme-court-hear-arguments-015922066.html">scheduled oral arguments</a> for April 2, 2024, as the state’s attorney general and others filed suit to stop St. Isidore from opening. Opponents of the school argue that the existence of a faith-based charter <a href="https://www.kosu.org/education/2023-10-23/oklahoma-attorney-general-files-lawsuit-against-state-board-over-catholic-charter-school">would violate the U.S. Constitution</a>, as well as Oklahoma’s state Constitution – according to which public schools shall be “free from sectarian control,” such that public funds cannot be used to support religious institutions – and various state statues.</p>
<p>Pierce remains a watershed moment for nonpublic schools’ rights to operate, including religious ones, and for parents’ rights. In light of recent Supreme Court developments, it appears that both of these rights are alive and well heading into Pierce’s second century – but not without controversy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225868/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charles J. Russo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
In 1922, Oregon voters approved an initiative to require public school for most students ages 8-16 − but it didn’t hold up in court.
Charles J. Russo, Joseph Panzer Chair in Education and Research Professor of Law, University of Dayton
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/219783
2023-12-19T13:14:20Z
2023-12-19T13:14:20Z
Finding objective ways to talk about religion in the classroom is tough − but the cost of not doing so is clear
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565878/original/file-20231214-19-f6dr6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C3%2C2117%2C1406&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Concerns about what is or isn't legal can hinder objective lessons about religious studies in class.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/students-draw-their-attention-to-the-unseen-royalty-free-image/1430112785?phrase=classroom+u.s.+discussion&searchscope=image%2Cfilm&adppopup=true">SDI Productions/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Despite the holiday season’s calls for joy and peace, <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/02/how-should-faith-communities-halt-the-rise-in-religious-violence/">religious strife</a> continues in many places. While the United States has a great deal of litigation and controversy over religion’s place in public life, it has largely avoided violence. Yet our society often seems unprepared to talk constructively about this contentious topic, especially in schools. </p>
<p>According to <a href="https://www.interfaithamerica.org/research/ideals/">the IDEALS survey</a> of college students on 122 U.S. campuses, conducted by researchers at North Carolina State University, Ohio State University and the nonprofit Interfaith America, just 32% of students said they had developed the skills “to interact with people of diverse beliefs.” Although almost three-quarters of students spent time learning about people of different races, ethnicities or countries, less than half of them reported learning about various religions. Most students received “C” grades or below on the survey’s religious literacy quiz.</p>
<p><a href="https://aarweb.org/common/Uploaded%20files/Publications%20and%20News/Guides%20and%20Best%20Practices/AARK-12CurriculumGuidelinesPDF.pdf">Objective education</a> about the world’s religions has <a href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Religious-Literacy-Imperative-Report.pdf">the potential to foster tolerance and understanding</a>, and various research groups provide guidelines for <a href="https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/what-we-do/our-approach/core-principles">religious literacy education</a>. Yet <a href="https://time.com/4261597/teaching-religion/">the study of religion</a> may be hindered by hesitation about what is and isn’t legal <a href="https://time.com/4261597/teaching-religion/">in public classrooms</a> – a topic I write about often as <a href="https://udayton.edu/directory/education/eda/russo_charles.php">a professor of law and education</a>, with a particular interest in these fields’ relationships to religion. </p>
<p>Other countries also face challenges in deciding what kind of religion-related instruction can or can’t be legally taught in public schools, and each deals with the question in different ways.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565885/original/file-20231214-29-9k3dgx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A peaceful scene inside a sunlit classroom with colorful decorations in the windows." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565885/original/file-20231214-29-9k3dgx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565885/original/file-20231214-29-9k3dgx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565885/original/file-20231214-29-9k3dgx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565885/original/file-20231214-29-9k3dgx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565885/original/file-20231214-29-9k3dgx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565885/original/file-20231214-29-9k3dgx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565885/original/file-20231214-29-9k3dgx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Students attend their last class before mid-term holidays begin in April 2023 in Ankara, Turkey.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/students-of-a-primary-school-attend-their-last-class-before-news-photo/1251815172?adppopup=true">Ercin Erturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>US legal landscape</h2>
<p>Though there have been many Supreme Court cases over issues of church and state in public schools, most deal with the First Amendment freedoms of students, staff and parents rather than what’s officially taught in class.</p>
<p>There has been relatively little litigation about what teachers can and can’t instruct students in matters that touch on religion. Two of the exceptions involved lessons about evolution: <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/393/97">one decided in 1968</a>, <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/482/578">the other in 1987</a>. In both cases, the Supreme Court upheld educators’ right to teach evolution, rather than the biblical accounts of creation, to explain human origins. </p>
<p>Federal trial courts in <a href="https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/933/582/1741862/">Mississippi</a> and <a href="https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp2/1/1426/2569866/">Florida</a> banned courses in the 1990s that included instruction about the New Testament, ruling that the way they were taught crossed a line and violated the <a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-1/">establishment clause</a> of the U.S. Constitution. However, this was because the courts determined instruction was being given from a Christian perspective. The court in Florida did allow teaching about the Hebrew scriptures, because the focus was on the texts’ cultural and literary significance.</p>
<p>In the Supreme Court’s closest response to the question of teaching about religion in public schools, 1963’s <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/374/203">School District of Abington Township v. Schempp</a>, eight of the nine justices agreed that state-sponsored prayer and Bible reading in public schools violates the establishment clause. Yet the court recognized that “<a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/374/203">the Bible is worthy of study</a> for its literary and historic qualities. Nothing we have said here indicates that such study of the Bible or of religion, when presented objectively as part of a secular program of education, may not be effected consistently with the First Amendment.”</p>
<p>The court’s decision “plainly does not foreclose teaching about the Holy Scriptures or about the differences between religious sects in classes in literature or history,” Justice William Brennan <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/374/203">added in a concurrence</a>. Thus, consistent with religious literacy programs’ approach, public schools can teach about religion, but not in ways that seek to instill systems of belief.</p>
<h2>International perspectives</h2>
<p>To place the issue in perspective, it is worth highlighting other countries’ approaches to teaching about religion in the classroom – <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Law-Education-and-the-Place-of-Religion-in-Public-Schools-International/Russo/p/book/9781032064482">the focus of a book I recently edited</a>.</p>
<p>At one end of the 18 countries <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Law-Education-and-the-Place-of-Religion-in-Public-Schools-International/Russo/p/book/9781032064482">examined in the book</a>, educators in Mexico impose significant restrictions on what can be taught about faith-based beliefs. According to <a href="https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Mexico_2015">the Mexican Constitution</a>, “State education shall be maintained entirely apart from any religious doctrine.” However, it does allow religious institutions to provide faith-based education through the private schools they sponsor. </p>
<p>Most nations the book analyzes are more open to teaching about religion in public schools as long as instruction remains objective and does not indoctrinate students. Australia, Brazil, Canada, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, South Africa and Sweden all adopt this approach in varying degrees.</p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://www.stf.jus.br/arquivo/cms/legislacaoConstituicao/anexo/brazil_federal_constitution.pdf">according to the Brazilian Constitution</a>, optional religious education should be offered during the day for elementary students. The country’s <a href="https://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/Leis/L9394.htm">National Education Act</a> describes this as a way of “ensuring respect for Brazil’s religious cultural diversity, and any form of proselytism is prohibited.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565881/original/file-20231214-27-tyer6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Several men in suits stand and smile behind a group of schoolchildren in white t-shirts." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565881/original/file-20231214-27-tyer6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565881/original/file-20231214-27-tyer6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565881/original/file-20231214-27-tyer6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565881/original/file-20231214-27-tyer6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565881/original/file-20231214-27-tyer6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565881/original/file-20231214-27-tyer6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565881/original/file-20231214-27-tyer6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (in tan suit) and Minister of Education Camilo Santana attend the launch of the literacy program for schoolchildren.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/brazilian-president-luiz-inacio-lula-da-silva-and-minister-news-photo/1258642461?adppopup=true">Mateus Bonomi/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Australia allows <a href="https://www.saasso.asn.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Administrative-Instructions-and-Guidelines-Section-3.pdf">nondenominational classes about religion</a> to help students understand the “influence of religion in life and society and the variety of beliefs by which people live.” In addition, it permits faith-based student clubs, as well as religious seminars that amount to no more than one half day per term. Parents can ask that their children be excused, or students may participate in ethics courses instead.</p>
<p>At the other end, England, Malaysia and Turkey mandate teaching about religion in public schools, though British parents may exempt their children. England’s <a href="https://democraticservices.hounslow.gov.uk/documents/s39772/Updated%20guidance%20on%20RE-FINAL.pdf">Department for Children, Schools and Families</a> strongly encourages that instruction include multiple religious perspectives, while classes in the other two countries are allowed to be more from faith-based perspectives.</p>
<p>Malaysia, which declares Islam <a href="https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Malaysia_2007">the official religion</a>, <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Law-Education-and-the-Place-of-Religion-in-Public-Schools-International/Russo/p/book/9781032064482">mandates faith-based instruction on Islam</a> for Muslim students. Non-Muslims must attend moral studies classes. Turkey, meanwhile, requires religious culture and moral knowledge courses for grades 4-12 that focus on Islam. Parents who belong to other religions have the right <a href="https://www.state.gov/reports/2022-report-on-international-religious-freedom/turkey/">to exempt their children</a> from these classes.</p>
<p>What happens in public schools in the U.S. today will significantly shape tomorrow’s society. I believe encouraging teaching about religion can help America’s rapidly diversifying population to understand and respect others’ beliefs or lack thereof. Discussing religions in an inclusive, objective and academic way can certainly be challenging in a classroom, as there is a fine line between teaching about it and proselytizing – but not doing so has risks as well.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219783/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charles J. Russo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Many countries wrestle with whether to include any kind of education about religion in public school lessons, and each one takes its own approach.
Charles J. Russo, Joseph Panzer Chair in Education and Research Professor of Law, University of Dayton
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/215132
2023-10-26T12:31:24Z
2023-10-26T12:31:24Z
Public schools and faith-based chaplains: Texas’ new combination is testing the First Amendment
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555647/original/file-20231024-15-yneqdd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C0%2C2114%2C1409&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">When public school counselors are in short supply, should chaplains be allowed to fill the gap?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/unhappy-young-girl-at-the-psychologist-royalty-free-image/1327949832?phrase=chaplain+counsels+a+child&adppopup=true">Vladimir Vladimirov/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1996, a school board in eastern Texas created a program called Clergy in Schools. Beaumont Independent School District recruited volunteer clergy <a href="https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/beaumont-school-district-target-of-lawsuit-over-2023594.php">to counsel K-12 students</a> on topics such as self-esteem, peer pressure and violence. The goal, officials said, was to create volunteer opportunities, encourage conversation about civic values and morality, and enhance safe learning environments.</p>
<p>Clergy in Schools didn’t last long. A federal trial court in Texas <a href="https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp2/224/1099/2490192/">invalidated the program</a> in 2002. The judge found that the program violated <a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-1/">the First Amendment</a>, according to which, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” More specifically, the court held that the program was unconstitutional because it was not neutral with regard to faith and conveyed the message that religion is preferable to a lack of religion.</p>
<p>But now, schools across the state are debating whether to open their doors to clergy. </p>
<p><a href="https://legiscan.com/TX/text/SB763/id/2686268">Senate Bill 763</a>, enacted in September 2023, allows school officials to hire unlicensed chaplains, either as staff members or volunteers. Those who can pass background checks will be allowed to perform duties typically provided by counselors, such as mental health support. Local boards have until March 1, 2024, to choose whether to allow chaplain programs in their schools.</p>
<p>SB 763 generates significant questions around the First Amendment. These questions are all the more high stakes given that the Supreme Court has recently <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-supreme-courts-football-decision-is-a-game-changer-on-school-prayer-184619">signaled shifting views</a> about the limits on religious activity in public schools – themes I teach, write and speak about regularly as <a href="https://udayton.edu/directory/education/eda/russo_charles.php">a faculty member</a> specializing in education law.</p>
<h2>Lone Star State</h2>
<p>Across the nation, local boards have difficulty <a href="https://www.tasb.org/services/hr-services/hrx/recruiting-and-hiring/national-school-counselor-shortage-rates.aspx">filling counseling positions with qualified staff</a>. In fact, Texas ranks 23rd in the nation <a href="https://missoulian.com/news/national/most-states-have-a-school-counselor-shortage-heres-where-theyre-needed-the-most/article_1169c039-88da-5f13-8489-3ed8cdf09b76.html">in student-to-counselor ratios</a>, with almost 400 students for every counselor.</p>
<p>However, SB 763 was also enacted amid a seeming push to allow religion to <a href="https://www.expressnews.com/politics/article/republicans-push-christianity-texas-schools-17915163.php">occupy a greater place</a> in Texas’ public schools. </p>
<p>One bill <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2023/05/24/texas-legislature-ten-commandments-bill/">requiring officials to display</a> a 16-by-20-inch copy of the Ten Commandments in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/04/21/texas-bill-ten-commandments-public-schools-religion/">every public school classroom</a> was passed in the state Senate but died on the floor of the House in May 2023. <a href="https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/88R/billtext/pdf/SB01396E.pdf#navpanes=0">Another bill</a>, passed by the Senate and sent to a House committee, would allow boards to require schools to provide students with <a href="https://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/2023/04/21/ten-commandments-and-prayer-in-public-schools-texas-senate-approves-religious-bills/">time to pray</a> or read religious texts.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555649/original/file-20231024-23-l229tg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The multistory dome of a large building is seen between trees, with two flags flying in front." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555649/original/file-20231024-23-l229tg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555649/original/file-20231024-23-l229tg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555649/original/file-20231024-23-l229tg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555649/original/file-20231024-23-l229tg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555649/original/file-20231024-23-l229tg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555649/original/file-20231024-23-l229tg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555649/original/file-20231024-23-l229tg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Texas legislature has debated several proposals over the past year to give religion more of a role in public schools.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-exterior-of-the-texas-state-capitol-is-seen-on-news-photo/1661520774?adppopup=true">Brandon Bell/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Shifts at SCOTUS</h2>
<p>The Supreme Court, too, has displayed a friendlier attitude toward prayer and religion in public education, as reflected in <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/21-418">Kennedy v. Bremerton School District</a>: its 2022 decision upholding the right of a Washington state football coach <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-supreme-courts-football-decision-is-a-game-changer-on-school-prayer-184619">to pray on the field</a> at the end of games.</p>
<p>In so doing, the justices acknowledged that the Supreme Court abandoned the tests it used over the past 50-plus years to assess whether government actions appeared to endorse religion, and therefore whether they violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment.</p>
<p>The most famous of these was often called “the Lemon test,” referring to the court’s 1971 decision in <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1970/89">Lemon v. Kurtzman</a>. In order to be permissible, the court ruled in Lemon, an activity involving religion and state had to <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/403/602/">meet three criteria</a>: that it have a secular legislative purpose; that its principal or primary effect neither advance nor inhibit religion; and that it not result in “excessive entanglement” between religion and the state – though the court did not define “excessive.”</p>
<p>The court also abandoned what was known as the “endorsement test,” which stems from 1984’s <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/465/668/">Lynch v. Donnelly</a>, in which a man <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1983/82-1256">challenged a Rhode Island city</a> over its Christmas display and Nativity scene – and lost. According to the endorsement test, a policy is permissible if a “reasonable observer” would not think it was endorsing or disapproving of religion. </p>
<p>Finally, in 1992, the court abandoned a test it applied only once, in <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/90-1014.ZD.html">Lee v. Weisman</a>: coercion. The justices invalidated prayer at a public school graduation ceremony on the basis that it coerced people present into listening.</p>
<p>Instead of these tests, the court wrote in 2022’s <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/21-418_i425.pdf">Kennedy v. Bremerton</a> that “the Establishment Clause must be interpreted by ‘reference to <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/21-418">historical practices and understandings</a>.’” However, it remains to be seen exactly what this means.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555651/original/file-20231024-29-2b6fmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People kneel on a large piece of pavement, looking toward a large white building with columns." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555651/original/file-20231024-29-2b6fmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555651/original/file-20231024-29-2b6fmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555651/original/file-20231024-29-2b6fmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555651/original/file-20231024-29-2b6fmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555651/original/file-20231024-29-2b6fmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555651/original/file-20231024-29-2b6fmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555651/original/file-20231024-29-2b6fmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People kneel and pray as Christian singer-songwriter Sean Feucht performs outside the U.S. Supreme Court after the Kennedy v. Bremerton ruling on June 27, 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-kneel-and-pray-as-christian-singer-songwriter-sean-news-photo/1241572598?adppopup=true">Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Crossing the line?</h2>
<p>Even so, SB 763 raises at least three thorny issues about how to assess whether a policy violates the First Amendment.</p>
<p>Initially, assuming the lower courts apply the new test enunciated in Kennedy v. Bremerton – that the First Amendment must be interpreted in light of “historical practices” – there do not appear to be traditions supporting the presence of faith-based chaplains as staff members or volunteers in public schools, regardless of whether they were formally credentialed.</p>
<p>Second is the question of endorsing religion. As noted, the Supreme Court repudiated its earlier tests about whether a policy appears to “endorse” a particular religion or no religion, or coerced people into participating. But the fundamental principle still holds: The First Amendment prohibits government from making any law “respecting an establishment of religion.” It thus appears that SB 763 straddles, if not crosses, the line into establishment. Having faith-based chaplains – a move <a href="https://bjconline.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/LETTER_-Texas-Chaplains-Say-No-to-Public-School-Chaplain-Programs.pdf">many Texas chaplains themselves oppose</a> – arguably puts the power of the state behind their actions.</p>
<p>Third is the question of which faiths will be represented and whether the chaplain program would appear to endorse some religions over others. Even if SB 763 were to survive a challenge on establishment clause grounds, one must question whether having chaplains from only some faith traditions is wise in an increasingly pluralistic American society, in which the number of <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/12/14/about-three-in-ten-u-s-adults-are-now-religiously-unaffiliated/">people no longer identifying with religion</a> is growing.</p>
<h2>Votes ahead</h2>
<p>Not surprisingly, SB 763 has its supporters and critics. A board member in one Texas district <a href="https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/north-east-independent-school-district-san-antonio-tx-chaplains/">described the bill</a> as “a great opportunity to bring some spiritual guidance into the schools.” Another supporter, without offering a rationale, suggested that affording religion a greater place in public education could help to make schools safer, including <a href="https://www.expressnews.com/politics/article/texas-republicans-tout-christianity-campus-deter-18073417.php">reducing the risk of mass shootings</a>.</p>
<p>Conversely, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2023/08/23/texas-school-chaplains-letter/">more than 100 chaplains</a> from various Christian denominations – including the Catholic Church, United Methodist Church and Seventh-day Adventist Church – as well as Jewish and Buddhist leaders signed <a href="https://bjconline.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/LETTER_-Texas-Chaplains-Say-No-to-Public-School-Chaplain-Programs.pdf">a public letter</a> opposing the bill. “It is harmful to our public schools and the students and families they serve,” the signatories wrote, because it neither prevents individuals from proselytizing in schools nor insures that they would have the necessary qualifications to serve students.</p>
<p>Boards have begun to vote on whether to allow chaplains in their schools. So far, boards <a href="https://www.keranews.org/education/2023-10-20/dallas-isd-wont-employ-chaplains-as-counselors">including those in Dallas</a> and <a href="https://www.kvue.com/article/news/education/schools/san-marcos-cisd-rejects-school-chaplains/269-026bbf9c-285c-4db5-be3d-14c09b40e678">San Marcos</a> have chosen not to do so, while others such as <a href="https://communityimpact.com/austin/round-rock/education/2023/09/26/round-rock-isd-officials-choose-volunteer-policy-for-local-chaplains/">Round Rock</a> <a href="https://www.ketk.com/news/local-news/mineola-isd-approves-chaplains-as-counselors/">and Mineola</a> have decided to allow chaplains in their schools.</p>
<p>SB 763 raises serious questions about what crosses the line toward establishing religion that, I believe, will likely result in litigation. Thus, both sides – whether in favor of or opposed to having chaplains in schools – should be mindful of the aphorism to “be careful what you wish for.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215132/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charles J. Russo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Recent Supreme Court decisions have signaled a shift in how the country’s highest court interprets the limits on religion in schools.
Charles J. Russo, Joseph Panzer Chair in Education and Research Professor of Law, University of Dayton
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/214736
2023-10-15T04:45:46Z
2023-10-15T04:45:46Z
Between state and mosque: new book explores the turbulent history of Islamic politics in Mozambique
<p><em><a href="https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/dp/2014/afr1404.pdf">Mozambique</a> is a multi-religious southern African nation with excellent relations between faiths. Relations between Muslims and the state have been good too. But the situation became more complicated <a href="https://theconversation.com/mozambiques-own-version-of-boko-haram-is-tightening-its-deadly-grip-98087">in 2017</a> when a bloody jihadist insurgency broke out in the north. Eric Morier-Genoud has published extensively on politics and religion in Mozambique. His latest book, <a href="https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/towards-jihad/">Towards Jihad? Muslims and Politics in Postcolonial Mozambique</a>, looks at the historical relationship between Islam and politics in the country. He fielded some questions from The Conversation Africa.</em></p>
<hr>
<h2>When was Islam introduced to Mozambique?</h2>
<p>Islam has a very old presence in Mozambique. It is estimated to have arrived within the first century of the start of the faith, with Arab, Ottoman and Persian traders. It settled at once during and after the 8th century among new Swahili networks, cultures and societies that developed on the east African coast between Somalia and what is today Mozambique. </p>
<p>Expansion of the Islamic faith inland was slow and only made significant progress in the 19th and 20th centuries. This was the time when European colonial powers occupied Africa, building new infrastructure such as roads and railways that helped the spread of different faiths. </p>
<p>At <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Mozambique/Mozambique-under-the-New-State-regime">independence in 1975</a>, Muslims represented 15% of the population of Mozambique. The latest census indicates it stood at 19% <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Mozambique/Religion">in 2017</a>. Today Muslims live mostly on the coast and in the north of the country. A majority of the population of Niassa and Cabo Delgado provinces are Muslim, as are 40% of the population of Nampula province.</p>
<h2>What’s been the political experience of Muslims since independence?</h2>
<p>A majority of Muslims, like all other religious people in the country, were in favour of independence. But when Frelimo, the liberation movement, came to power at independence in 1975, its policy was socialist-oriented and the government turned against religion. Frelimo saw faith as a superstition and an impediment to its programme. It closed churches near state and educational institutions, restricted religious practice, and even ran atheist campaigns between 1978 and 1980. </p>
<p>In the 1980s, the Frelimo party-state shifted towards tolerance, meaning a policy of minor religious restrictions and a strict separation between state and church/mosque. Frelimo party members were prohibited from being members of a religious institution. Faith institutions were ordered to focus on religion only. </p>
<p>In the 1990s, after the end of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/question/How-did-the-Cold-War-end">Cold War</a> and the official abandonment of socialism, the Frelimo government moved towards a freer religious regime. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, the post-socialist <a href="https://www.portaldogoverno.gov.mz/por/Governo/Legislacao/Constituicao-da-Republica-de-Mocambique">1990 constitution</a> did not allow political parties based on regionalism, ethnicity or religion. So there’s a limit to what Muslims can do politically for their faith.</p>
<p>A law to recognise Muslim religious holidays in the 1990s was blocked by the Supreme Court in the name of secularism. Muslims argued this was unfair since Christmas is an official holiday, although called <a href="https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/?country=126">“family day”</a>. </p>
<p>Similarly in the 2000s Muslim politicians (organised in a formal cross-party lobby in parliament) struggled to influence a new law to define the family, inheritance rights and women’s rights. </p>
<p>Consequently, many Islamic organisations and politicians have moved away from politics in the last two decades, to focus on education, social works and proselytism.</p>
<h2>What led to the current insurgency?</h2>
<p>There is much debate about the causes of the jihadi insurgency in northern Mozambique. <a href="https://www.iese.ac.mz/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/cadernos_17.pdf">Researchers</a> have identified poverty, youth marginalisation, ethnicity and religion as push factors. </p>
<p>The pull factor is a jihadi project of more justice and equality through sharia law and a caliphate. It offers an alternative plan for state and society, and a path to it through violence. The insurgency developed regionally (in connection with Tanzanian jihadis) and the insurgents connected formally to the Islamic State, the <a href="https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2022/08/11/how-al-qaeda-and-islamic-state-are-digging-into-africa">international terrorist group</a>, in early 2018. </p>
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<p>
<em>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/mozambican-terror-group-is-strikingly-similar-to-nigerias-deadly-boko-haram-201039">Mozambican terror group is strikingly similar to Nigeria's deadly Boko Haram</a>
</strong>
</em>
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<p>My book shows that the overwhelming majority of Muslims in Mozambique do not want full sharia law and a caliphate. Nor do they accept the violence used to achieve these objectives. </p>
<p>The insurgents have nevertheless settled militarily in the extreme north, where they have established bases in deep forests and rely on Islamic State for some technical support and public relations.</p>
<h2>What support, if any, do the insurgents enjoy in Mozambique?</h2>
<p>Insurgents enjoy hardly any support nationally. Locally, they draw some support from networks they established, from long-held local grievances, and from mistakes the state, the army and the police have made since the start of the conflict. </p>
<p>Other dynamics have come into play, including displacement, violence, uncertainty and fear. Today, the “Al-Shabaab” insurgents (as they are known in Mozambique) operate in a territory of about 30,000 square kilometres which represents less than half of the province of Cabo Delgado (one of the 11 provinces of Mozambique). </p>
<p>This is a very limited territory, but one where crucial economic projects are located. Among others, private investment is unfolding for the production of onshore and offshore LNG gas, and companies have developed graphite projects that have turned Mozambique into the second largest world producer of this mineral. </p>
<p>The insurgents have hardly expanded since they began their armed insurrection in October 2017. In 2021 they carried out attacks in Niassa and Nampula, but they withdrew rapidly. It is not clear whether they chose not to expand, or whether the government and its <a href="https://www.usip.org/publications/2022/06/regional-security-support-vital-first-step-peace-mozambique">international allies</a> have been effective in containing them. Still, the armed conflict continues today, six years on.</p>
<h2>How can the peace be restored?</h2>
<p>This is a topic of debate. The government has been active mostly militarily, with an international intervention since 2021. It wants to root out those it calls international “terrorists”. </p>
<p>Many commentators and partners of Mozambique believe that to resolve the conflict, one also needs to address the root causes: poverty, youth marginalisation and ethnicity. Donors and the Mozambican government have started social and economic programmes focusing on youth and on economic development in the north of Mozambique. Even private companies such as TotalEnergie want to engage in such programmes.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/catalogue-of-failures-behind-growing-humanitarian-crisis-in-northern-mozambique-149343">Catalogue of failures behind growing humanitarian crisis in northern Mozambique</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>An element which has not been touched upon yet relates to the pull factors. There are several possibilities. One would be for the state and civil society to develop a reflection and consultation about the future of the country and about inclusion and representation. It could look at social, economic, political, historical, cultural, and religious elements, aiming to establish a medium-term “agenda for the nation”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214736/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eric Morier-Genoud does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The overwhelming majority of Muslims in Mozambique reject the violence of the insurgents and their quest for a caliphate.
Eric Morier-Genoud, Reader in African history, Queen's University Belfast
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/203541
2023-04-17T12:44:43Z
2023-04-17T12:44:43Z
Plans for religious charter school, though rejected for now, are already pushing church-state debates into new territory
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520120/original/file-20230411-24-1a1qsx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C9%2C2106%2C1398&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Would religious charter schools be constitutional? More advocates are pushing to find out.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/praying-together-in-a-bible-study-royalty-free-image/505827292?phrase=god%20school&adppopup=true">FatCamera/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>An updated version of this article was published on June 7, 2023. <a href="https://theconversation.com/oklahoma-oks-the-nations-first-religious-charter-school-but-litigation-is-likely-to-follow-207103">Read it here</a>.</em></p>
<p>U.S. courts have long wrestled with the extent to which government funding can be used at private religious schools. School-choice advocates <a href="https://theconversation.com/state-funds-for-students-at-religious-schools-supreme-court-says-yes-in-maine-case-but-consequences-could-go-beyond-184618">have won key cases at the Supreme Court</a> in recent years, opening up more ways for public dollars to support faith-based education. But Oklahoma <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/oklahoma-eyes-first-us-religious-charter-school-after-supreme-court-rulings-2023-04-06/">pushed the debate into unchartered territory</a> this spring with a proposal for a school that would have been the first of its kind: a Catholic charter, primarily paid for by taxpayers.</p>
<p>On April 11, 2023, the five-person board responsible for approving Oklahoma charters unanimously voted <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/04/12/oklahoma-religious-charter-school-catholic/">to reject the proposal</a>, due to concerns about its governance structure and plans for special education students, <a href="https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/education/2023/04/11/oklahoma-statewide-virtual-charter-school-board-rejects-catholic-school-vote/70100040007/">among other issues</a>. However, it gave organizers 30 days to <a href="https://www.koco.com/article/oklahoma-state-board-rejects-proposal-public-catholic-charter-school/43570335">revise the proposal and try again</a>.</p>
<p>Charter schools, which are publicly funded but generally run by independent organizations, have attracted ardent fans and foes <a href="https://www.npr.org/2012/09/02/160409742/from-a-single-charter-school-a-movement-grows">since they started in the early 1990s</a>. Yet the key question in this case is not whether a charter would help or harm local education, but whether explicitly religious instruction at charter schools is constitutional, given <a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-1/">the First Amendment’s</a> protections against government establishment of religion.</p>
<p>In late 2022, the then-attorney general of Oklahoma <a href="https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/education/2022/12/02/oklahoma-ag-releases-opinion-on-religious-charter-schools/69695429007/">argued that</a> a state law barring faith-based charter schools was actually unconstitutional. The new attorney general who took office in January 2023 <a href="https://kfor.com/news/local/ag-drummond-rescinds-oconnor-era-opinion-on-religious-institution-charter-schools/">soon rescinded the opinion</a>, leaving the charter school proposal in legal limbo – and making it even more likely to wind up at the Supreme Court if the school board eventually approves the charter.</p>
<h2>Recent trend</h2>
<p>Advocates of <a href="https://www.the74million.org/article/analysis-opening-the-door-to-faith-based-charter-schools/">expanding public funding to faith-based schools</a> were encouraged by three recent Supreme Court cases that upheld greater aid to their students. All three of these cases relied on a legal idea <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/872266049">I have written about</a> called the “child benefit test.” Essentially, according to this concept, it is constitutional under some circumstances to provide public funds to students who attend faith-based private schools, or their parents – but not directly to the schools.</p>
<p>The first of these decisions, 2017’s <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/15-577">Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia v. Comer</a>, dealt with a private Christian preschool that was denied public grants to update its playground. School administrators sued, arguing that to deny generally available funding constituted religious discrimination, in violation of the First Amendment’s protections for freedom of religion. The high court agreed.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520124/original/file-20230411-20-plpe9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man in a suit speaks in front of a crowd in front of the Supreme Court, with people holding up balloons that spell out 'fair play' behind him." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520124/original/file-20230411-20-plpe9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520124/original/file-20230411-20-plpe9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520124/original/file-20230411-20-plpe9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520124/original/file-20230411-20-plpe9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520124/original/file-20230411-20-plpe9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520124/original/file-20230411-20-plpe9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520124/original/file-20230411-20-plpe9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Faith & Freedom Coalition Chairman Ralph Reed speaks in front of the Supreme Court before arguments in Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia v. Comer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/faith-freedom-coalition-chairman-ralph-reed-speaks-during-a-news-photo/670245268?adppopup=true">Mark Wilson/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Three years later, <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/18-1195">Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue</a> further opened up government aid to private religious school pupils, relying on the Trinity Lutheran decision. A 5-4 majority ruled that Montana’s tax credit program for parents sending their children to independent schools must apply even if those schools are faith-based.</p>
<p>In 2022, the Court extended this perspective in a case from Maine, <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/20-1088">Carson v. Makin</a>. Maine, with its low population density, pays parents in areas lacking their own public schools to either transport their children to nearby public schools or a secular private school. The Supreme Court found that <a href="https://theconversation.com/state-funds-for-students-at-religious-schools-supreme-court-says-yes-in-maine-case-but-consequences-could-go-beyond-184618">this program should apply</a> to parents without a local public school who wish to send their child to a religious school, as well.</p>
<h2>Rethinking church and state?</h2>
<p>By expanding the boundaries of permissible aid, these three cases have boosted proponents’ hopes for even greater public funding for private faith-based schools – and now, with the charter proposal, hopes that there might be a path ahead for public religious schools, entirely paid for with taxpayer money. Yet, it is important to keep in mind what likely prompted these changes in the first place: new faces on the Supreme Court. A majority of today’s justices tend to favor an “<a href="https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/825/accommodationism-and-religion#:%7E:text=Accommodationism%20rests%20on%20the%20belief,or%20government%20hostility%20toward%20religion.">accommodationists</a>” interpretation of the First Amendment, meaning they largely reject the idea that it demands a “<a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/separation_of_church_and_state">wall of separation</a>” between church and state, so long as the government is not privileging one faith over another. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, the parameters of the “child benefit test” often used to justify greater public funding has been evolving for years. The concept – which is one that legal scholars use to describe the Supreme Court’s arguments, not a term the court has used itself – first emerged in a 1947 dispute from New Jersey, <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/330/1">Everson v. Board of Education</a>. In that case, the court upheld a state statute that allowed local school boards to transport students to faith-based schools – mostly Roman Catholic ones – reasoning that the students, not the schools themselves, were the primary beneficiaries of state aid.</p>
<p>In another illustrative case, 2002’s <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/00-1751.ZO.html">Zelman v. Simmons-Harris</a>, the Supreme Court allowed parents whose children attended Cleveland’s public school system, which was then failing state standards, to use public vouchers to attend faith-based schools. A majority of justices upheld the program’s constitutionality because, again, students were the primary beneficiaries, not the religious schools themselves. Moreover, students attended these schools as a result of their parents’ free choices, not because doing so was required by the state.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520126/original/file-20230411-28-2y20ky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two rows of people in black robes pose for a formal portrait in front of red velvety curtains." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520126/original/file-20230411-28-2y20ky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520126/original/file-20230411-28-2y20ky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520126/original/file-20230411-28-2y20ky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520126/original/file-20230411-28-2y20ky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520126/original/file-20230411-28-2y20ky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520126/original/file-20230411-28-2y20ky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520126/original/file-20230411-28-2y20ky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A changing court means changing interpretations.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/justices-of-the-us-supreme-court-pose-for-their-official-news-photo/1243795466?adppopup=true">Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Eyes on Oklahoma</h2>
<p>Now, in what may be the largest expansion of the child benefit test, legislators in various states are considering laws to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/02/08/school-choice-vouchers-private-religious-school-huckabee-sanders/">expand how parents can participate in public education fund programs</a> even if their children attend private religious schools, such as by broadening voucher or tax-credit programs. The Oklahoma proposal, however, had been the first to consider establishing a charter school with religious instruction and standards. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/charter-school">Charters</a>, which trace their origins to Minnesota in 1991, are publicly funded and part of local school districts, yet free from many regulations, such as standards about curricular content and teacher qualifications. The idea of <a href="https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/commentary/why-not-religious-charter-schools">faith-based charters</a> has attracted proponents for more than 20 years, but they have had little success. If the proponents of the Catholic proposal in Oklahoma reapply to the school board and eventually succeed, it would likely encourage similar approaches elsewhere.</p>
<p>If states authorize faith-based charters, the new schools will likely be a boon to their religious groups and facilitate more students’ ability to attend. Proponents of charters, whether traditional or faith-based, support them as part of the larger school choice movement that seeks to give parents in failing districts opportunities to move their children into better schools without paying private school tuition.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, faith-based charters are likely to raise new headaches for their supporters, too. Charters are largely exempt from some state standards, but not all, and faith-based schools that converted into charters could be subject to greater government oversight about issues such as policies on LGBTQ+ students and staff – <a href="https://hechingerreport.org/supreme-court-ruling-brings-an-altered-legal-landscape-for-school-choice/">a longtime sticking point</a> – or having to accept <a href="https://www.edweek.org/leadership/charter-schools-more-likely-to-ignore-special-education-applicants-study-finds/2018/12">students with disabilities</a>, just as all public schools do.</p>
<p>While this legal battle is just heating up, it has the potential to reshape public education as we have known it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203541/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charles J. Russo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Using public funds to support students at private religious schools is one thing, but establishing faith-based institutions within public districts is another.
Charles J. Russo, Joseph Panzer Chair in Education in the School of Education and Health Sciences and Research Professor of Law, University of Dayton
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/198902
2023-02-28T13:57:40Z
2023-02-28T13:57:40Z
God and politics in South Africa: the ruling ANC’s winning strategy
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510292/original/file-20230215-18-eroxa0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pastors pray for former South African president and ANC leader Jacob Zuma.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rajesh Jantilal/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Religion shapes some of the most controversial decisions that governments need to make: access to abortion, same-sex marriage, the death penalty and the legal status of sex work. Indeed, it is likely that most voters across the world consider religion to be essential to their lives. </p>
<p>Yet research on religion and political parties remains surprisingly inexact. </p>
<p>Much of the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09637494.2022.2048489?journalCode=crss20">research</a> to date has been waylaid by the wrong question: is a political party fundamentally religious or secular? Yet the “essence” of a party resists definition. Is it its manifesto, rhetoric, membership or leadership? What if these contradict each other? What would it mean if religion was integral to officially secular parties?</p>
<p>The difficulty of this approach is clear when considering a party like the <a href="https://www.anc1912.org.za/">African National Congress (ANC)</a>, which has governed South Africa since 1994. From one angle, it is obviously not a religious party: it remains committed to a secular state and many of its policies (such as those on <a href="https://www.politicsweb.co.za/documents/the-ancs-approach-to-abortion--bathabile-dlamini">abortion</a> and <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2006-11-14-samesex-bill-gets-parliament-goahead/">civil unions</a>) have been <a href="https://pmg.org.za/committee-meeting/27434/">criticised</a> by religious groups.</p>
<p>Yet the ANC is also religious in important senses. In most of the country, you would struggle to find an ANC meeting that did not start and end with a prayer. Nearly all leaders in the past century have been devout. For many supporters, religion is the water in which the ANC swims. </p>
<p>Rather than asking whether a party is religious, we should look at how it engages with religion. I examined the issue in a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03057070.2022.2136820">recent article</a>. I sought to describe how contemporary parliamentary parties in South Africa had engaged with religion throughout their history, and how academics had analysed this.</p>
<p>It’s possible to learn a great deal about a political party by looking at how it uses religion. My study identified a consistent political strategy: the mix of religious rhetoric and a secular policy agenda by the ANC over the past century.</p>
<p>This strategy has been popular with the party, which has won every national election with a margin of at least <a href="https://results.elections.org.za/dashboards/npe/app/dashboard.html">34 percentage points</a> ahead of the second-largest party. It’s a strategy that works in countries that have the unusual combination of religious electorates and secular governments, such as <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/religious-authority-and-state-africa">Kenya and Senegal</a>.</p>
<p>Rather than being a <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2012-07-06-south-africas-creeping-christian-conservatism/">threat to secular democracy</a>, religious rhetoric may be important for ensuring a largely religious electorate feels politically at home in a secular state. </p>
<h2>Religion and political parties in South Africa</h2>
<p>My review of academic publications on religion and political parties in South Africa looked at three sets of rules governing party members: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>informal rules (such as what you can say at public events) </p></li>
<li><p>party rules (such as disciplinary codes and who makes decisions) </p></li>
<li><p>the kind of laws proposed by the party. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>I distinguished between the religious or secular emphasis in each of these, and noted whether this emphasis was inclusive of other beliefs. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-south-africans-are-prone-to-falling-for-charlatans-in-the-church-112879">Why South Africans are prone to falling for charlatans in the church</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The framework offered three key insights. </p>
<p>First, political parties engage with religion with nuance and ambiguity. This applies elsewhere in the world too: <a href="https://www.akparti.org.tr/en">Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi</a> in Turkey, for example, relies on a religious electorate for support. Yet it must navigate an officially and sometimes militantly secular state. However, in contrast to South Africa’s major political parties, it <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9780230106703_9">manages this tension</a> by insisting that it is an inclusive and non-religious party in its rhetoric, while simultaneously pursuing laws that privilege Sunni Islam.</p>
<p>Second, the ANC sometimes uses religious rhetoric while pursuing secular laws and party rules – a combination it has used for <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Rise-African-Nationalism-South-Africa/dp/0520018109">most of its history</a>. </p>
<p>Third, this nuance might be important to voters in South Africa. Parties that pursue policies underpinned by religion do very poorly in elections. An example of this is the <a href="https://www.acdp.org.za/">African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP)</a>, which claims to offer policies based on the Bible.</p>
<p>About 78% of South Africans identified as Christian <a href="https://www.datafirst.uct.ac.za/dataportal/index.php/catalog/611">in 2016</a>. While estimates vary significantly, between <a href="https://theotherfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/ProgPrudes_Report_d5.pdf">45%</a> and <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2010/04/15/executive-summary-islam-and-christianity-in-sub-saharan-africa/">74%</a> report being “very” or “highly religious”, and 76% <a href="https://theotherfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/ProgPrudes_Report_d5.pdf">agree that</a> </p>
<blockquote>
<p>God’s laws about abortion, pornography and marriage must be strictly followed before it is too late.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>The ANC and religion</h2>
<p>Christianity has been important to the ANC’s values and practices since the party’s <a href="https://jacana.co.za/product/the-founders-the-origins-of-the-african-national-congress-and-the-struggle-for-democracy/">beginning in 1912</a>. In 1949, for example, it called for an annual <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Rise-African-Nationalism-South-Africa/dp/0520018109">day of prayer</a> to remember</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Christ who is the Champion of Freedom.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Many regions in the country that participated most actively in the 1952 <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/defiance-campaign-1952">Defiance Campaign</a>, a large non-violent campaign of civil disobedience against apartheid, were led by <a href="https://jacana.co.za/product/from-protest-to-challenge-volume-2-hope-and-challenge-1935-1952/">local churches</a>. ANC president Albert Luthuli, who led the organisation from 1952 to 1967, was <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10282580902876514">famously vocal</a> about his religious convictions. This was also true of most presidents of the ANC before him, including <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/823310">Reverend John Langalibalele Dube</a> and <a href="https://journals.co.za/doi/abs/10.4102/hts.v74i1.4844">Reverend Zaccheus Richard Mahabane</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/can-the-anc-survive-the-end-of-south-africas-heroic-epoch-57256">Can the ANC survive the end of South Africa's heroic epoch?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Yet the ANC has also always been an <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-anc-insists-its-still-a-political-vanguard-this-is-what-ails-democracy-in-south-africa-141938">ideologically diverse organisation</a>. It has included followers of other religions, communists, traditionalists and <a href="http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/502.html">Garveyites</a> who advocated transnational black nationalism. </p>
<p>In the 1960s the religious rhetoric of the ANC became more ambivalent. Within the context of the Cold War, the organisation worked more closely with the South African Communist Party and increasingly <a href="https://iupress.org/9780253332318/from-protest-to-challenge-volume-5/">espoused</a> a Marxist-Leninist ideology.</p>
<p>Yet even so, ANC president <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-anc-is-celebrating-the-year-of-or-tambo-who-was-he-85838">Oliver Tambo</a>, who led the ANC in exile <a href="https://www.thepresidency.gov.za/national-orders/recipient/oliver-reginald-kaizana-%E2%80%9Cor%E2%80%9D-tambo-posthumous">from 1967 to 1991</a>, continued to publicly espouse the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/we-must-take-sides">unbroken link</a> between the ANC and the church. </p>
<p>The ANC would call for days of prayer, establish a department of religion, publicly affirm liberation theology and issue joint communiqués with churches.
In the early 1990s, the ANC <a href="https://www.amazon.com/State-Secularism-Religion-Tradition-Democracy/dp/1776140575">advocated a secular state</a> in constitutional negotiations with the ruling <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/National-Party-political-party-South-Africa">National Party</a>. Yet even in the 1994 election, the message was mixed. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520273085/wild-religion">ANC advertisements featured religious leaders</a> who argued that the manifesto that best represented “gospel values” was that of the ANC. Conversely, the ANC also promised improved access to abortion: a policy criticised by religious leaders. </p>
<p>This mix of secular laws and religious rhetoric extended into the post-apartheid era. Former ANC president Jacob Zuma’s <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15570274.2020.1753992">frequent references to religion</a>, for example, invited concern about the ANC’s “<a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2012-07-06-south-africas-creeping-christian-conservatism/">creeping Christian conservatism</a>”, while the party began exploring <a href="https://businesstech.co.za/news/government/650537/new-laws-to-decriminalise-sex-work-in-south-africa/">decriminalising sex work</a>. </p>
<h2>Religion and politics</h2>
<p>Perhaps the combination of religious rhetoric and secular laws is a winning electoral strategy. After all, parties that advocate religious laws have surprisingly little support from voters: the <a href="https://www.acdp.org.za/">ACDP</a> and <a href="https://www.aljama.co.za/">Al Jama-Ah</a>, a Muslim political party, have at most won <a href="https://www.eisa.org/wep/souresults2004.htm">1.6% (in 2004)</a> and <a href="https://results.elections.org.za/dashboards/npe/app/dashboard.html">0.18% (in 2019)</a> of the national vote, respectively. At their best, the ACDP has been the seventh-largest party and Al Jama-Ah the 14th. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/christians-in-nigeria-feel-under-attack-why-its-a-complicated-story-186853">Christians in Nigeria feel under attack: why it's a complicated story</a>
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<p>Conversely, parties that advocate secular laws but shy away from religious rhetoric, such as the main opposition Democratic Alliance, have also failed to win popular support, especially in rural areas. Of course, many other reasons contribute to this too. </p>
<p>In short, we can learn much about a political party by looking at how it uses religion. The ANC may have a winning strategy in its combination of religious rhetoric and a secular policy agenda.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198902/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Jeffery-Schwikkard receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) in the United Kingdom through the London Interdisciplinary Social Science Doctoral Training Programme. He is a member of the African National Congress but he does not receive any funding or renumeration from the ANC or represent the ANC in any capacity. </span></em></p>
Perhaps the combination of religious rhetoric and secular laws is a winning electoral strategy.
David Jeffery-Schwikkard, PhD Candidate (Theology and Religious Studies), King's College London
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/188964
2022-08-18T15:17:50Z
2022-08-18T15:17:50Z
Would Kenyan women’s rights be safe under William Ruto? Why they might not be
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479866/original/file-20220818-639-72txbk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">William Ruto addresses his supporters during a campaign rally in Thika, Kenya, in August 2022. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ed Ram/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>William Ruto has been <a href="https://nation.africa/kenya/news/politics/william-ruto-named-president-elect-3914858">declared</a> the winner of Kenya’s presidential election. </p>
<p>As president, Ruto <a href="https://www.chathamhouse.org/2020/05/meeting-promise-2010-constitution">would be charged</a> with defending the 2010 constitution. It overhauled the governing framework of the country by devolving power to county governments. It also enshrined greater rights for women and young people. </p>
<p>However, it’s worth remembering that Ruto led the “<a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/campaigns-close-ahead-of-kenyan-referendum-99769019/159942.html">No campaign</a>” during the 2010 constitutional referendum. One of the <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/08/04/kenya.constitution.churches/index.html">key contestations</a> within Ruto’s camp – which included religious leaders – was the <a href="https://reproductiverights.org/maps/provision/kenyas-abortion-provisions">modest provision</a> around the right to abortion under specific circumstances. </p>
<p>Ruto and his wife Rachel are <a href="https://www.ugchristiannews.com/ruto-is-a-strong-believer-in-jesus-christ-says-pr-kayanja/">staunch Christians</a>. In my view, <a href="https://nation.africa/kenya/news/politics/religious-leaders-endorse-dp-ruto-for-president-want-waiguru-as-running-mate-3806644">a presidency</a> that publicly foregrounds the centrality of religious leaders and Christianity as a governing principle is a cause for concern in a secular state. This is pertinent in a global context in which religious fundamentalism continues to shape gender freedoms in negative ways. Therefore, can he be relied on to defend Kenya’s modest wins for women and girls? </p>
<h2>Kenya Kwanza’s ‘Women Agenda’</h2>
<p>Ruto’s coalition Kenya Kwanza’s <a href="https://uda.ke/downloads/manifesto.pdf">68-page manifesto</a> aims to implement a nine-point “women agenda”. This includes fully implementing the two-thirds gender rule in 12 months after assuming office. </p>
<p>It also promises to provide financial and capacity building support for women through a “Hustler Fund” for women-led co-operative societies. Its other pledges include increasing personnel at gender desks in police stations, addressing spousal consent in land sales and tackling low access to sanitary pads. </p>
<p>The coalition promises to establish a social welfare fund for Kenyan women working abroad as a safety net for distressed diaspora citizens. </p>
<p>Kenya Kwanza commits to deploying adequate numbers of community health workers on a regular stipend. Costs will be shared by the national government and county governments. It also says it will make safe, clean and affordable cooking fuels available. </p>
<p>The bulk of these commitments are consistent with demands made by women’s rights activists that led to the current provisions in the constitution. These demands include those addressing land control and ownership for women, and the two-thirds gender rule. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-kenya-courted-a-constitutional-crisis-over-parliaments-failure-to-meet-gender-quotas-147145">How Kenya courted a constitutional crisis over parliament's failure to meet gender quotas</a>
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<p>Additionally, through donor-funded interventions, work has been done on access to sanitary pads and creating gender desks at police stations. </p>
<p>But translating these constitutional aspirations into policy positions and actions has been slow. Often it’s been deliberately thwarted by political actors. </p>
<p>For example, the inability to fully implement the <a href="https://theconversation.com/kenyas-parliament-continues-to-stall-on-the-two-thirds-gender-rule-79221">two-thirds gender rule</a> has been bogged down by male MPs citing “cultural norms” and the need for meritocracy. </p>
<p>At the heart of fully implementing these policy propositions lies the more fundamental question of structural inequality that is sustained by cultural and religious diktats. </p>
<p>It is here that Ruto’s religiosity and his desire to anchor Christianity in particular as his government’s guiding compass becomes critical. </p>
<p>Religion and culture have been loud undercurrents in debates on rights, justice and freedom. That under Ruto, religious leaders and associated lobbies will become key actors in policy making is a legitimate fear. Kenyans concerned about equity should keep this in mind if global trends are taken seriously.</p>
<h2>Increased global surveillance</h2>
<p>Across the globe, religious groups and conservative parties <a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/gender/2017/12/11/gender-ideology-tracking-its-origins-and-meanings-in-current-gender-politics/">have coalesced around</a> policy and legal propositions, often invoking a challenge to gender ideology as the basis to limit women and girls’ bodily autonomy. </p>
<p>In June 2022, the US supreme court overturned the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-02139-3">Roe v Wade</a> ruling. This was a 1973 decision that confirmed that the US constitution gave women the right to have an abortion, thus limiting federal and state abortion laws that restricted these rights. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/us-abortion-law-decision-brings-attention-to-rights-of-women-in-africa-182602">US abortion law decision brings attention to rights of women in Africa</a>
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<p>The Roe v Wade decision cements a precedent of marshalling moral and religious positions in policy making around women’s rights and gender. This precedent was set in motion during former president Donald Trump’s era through federal funding cuts to organisations such as <a href="https://www.plannedparenthood.org/">Planned Parenthood</a>. </p>
<p>This was also a period that led to concerted efforts in multilateral spaces, such as the United Nations, to <a href="https://theconversation.com/trumps-efforts-to-redefine-gender-and-sex-106320">erase the term “gender”</a> and replace it with “women”. This move was aimed at thwarting conversations on gender equality that weren’t solely invested in biology as the basis for understanding inequality. </p>
<p>Similar conversations on <a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/gender/2017/12/11/gender-ideology-tracking-its-origins-and-meanings-in-current-gender-politics/">gender ideology</a> have happened across Europe in France, Germany and Denmark. </p>
<p>Underpinning the organised resistance by religious, conservative lobbies and political parties is a desire to return to interpretations of gender equality that roll back <a href="https://counteringbacklash.org/reclaiming-gender-discourse-to-fightback-against-backlash/">freedoms</a> secured for women and girls over decades. </p>
<h2>What next?</h2>
<p>If Kenyan and transnational feminist organising has taught us anything, it’s that preparation rather than a response to retrogressive forces is key. I offer three key messages.</p>
<p>The first is that the country must map the arguments, institutions and structures that could be deployed to actively subvert hard-won freedoms. Parliament offices not constitutionally recognised, like those of the first and second lady, and county assemblies are important places to watch and engage. </p>
<p>Second, as feminist researcher Sonia Correa <a href="https://genderit.org/file/gender-ideology-sonia-correa-part-1">points out</a>, religious groups that are working to reverse rights are organised globally. Countering this backlash against women’s rights must be <a href="https://www.awid.org/publications/time-action-stop-anti-rights-infiltration-un">transnational and global in nature</a>. </p>
<p>Finally, it will be critical to create spaces to protect and secure the most vulnerable from what will be interpreted as state-sanctioned defence of “Kenya’s morality”. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.routledge.com/Widow-Inheritance-and-Contested-Citizenship-in-Kenya/Okech/p/book/9780367788049">Feminist history</a> has taught us that when the “soul of a nation” is contested, it’s women, girls and those considered deviants whose bodies will serve as the theatre for that battle.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188964/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Awino Okech does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The centrality of religion as a governing principle is cause for concern given the reversals of women’s rights seen globally.
Awino Okech, Associate professor in political sociology, SOAS, University of London
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/178732
2022-03-21T12:14:28Z
2022-03-21T12:14:28Z
Why is Russia’s church backing Putin’s war? Church-state history gives a clue
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452660/original/file-20220317-8391-1u02rvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=45%2C15%2C3362%2C2253&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Vladimir Putin speaks to Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill (center) in Samolva, Russia, on Sept. 11, 2021. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/RussiaAlexanderNevskyAnniversary/a30706870b2a41d78af9b1ec5104e1f7/photo?Query=kirill&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=3534&currentItemNo=274">Alexei Druzhinin/Pool Photo via AP</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-did-russia-invade-ukraine-178512">Russia’s invasion of Ukraine</a>, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church has defended Russia’s actions and blamed the conflict <a href="https://www.oikoumene.org/resources/documents/response-by-hh-patriarch-kirill-of-moscow-to-rev-prof-dr-ioan-sauca-english-translation">on the West</a>.</p>
<p>Patriarch Kirill’s support for the invasion of a country where millions of people belong to his own church has led critics to conclude that Orthodox leadership has become little more than an arm of the state – and that this is the role it usually plays.</p>
<p>The reality is much more complicated. The relationship between Russian church and state has undergone <a href="https://www.fortresspress.com/store/product/9781451472509/Understanding-World-Christianity">profound historical transformations</a>, not least in the past century – a focus of my work as <a href="https://miamioh.edu/cas/academics/centers/havighurst/about-center/staff-faculty/kenworthy-faculty-page/index.html">a scholar of Eastern Orthodoxy</a>. The church’s current support for the Kremlin is not inevitable or predestined, but a deliberate decision that needs to be understood. </p>
<h2>Soviet shifts</h2>
<p>For centuries, leaders in Byzantium and Russia prized the idea of church and state <a href="https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/the-eastern-orthodox-church-john-anthony-mcguckin-review-rowan-williams/">working harmoniously together in “symphony</a>” – unlike their more competitive relationships in some Western countries.</p>
<p>In the early 1700s, however, Czar Peter the Great instituted reforms for greater control of the church – part of <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/book/78295">his attempts to make Russia more like Protestant Europe</a>.</p>
<p>Churchmen grew to resent the state’s interference. They did not defend the monarchy in its final hour during <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118620878.ch22">the February Revolution of 1917</a>, hoping it would lead to a “free church in a free state.”</p>
<p>The Bolsheviks who seized power, however, embraced <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691174273/a-sacred-space-is-never-empty">a militant atheism</a> that sought to secularize society completely. They regarded the church as a threat because of its ties to the old regime. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09546545.2018.1480893">Attacks on the church</a> proceeded from legal measures like confiscating property to executing clergy suspected of supporting the counterrevolution.</p>
<p>Patriarch Tikhon, head of the Church during the Revolution, criticized Bolshevik assaults on the Church, but his successor, Metropolitan Bishop Sergy, made <a href="https://biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/rss/34-1_051.pdf">a declaration of loyalty</a> to the Soviet Union in 1927. Persecution of religion only intensified, however, with repression reaching a peak during the Great Terror of 1937-1938, when <a href="http://ebookiriran.ru/index.php?id=137&section=8&view=article">tens of thousands</a> of clergy and ordinary believers were simply executed or sent to the Gulag. By the end of the 1930s, the Russian Orthodox Church had nearly been destroyed.</p>
<p>The Nazi invasion brought a dramatic reversal. Josef Stalin needed popular support to defeat Germany and <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Russian-Orthodox-Church-1917-1948-From-Decline-to-Resurrection/Kalkandjieva/p/book/9781138577992">allowed churches to reopen</a>. But his successor, Nikita Khrushchev, <a href="https://doi.org/10.2753/RSH1061-1983500304">reinvigorated the anti-religious campaign</a> at the end of the 1950s, and for the rest of the Soviet period, the church was tightly controlled and marginalized.</p>
<h2>Kirill’s campaigns</h2>
<p>The dissolution of the Soviet Union brought yet another complete reversal. The church was suddenly free, yet facing enormous challenges after decades of suppression. With the collapse of Soviet ideology, Russian society <a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/book/russia-search-itself">seemed set adrift</a>. Church leaders sought to reclaim it, but faced stiff competition from new forces, especially Western consumer culture and American <a href="https://scholarlycommons.law.emory.edu/cslr-books/77/">evangelical missionaries</a>.</p>
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<img alt="A priest offers Communion to a woman wearing a kerchief." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452688/original/file-20220317-8461-1wk6fbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452688/original/file-20220317-8461-1wk6fbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452688/original/file-20220317-8461-1wk6fbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452688/original/file-20220317-8461-1wk6fbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452688/original/file-20220317-8461-1wk6fbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452688/original/file-20220317-8461-1wk6fbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452688/original/file-20220317-8461-1wk6fbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A Russian Orthodox Church priest leads a service at the Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin in Sokolniki in Moscow on Feb. 15, 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/RussiaPresentationoftheLord/a5330f6f17204ca99a17a924931d0397/photo?Query=%22russian%20orthodox%22&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=2601&currentItemNo=5">AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko</a></span>
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<p>The first post-Soviet head of the church, Patriarch Aleksy II, maintained his distance from politicians. Initially, they were not very responsive to the church’s goals – including Vladimir Putin in his first two terms between 2000 and 2008. Yet in more recent years, the president has <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S1755048320000620">embraced Russian Orthodoxy</a> as a cornerstone of post-Soviet identity, and relations between church and state leadership have changed significantly since Kirill became patriarch in 2009. He quickly <a href="https://doi.org/10.2753/RUP1061-1940490100">succeeded in securing</a> the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/24/world/europe/24iht-moscow.html">return of church property</a> from the state, religious instruction in public schools and military chaplains in the armed forces. </p>
<p>Kirill has also promoted an influential critique of Western liberalism, consumerism and individualism, contrasted with Russian “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09637494.2016.1272893">traditional values</a>.” This idea argues that <a href="https://cadmus.eui.eu/handle/1814/31336">human rights</a> are not universal, but a product of Western culture, especially when extended to LGBTQ people. The patriarch also helped develop the idea of the “<a href="https://www.carnegiecouncil.org/publications/articles_papers_reports/727">Russian world</a>”: a soft power ideology that promotes Russian civilization, ties to Russian-speakers around the world, and greater Russian influence on Ukraine and Belarus.</p>
<p>Although 70%-75% of Russians consider themselves Orthodox, <a href="https://www.pewforum.org/2014/02/10/russians-return-to-religion-but-not-to-church/">only a small percentage</a> are active in church life. Kirill has sought to “re-church” society by asserting that Russian Orthodoxy is central to Russian identity, patriotism and cohesion – and a strong Russian state. He has also created a <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Russian-Church-in-the-Digital-Era-Mediatization-of-Orthodoxy/Stahle/p/book/9780367410407">highly centralized church</a> bureaucracy that mirrors Putin’s and stifles dissenting voices.</p>
<h2>Growing closer</h2>
<p>A key turning point came in 2011-2012, starting with massive protests against electoral fraud and Putin’s decision to run for a third term.</p>
<p>Kirill <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/russia_patriarch_kirill_urges_government_to_listen_protests_correct_course/24444845.html">initially called</a> for the government to dialogue with protesters, but later offered unqualified support for Putin and referred to stability and prosperity during his first two terms as a “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-russia-putin-religion-idUKTRE81722Y20120208">miracle of God</a>,” in contrast to the tumultuous 1990s.</p>
<p>In 2012, Pussy Riot, a feminist punk group, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/11/what-pussy-riots-punk-prayer-really-said/264562/">staged a protest</a> in a Moscow cathedral to criticize Kirill’s support for Putin – yet the episode actually pushed church and state closer together. Putin portrayed Pussy Riot and the opposition as aligned with decadent Western values, and himself as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00905992.2014.917075">the defender of Russian morality</a>, including Orthodoxy. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/11/russia-law-banning-gay-propaganda">A 2013 law</a> banning dissemination of gay “propaganda” to minors, which was supported by the church, was part of this campaign to marginalize dissent. </p>
<p>Putin successfully won reelection, and Kirill’s ideology has been <a href="https://www.law.upenn.edu/live/files/142-blittboyd33upajintll3632011pdf">linked to Putin’s</a> ever since.</p>
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<img alt="Three women behind a glass panel look out at a courtroom." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452835/original/file-20220317-25-1knfva1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452835/original/file-20220317-25-1knfva1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452835/original/file-20220317-25-1knfva1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452835/original/file-20220317-25-1knfva1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452835/original/file-20220317-25-1knfva1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452835/original/file-20220317-25-1knfva1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452835/original/file-20220317-25-1knfva1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Members of the feminist punk group Pussy Riot sit in a glass cage at a courtroom in Moscow in 2012. The women were charged with hooliganism connected to religious hatred.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/RussiaUnderPutin/605274096ba046d1bf817af231b98a25/photo?Query=pussy%20riot&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=1156&currentItemNo=177">AP Photo/Mikhail Metzel</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the eruption of conflict in the Donbas in 2014 also had an enormous impact on the Russian Orthodox Church.</p>
<p>Ukraine’s Orthodox churches remained under the Moscow Patriarchate’s authority after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Indeed, about 30% of the Russian Orthodox Church’s parishes <a href="https://ecfr.eu/publication/defender_of_the_faith_how_ukraines_orthodox_split_threatens_russia/">were actually in Ukraine</a>.</p>
<p>The conflict in Crimea and eastern Ukraine, however, intensified Ukrainians’ calls for an independent Orthodox church. Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual head of Orthodox Christianity, granted that independence <a href="https://css.ethz.ch/content/dam/ethz/special-interest/gess/cis/center-for-securities-studies/pdfs/RAD231.pdf">in 2019</a>. Moscow not only refused to recognize the new church, but also <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/russian-orthodox-church-breaks-with-constantinople/">severed relations with Constantinople</a>, threatening a broader schism.</p>
<p>Orthodox Christians in Ukraine <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-church-conflict-in-ukraine-reflects-historic-russian-ukrainian-tensions-175818">were divided over which church to follow,</a> deepening Russia’s cultural anxieties about “losing” Ukraine to the West.</p>
<h2>High-stakes gamble</h2>
<p>Kirill’s close alliance with the Putin regime has had some clear payoffs. Orthodoxy has become one of the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2012/10/25/the-new-putinism-nationalism-fused-with-conservative-christianity/">central pillars</a> of Putin’s image of national identity. Moreover, the “culture wars” discourse of “traditional values” has attracted <a href="https://www.uibk.ac.at/projects/postsecular-conflicts/postsecular-conflicts-research-group/the-moralist-international/">international supporters</a>, including <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12121036">conservative evangelicals</a> in the United States.</p>
<p>But Kirill does not represent the entirety of the Russian Orthodox Church any more than Putin represents the entirety of Russia. The patriarch’s positions have alienated <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1yOGuXjdFQ1A3BQaEEQr744cwDzmSQ1qePaaBi4z6q3w/viewform?edit_requested=true">some of his own flock</a>, and his support for the invasion of Ukraine will likely split some of his support <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/13/russian-orthodox-church-in-amsterdam-announces-split-with-moscow">abroad</a>. <a href="https://www.oikoumene.org/resources/documents/letter-to-his-holiness-kirill-patriarch-of-moscow-and-all-russia-russian-orthodox-church">Christian leaders</a> around the world are calling upon Kirill to <a href="https://religionnews.com/2022/03/11/more-than-100-us-christian-leaders-ask-kirill-to-help-stop-invasion-of-ukraine/">pressure</a> the government to stop the war.</p>
<p>The patriarch has <a href="https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/split-from-kirill-is-coming-say-ukrainian?s=r">alienated the Ukrainian flock</a> that remained loyal to the Moscow Patriarchate. <a href="https://news.church.ua/2022/02/27/appeal-beatitude-metropolitan-kyiv-ukraine-onufriy-faithful-citizens-ukraine/?lang=en">Leaders of that church</a> have <a href="https://news.church.ua/2022/02/28/obrashhenie-svyashhennogo-sinoda-ukrainskoj-pravoslavnoj-cerkvi-ot-28-fevralya-2022-goda/?lang=ru">condemned Russia’s attack</a> and appealed to Kirill to intervene with Putin. </p>
<p>A broader rift is clearly brewing: A number of Ukrainian Orthodox bishops have already <a href="https://spzh.news/en/news/86823-ryad-jeparkhij-upc-prekrashhajut-pominovenije-patriarkha-kirilla">stopped commemorating Kirill</a> during their services. If Kirill supported Russia’s actions as a way to preserve the unity of the church, the opposite outcome seems likely.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/178732/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Scott Kenworthy has received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the Kennan Institute, Fulbright, the International Researches and Exchanges Board and the Social Science Research Council.</span></em></p>
The war in Ukraine is just the latest chapter in a long, tangled relationship between the Kremlin and the Russian Orthodox Church.
Scott Kenworthy, Professor of Comparative Religion, Miami University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/162200
2021-06-16T16:08:01Z
2021-06-16T16:08:01Z
How Israel’s missing constitution deepens divisions between Jews and with Arabs
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406180/original/file-20210614-125373-544ha5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C23%2C5130%2C3615&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Without a formal constitution, Israelis disagree on such basic issues as whether Israel is a Jewish state.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/right-wing-israeli-supporters-of-prime-minister-benjamin-news-photo/1233254116?adppopup=true">Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/15/world/middleeast/israel-coalition-hamas.html">Renewed fighting</a> has erupted again between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, endangering a ceasefire instituted after an <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-57081848">11-day war in May</a>. </p>
<p>The conflict in Gaza is an early test of Israel’s <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/a-look-at-the-israeli-coalition-looking-to-strip-netanyahu-of-power">new coalition government</a>. Recently, parties across the political spectrum united to remove Israel’s scandal-plagued prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu from power, ending a two-year political crisis – though he may maneuver his way back into power. </p>
<p>While conducting dissertation research on the relationship between religion and state in Israel, I traced Israel’s chronic instability to what I believe is its core: Unlike most countries, <a href="https://m.knesset.gov.il/en/activity/pages/basiclaws.aspx">Israel does not have a constitution</a>. </p>
<h2>Why constitutions matter</h2>
<p>Constitutions <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/abs/constitutional-origins-and-liberal-democracy-a-global-analysis-19002015/AD138F031B07119CBEF099B8879FB888">constrain the power of governments</a> by defining in precise terms who has what rights, what rights form the basis of legal decisions and how political power is dispersed among institutions.</p>
<p>Israel is governed by a changeable, ever-growing body of what are called “basic laws” – “Chukei Ha-Yesod” in Hebrew. The basic laws were passed individually over the past 73 years, beginning with one two-page law that described the makeup of Israel’s legislature, the Knesset, and citizens’ voting rights. </p>
<p>Today, Israel is governed by a 124-page collection of 13 laws. Although the basic laws outline a vision of democratic rights, they remain, to paraphrase the late legal scholar Ruth Gavison, “unanchored.” </p>
<p>This allows Israel to <a href="https://press.huc.edu/defining-israel-the-jewish-state-democracy-and-the-law-reviewed/">maintain an ambiguous stance</a> on key issues central to a nation’s identity. </p>
<p>First, Israel has never officially defined the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/middle-east-government-politics-and-policy/between-state-and-synagogue-secularization-contemporary-israel?format=PB">relationship between religion and state</a>. Is Israel founded on the Jewish religion? Or is it a secular state that is home to Jews, with non-Jewish minorities? That question remains unanswered.</p>
<p>Nor has the country fully determined whether Arab Israelis and other <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14650045.2011.562944">non-Jewish citizens</a> – who make up about a quarter of its 9 million people – enjoy the same rights as their Jewish counterparts.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406254/original/file-20210614-72954-5jemdl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406254/original/file-20210614-72954-5jemdl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406254/original/file-20210614-72954-5jemdl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406254/original/file-20210614-72954-5jemdl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406254/original/file-20210614-72954-5jemdl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406254/original/file-20210614-72954-5jemdl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406254/original/file-20210614-72954-5jemdl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406254/original/file-20210614-72954-5jemdl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">When David ben Gurion became the first prime minister of Israel in 1948, the country had no basic laws.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/david-ben-gurion-first-prime-minister-of-israel-1948-news-photo/566465999?adppopup=true">Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Image</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Israel also <a href="https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/hascq39&div=15&g_sent=1&casa_token=aemNY4_AOrYAAAAA:YyZITcqo1btDCFbdITwR3s8feHnu6eI6V0_zmtzUF5pLI0QA_hY-EF4ggTaV11d6AqA9P58g&collection=journals">waffles on the relative</a> power of the legislature and judiciary. </p>
<p>The Israeli Supreme Court has used this constitutional ambiguity to retroactively subject new legislation to judicial review. Meanwhile, legislators in the Knesset have <a href="https://forward.com/news/breaking-news/308355/ayelet-shaked-plans-to-rein-in-israel-supreme-court/">tried to weaken</a> the court’s authority over their lawmaking. Incoming Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s Yamina party, for example, has previously attempted to pass legislation <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/court-override-bill-dead-in-the-water-as-haredim-liberman-rule-out-support/">allowing the Knesset to override</a> judicial decisions.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406188/original/file-20210614-126247-scn6xz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A shouting man is pushed out of legislative chamber" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406188/original/file-20210614-126247-scn6xz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406188/original/file-20210614-126247-scn6xz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406188/original/file-20210614-126247-scn6xz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406188/original/file-20210614-126247-scn6xz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406188/original/file-20210614-126247-scn6xz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406188/original/file-20210614-126247-scn6xz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406188/original/file-20210614-126247-scn6xz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Angry Israeli lawmakers shout at incoming Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, June 13, 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/man-is-led-away-after-holding-up-signs-and-shouting-at-news-photo/1233449333?adppopup=true">Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Even Israel’s official borders aren’t defined. Israel maintains it has <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/06/08/netanyahu-annexation-palestinians-stop-calling-israel-a-jewish-democracy/">sovereignty over the West Bank</a> territory, but officially the West Bank is not part of Israel. So Palestinians living in the West Bank <a href="https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2019&context=jil">do not have rights</a> under Israeli law, because they are not Israeli citizens. </p>
<p>Palestinians there live under Israeli military rule, subject to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/17/israeli-military-law-stifles-palestinian-rights-watchdog-says">military law</a> that is unconstrained by any constitutional bounds, alongside Israeli settlers who are subject to Israeli law. </p>
<p>This ambiguity led Yuli Tamir, an Israeli politician and academic, <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.HIGHLIGHT-forget-about-jewish-or-democratic-is-israel-even-an-actual-country-1.9224997">to quip</a>, “Is Israel even an actual country?”</p>
<h2>A young democracy</h2>
<p>Israel is not the only parliamentary democracy without a formal constitution. The United Kingdom doesn’t have one either.</p>
<p>But <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/764688?casa_token=p1DnWvmVuJMAAAAA%3AvTIrqkIHAqbez7SXh19N7aNW2pcsa6BvVimHXbuy3BIt7cA195WwMu7nkggkBYsBWXs908bjVUK0H6wF5Ln2WeuenaDOLlQpQvzzvI3NG_Ta3blTSA&seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">the United Kingdom has a large body of laws</a> accumulated over centuries of political conflict. This well-established common-law tradition, which served as one of the sources for the United States’ own Constitution, is the legal basis of governance in the U.K. </p>
<p>Israel, founded in 1948, does not have such a history to fall back on. And many of its problems are common to relatively young democracies. <a href="https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/oso/9780198826927.001.0001/oso-9780198826927">Weak, fractured party systems</a> and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/13510347.2011.619777?casa_token=0h2VEYPRN_QAAAAA:pxKnhO2vTyDq9r-JcBkISNFzZ-yuECa_lHWdBUE6n5gPnoY5-GtkuUKUmOYqjLG7rq6jPirA6CI">competition between ethnic and religious groups</a> are hallmarks of the democratization process. The early U.S., for example, grappled with many such problems, too. </p>
<p>But rule of law generally prevails in the U.S., and democracy progresses, because both the courts and legislators defer to a central document: the U.S. Constitution. </p>
<p>The Constitution outlines the powers of each branch of government, as well as procedures for amendment. The U.S. Bill of Rights – the first 10 amendments – guarantees specific rights of citizens.</p>
<h2>Let’s go logrolling</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/hlps.2019.0215">Netanyahu government</a> attempted to settle some long-running disagreements about Israel’s identity during his most recent term in office – though not necessarily with an eye toward strengthening liberal democracy.</p>
<p>In 2018, the Knesset passed a basic law naming Israel the “nation-state of the Jewish people.” <a href="https://en.idi.org.il/articles/24241">This effort</a> to settle a central identity question pleased almost nobody. Left-wing and Arab Israelis objected to the tacit downgrading of Arabs to second-class status, while religious Jewish groups found the law too secular. </p>
<p>Divisive political gambles like this became commonplace in the late stages of Netanyahu’s rule. As coalition politics became increasingly fragile, Netanyahu spiraled into what political scientists call “<a href="http://webhome.auburn.edu/%7Ejohnspm/gloss/logrolling.phtml">logrolling</a>”: using policy trade-offs among parties in exchange for political support. </p>
<p>This was especially the case in regard to religion, as Netanyahu bartered policies appeasing the Orthodox Jewish groups that kept him in power. In 2018, for example, Netanyahu’s coalition <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/israels-battle-between-religious-and-secular-jews-escalates-with-ban-on-saturday-shopping/2018/02/28/bb13f43c-164b-11e8-930c-45838ad0d77a_story.html">passed new legislation enforcing</a> previously symbolic laws such as restrictions on businesses operating on the sabbath. It was a punishing move for cities like Tel Aviv with large secular populations.</p>
<p>Similarly, Netanyahu’s policy of encouraging Jewish settlers to move to the West Bank and other occupied Palestinian territories and build cities was more political strategy than religious fervor. His aggressive support for Jewish nationalism <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/uprisings-palestinians-israeli-citizenship/story?id=77741627">increasingly alienated</a> Israel’s Arab population, who have few legal avenues to challenge their treatment.</p>
<p>[<em>Over 100,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=100Ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<p>Minorities are mistreated and even subjugated in countries that have constitutions, too. But constitutions give them legal pathways to challenge that discrimination. </p>
<p>The Netanyahu era showed that strategic politicians can exploit Israel’s constitutional vacuum to maintain power well beyond their popular mandate. These destabilizing issues will continue to fester as a new government takes the reins in Israel.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/162200/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brendan Szendro does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Governed by a changeable body of ‘basic laws,’ Israel never settled basic questions like the rights of religious minorities. These destabilizing issues will continue to fester under a new government.
Brendan Szendro, PhD Candidate, Binghamton University, State University of New York
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/146278
2020-12-14T13:34:22Z
2020-12-14T13:34:22Z
On the first day of Christmas…teachers got a legal headache over blurring the line between church and state
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374474/original/file-20201211-14-de5yx7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C4%2C3000%2C2528&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree...do you violate the establishment clause?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/fourteen-days-of-christmas-the-fourteen-days-of-christmas-news-photo/161844425?adppopup=true">Jack Riddle/The Denver Post via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>During a school year <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/education-news/articles/2020-11-17/mass-nationwide-school-closures-loom-as-coronavirus-cases-spike">disrupted by pandemic-related closures</a>, students across the U.S. will soon be absent for a scheduled reason: the annual Christmas break.</p>
<p>In New York City, the U.S.’s largest school district, children will <a href="https://www.schools.nyc.gov/about-us/news/2020-2021-school-year-calendar">be off from Dec. 24 to Jan. 1</a>. Officially called “winter” recess, the December hiatus coincides with Christian celebrations, adding to the number of approved days that many students take off from school on religious holidays, including <a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/nyc-schools-close-muslim-eid-holidays-article-1.2137025">Eid al-Fitr</a> and <a href="https://www.schools.nyc.gov/about-us/news/2020-2021-school-year-calendar">Yom Kippur</a>.</p>
<p>As an <a href="https://udayton.edu/directory/education/eda/russo_charles.php">academic who writes and teaches on education and the law</a> with a special interest in church-state issues, I find it fascinating to note how religious holidays came to be acknowledged in public schools. But these traditions also pose a legal challenge in the classroom and concern over blurring the line of separation between church and state. The reality is that in the lead-up to the winter break – or the “<a href="https://www.edweek.org/leadership/opinion-teaching-the-holidays-the-december-dilemma/2015/11">December dilemma</a>,” as some call it – <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00344087.2016.1169882">public school officials walk a fine line</a> when it comes to what they can and can’t display in classrooms in relation to Christmas.</p>
<h2>Holy days and holidays</h2>
<p>The observance of selected religious holidays in public schools has a long history in the United States. When <a href="https://www3.nd.edu/%7Erbarger/www7/compulso.html">compulsory attendance laws</a> emerged in the mid-19th century, they were heavily influenced by the religious beliefs and practices that followed the earliest European settlers to the American colonies.</p>
<p>In a piecemeal fashion that varied from one state to the next and even among school systems in the same states, <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/3480702">school board officials recognized and broke for the Christian holidays</a> of Christmas and Easter, including Good Friday.</p>
<p>The unofficial religion of American public schools until well into the mid-20th century was Protestantism and typically <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-religion-schools/religion-and-controversy-always-part-of-u-s-education-idUSTRE75829R20110609">followed the teachings of the locally dominant Protestant churches</a>.</p>
<p>Because Catholic immigrants – and their children – were <a href="https://doi.org/10.1525/rac.1999.9.1.03a00040">often unwelcomed in the 19th-century United States</a>, a meeting of bishops at the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1884 decreed that <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/25014920?seq=1">all parishes had to maintain schools</a> to which parents were obligated to send their children. As a result, time off for Christmas and Easter became firmly set in Catholic schools as it was in public schools.</p>
<p>Christianity remains the <a href="https://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/">largest single faith</a> in the United States. But growing religious diversity has seen more religious holy days being marked in public schools. Still, few <a href="https://brilliantmaps.com/u-s-counties-where-schools-close-for-jewish-holidays/">school boards nationally close in honor of the Jewish holidays</a>. And, until very recently, the holy days of other faiths were completely ignored. New York City was one of the earliest, <a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2016/0115/Why-some-US-districts-are-adding-Muslim-holidays-to-the-school-calendar">acknowledging Muslim holidays from the 2015-16 school year</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"573075877677961216"}"></div></p>
<p>Similarly, in 2017-18 six suburban school districts in New York state <a href="https://www.longisland.com/news/04-12-17/six-long-island-school-districts-declare-holiday-on-hindu-festival-diwali.html">declared a holiday on the Hindu festival Diwali</a>.</p>
<p>But these are the exception rather than the rule. A <a href="https://digitalcommons.law.byu.edu/elj/vol2018/iss2/2/">study of the 2017-18 school year</a>, found that of the 20 largest school systems in the U.S., only New York City, Philadelphia and Palm Beach, Florida, closed for Rosh Hashana, and only New York City closed for Yom Kippur and Eid al-Adha. None of the school systems closed for Diwali.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374509/original/file-20201211-15-7c916u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374509/original/file-20201211-15-7c916u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374509/original/file-20201211-15-7c916u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374509/original/file-20201211-15-7c916u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374509/original/file-20201211-15-7c916u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374509/original/file-20201211-15-7c916u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374509/original/file-20201211-15-7c916u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Muslim holidays have been added to the school vacation days in New York City.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Mark Lennihan</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Things are changing in the face of growing religious diversity in the U.S. Educational leaders and lawmakers in states such as <a href="https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2019/03/06/new-york-state-senate-school-holiday-bill-hindu-sikh-muslim-holidays/">New York</a> and <a href="https://www.edweek.org/leadership/schools-reconsider-the-calendar-as-students-grow-more-diverse/2020/03">Michigan</a> have taken recent steps to ensure that the religious holy days of other faiths are commemorated in public school. </p>
<h2>Mixed legal messages</h2>
<p>Meanwhile the status of how religious holidays can be marked in class remains unclear. The Supreme Court has yet to address such a case directly. Arguably, the leading case on religious holidays arose 40 years ago, when the <a href="https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/619/1311/200625/">Eighth Circuit upheld guidelines</a> that a school board in South Dakota developed for use in connection with religious observances, most notably Christmas.</p>
<p>The court suggested that explanations of historical and contemporary values relating to religious holidays were permissible, as was the use of religious symbols as examples and the integration of music, art, literature and drama with religious themes if they were presented objectively as a traditional part of the cultural and religious heritages of holidays.</p>
<p>Other rulings have teachers walking a fine, but murky, line. While the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/374/203">Supreme Court has ruled that educators cannot allow overt religious activities</a> such as prayer and Bible reading in schools, justices added that “nothing we have said here indicates that such study of the Bible or of religion, when presented objectively as part of a secular program of education, may not be effected consistently with the First Amendment.”</p>
<p>The court has yet to set clear parameters about how religious holidays can be celebrated in public schools and whether granting access to all faith traditions is either constitutionally necessary or acceptable.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p>
<h2>To gift or not?</h2>
<p>Classroom activities present three special concerns. Courts agree that public school teachers cannot permit religious activities such as prayer or the use of religious music in class absent curricular connections. The <a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1272539/curry-ex-rel-curry-v-hensiner/">Sixth Circuit in 2008 went so far as to affirm</a> that a fifth grader in Michigan could not sell candy cane Christmas tree ornaments he made as part of a school project if they were attached to religious cards “promoting Jesus.”</p>
<p>But a <a href="https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/texas/txsdce/4:2006cv00527/434852/62/">federal trial court in Texas two years later allowed students to sell “holiday” cards</a> with biblical messages because doing so was not disruptive to school activities.</p>
<p>A second concern – the displays of religious art such as Nativity scenes or paintings – is trickier. Again, while there is no Supreme Court judgment in regard to K-12 schools, an argument can be made from lower court orders. One such case from<a href="https://openjurist.org/619/f2d/1311/florey-v-sioux-falls-school-district-49-5"> South Dakota found</a> that religious art in schools may be permissible as parts of larger displays but that it cannot be overtly Christian and must emphasize the secular aspects of the season. Under this interpretation, placing Nativity scenes or displaying religious objects or paintings alone in schools, regardless of the time of year, <a href="https://openjurist.org/33/f3d/679/washegesic-v-bloomingdale-public-schools">likely violates the First Amendment</a> by endorsing Christianity. </p>
<p>A case illustrative of the confusion over classroom displays arose in New York City in 2006. The <a href="https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F3/437/1/477667/">Second Circuit decided that public school officials</a> could allow displays of menorahs during Hanukkah and stars and crescents during Ramadan because both were deemed multicultural secular symbols. But the court forbade the display of a Nativity scene due to its explicitly religious nature.</p>
<p>Gift-giving during the holiday season represents a third concern. Educators probably can permit “secret Santa” exchanges as long as they are secular in nature and do not invoke any references to Christmas. However, courts largely agree that teachers cannot allow students to exchange identifiable Christian gifts, such as candy canes or pencils with attached religious messages, while in class.</p>
<h2>Teachable moments</h2>
<p>What can be lost in this legal quagmire is, I believe, the chance to <a href="https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/opinion-public-school-students-need-to-study-religion/2018/10">engage children in religious literacy</a>. If educators and the courts prohibit students from learning about the religious traditions of their peers, especially when teachable moments emerge during holidays, one must wonder how children can develop tolerance of – and respect for – faiths different from their own. </p>
<p>The challenge, then, for public school educators is walking the fine line by exposing children to religious celebrations while steering clear of violating the Constitution by making certain that they teach about religion rather than proselytize a particular form of belief.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/146278/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charles J. Russo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Educators walk an fine line when it comes to marking religious holidays. But in so doing, are they missing an opportunity for teachable moments on faith issues?
Charles J. Russo, Joseph Panzer Chair in Education in the School of Education and Health Sciences and Research Professor of Law, University of Dayton
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/143793
2020-08-20T12:16:40Z
2020-08-20T12:16:40Z
Schools looking for space could turn to churches to host classes – doing so has a rich history
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353266/original/file-20200817-14-1dvsm9u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=160%2C335%2C4352%2C2808&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Children evacuated from U.K. cities in WWII were taught in churches.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/school-in-a-church-children-evacuated-from-west-ham-and-news-photo/1053630860?adppopup=true">Hulton Archive/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Could places of worship ease the burden of schools looking to reopen while giving students space to social distance? It might not be such an outlandish suggestion.</p>
<p>With space at a premium and places of worship still empty amid concerns of coronavirus spread, some education experts are <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/07/17/school-coffee-shop-different-approach-teaching-learning-during-pandemic/">actively promoting the idea</a>. In New Haven, Connecticut, church leaders have already offered to <a href="https://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/pastors_pitch_church_/">give up their space to students looking for a place to take online classes</a>.</p>
<p>Concern by those determined to keep church and state separate has meant that the use of “religious spaces” for education has shrunk <a href="https://www.academia.edu/2844095/Historical_background_to_conflicts_over_religion_in_public_schools">over the last couple of centuries</a>, resulting in secular school systems becoming the standard for most countries.</p>
<p>But having spent 40 years <a href="https://isearch.asu.edu/profile/1591">studying the history of Christian churches and their social outreach</a>, I know there has never been a time in the history of Christianity – indeed the history of all major religions – when religious space was not used for educational purposes. </p>
<h2>Cathedral schools</h2>
<p>In the Europe that emerged from the collapse of the Roman Empire in the fifth century, most formal education took place inside religious spaces. Training of boys to read scriptures was a task typically performed in churches by bishops and their assistants. </p>
<p>The first institutions of learning in the Western Christian tradition were <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-137-10841-8_2">cathedral schools</a>. During the day, the back pews <a href="http://www.humanstudy.org/history/2012-03-hudson-e.html">were filled with the best and brightest schoolboys</a> being taught the intellectual skills needed by priests.</p>
<p>Later, during the 10th century, <a href="https://www.ancient-origins.net/history/louis-pious-0011094">Louis the Pious</a>, son of Charlemagne, gave structure to the classes by mandating that a “scholasticus” – or master teacher – be appointed at cathedral schools. By the 12th century, the practice began of establishing corps of priests who lived at the cathedral and spent their days teaching.</p>
<p>These priests – called chapters of canons – established endowed chairs for teachers of different types of specialized knowledge. Chairs were filled by the most famous teachers or professors of the day, <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/abelard/">including the eminent philosophers Abelard</a> and <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/albert-great/">Albertus Magnus</a> as well as Albertus’ even more famous student <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aquinas/">Thomas Aquinas</a>, the highly influential 13th-century theologian. Chapters of canons also appointed one of their members as a “dean” to supervise all the different courses of study – a term still employed by universities. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353491/original/file-20200818-25043-a2v7e8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353491/original/file-20200818-25043-a2v7e8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353491/original/file-20200818-25043-a2v7e8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353491/original/file-20200818-25043-a2v7e8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353491/original/file-20200818-25043-a2v7e8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353491/original/file-20200818-25043-a2v7e8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353491/original/file-20200818-25043-a2v7e8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Christ Church College, Oxford, serves as a cathedral and a seat of learning.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/christchurch-from-merton-fields-oxford-by-richard-bankes-news-photo/589150126?adppopup=true">Photo by © Fine Art Photographic Library/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The birth of universities</h2>
<p>Eventually the most successful cathedral schools drew too many students to be taught inside the churches themselves. By the 13th century, cathedral schools <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300216776/medieval-christianity">gave way on one side to grammar schools, which taught Latin, and on the other to universities</a> – where students paid money to listen to the lectures of professors and received degrees based upon their displayed knowledge. The lecture halls in which these university students were taught became the forerunners of modern classroom buildings.</p>
<p>Education in early modern Europe increasingly left the pews behind as the focus expanded beyond teaching future clergy. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/on-the-reformations-500th-anniversary-remembering-martin-luthers-contribution-to-literacy-77540">Protestant Reformation</a> in the 16th century <a href="https://tifwe.org/resource/the-priesthood-of-all-believers/">rejected the notion of a priesthood</a> and demanded that everyone learn to read the Bible, preferably while they were young. </p>
<p>To enable this, schools dedicated to teaching boys and girls who would not enter the clergy were established, increasingly in buildings distinct from places of worship.</p>
<p>Because Protestants made the <a href="https://rlp.hds.harvard.edu/religions/christianity/protestant-movement">church a department of the state</a>, such schools were maintained by the country’s ruler but staffed by the church. Soon Catholics followed a similar practice of building church schools for teaching boys and girls not destined for a religious vocation. The Jesuit religious order, <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/jesuit-order-established">founded in the 16th century</a>, dedicated itself to education and pioneered the building of residential campuses for their schools that were distinct and autonomous from local churches. </p>
<h2>Toward public schools</h2>
<p>During the <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/enlightenment/">Enlightenment era</a> of the 18th century, governments went further and established new kinds of secular or nonreligious schools. These taught <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/education/The-new-scientism-and-rationalism">technical and scientific subjects</a>, such as engineering and navigation or trained military officers in the technologies of war.</p>
<p>But it was the French Revolution that sped up the movement toward secular schooling as the cultural norm. Revolutionaries in France and other European states argued that the nation deserved the loyalties previously claimed by the churches. As such, <a href="https://www.historytoday.com/archive/french-revolution-and-catholic-church">churches should be shut down</a> to stop patriots from being distracted from a greater loyalty to the nation.</p>
<p>Revolutionaries failed in their efforts to deprive church schools of their status, however. Later nationalists, in reflecting upon why revolutionaries had failed, concluded that the education offered in church schools, rich in centuries of practice, was <a href="https://www.persee.fr/doc/hedu_0221-6280_1986_num_29_1_1381">simply too strong for secular schooling to challenge</a>.</p>
<p>So they pushed for redirection of state subsidies away from church schools to secular education. By the end of the 19th century, such initiatives had resulted in the secular public school systems in operation today.</p>
<h2>Church and state</h2>
<p>Church schools did not disappear, however. In Western societies, some parochial schools and private faith-based schools continued to flourish. And there is even precedent for schools using churches in times of crisis, such as to <a href="https://spartacus-educational.com/2WWeducationC.htm">accommodate children evacuated from major cities</a> in the U.K. during World War II.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, outside of Western societies, church schools became a major tool that Christian missionaries used to evangelize indigenous peoples. European colonial governments came to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/28/us/mission-schools-ambiguous-legacy-in-south-africa.html">subsidize mission schools</a> as cheap alternatives to building state school systems. In many African and Asian states today, church schools subsidized by foreign missions still educate <a href="https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2019/02/21/the-geography-of-education-in-africa">significant numbers of students</a>.</p>
<p>The constitutions of most modern states maintain a <a href="https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/885/establishment-clause-separation-of-church-and-state">strict separation between church and state</a>. And there are rules in place in countries with secular school systems that <a href="http://1.droppdf.com/files/pdATq/encyclopedia-of-american-constitution.pdf">protect the primacy of secular schooling</a> over all other types of schooling.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Courts have also moved to <a href="https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-education-takes-actions-address-religious-discrimination">protect the rights of students with minority religious backgrounds</a> from persecution no matter what schools they attend.</p>
<p>Education in the West has been progressively outgrowing the church environment for centuries, yet education in religious settings continues to <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/encyclopedia-of-religion/oclc/56057973">lead students back toward faith</a>.</p>
<p>Whatever the impetus for using religious space for secular education, awareness of this capacity of religious space will likely remain a concern for promoters of the separation of church and state – even in these unprecedented times of pandemic.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/143793/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Barnes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The history of education in the West is closely associated with Christian religious spaces – from the first cathedral schools to the use of churches to teach children in WWII.
Andrew Barnes, Professor of History and Religious Studies, Arizona State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/119718
2019-09-24T11:28:27Z
2019-09-24T11:28:27Z
Christianity at the Supreme Court: From majority power to minority rights
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293448/original/file-20190921-135118-gq6yel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Supreme Court ruled that baker Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop, could refuse to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple because of his religious beliefs.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Supreme-Court-Wedding-Cake-Case/2b1383a5edfb46c0a2babbeb49f816df/45/0">AP/David Zalubowski)</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A movement for religious rights is transforming the place of religion in American public life.</p>
<p>From the 1960s until very recently, liberals successfully argued at the Supreme Court that the tyranny of the majority cannot define the lives and experiences of secular citizens. </p>
<p>For decades, the court regularly ruled that laws imposed by local majorities enforcing school prayer or religious displays on government property violated the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/establishment_clause">Establishment Clause of the First Amendment</a>, which has been <a href="https://constitutioncenter.org/ic-2019/interpretation/amendment-i/interps/264#the-establishment-clause-a-check-on-religious-tyranny">interpreted to mean the government is prohibited from endorsing religion</a> or favoring one religion over another.</p>
<p>Those decisions meant that the rights of the non-Christian minority <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-messy-reality-of-religious-liberty-in-america-85963">defined the public place of religion in the U.S.</a> </p>
<p>But in the last decade, the reversal of power between religious and secular sides of American culture created a new self-perception among Christians as a distinct minority group. More importantly for legal proceedings, this led to a new strategy: They argue that they are now the minority group whose rights demand protection under the Constitution.</p>
<h2>Rise of the Christian minority</h2>
<p>Recent Supreme Court rulings demonstrate that the justices tend to agree. </p>
<p>Three major religion cases in <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/trinity-lutheran-church-of-columbia-inc-v-pauley/">2017</a>, <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/masterpiece-cakeshop-ltd-v-colorado-civil-rights-commn/">2018</a> and <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/the-american-legion-v-american-humanist-association/">2019</a> pitted a religious claim against a secular one – a <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/trinity-lutheran-church-of-columbia-inc-v-pauley/">church against the state government</a>, a <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/masterpiece-cakeshop-ltd-v-colorado-civil-rights-commn/">Christian business against a state agency</a> and <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/the-american-legion-v-american-humanist-association/">an atheist organization against a veterans’ group</a>.</p>
<p>In each case, the secular claim won in the lower courts, which grounded their decisions in the understanding of the First Amendment the high court had developed beginning in the 1960s.</p>
<p>In each case, the Supreme Court reversed the lower courts and ruled in favor of the religious claim. All three cases feature the same split of justices: 7-2 with liberal Justices Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan joining five conservatives. The only dissenters were Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor.</p>
<h2>State money for religious groups</h2>
<p>In <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2016/15-577">the first case</a>, the state of Missouri offered playground resurfacing to daycare centers that serve impoverished communities. A center run by Trinity Lutheran Church ranked fifth out of 44 applicants based on the state’s objective criteria.</p>
<p>But the church’s daycare was denied state assistance solely because it was affiliated with a religious institution.</p>
<p>Ginsburg and Sotomayor <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/582/15-577/#tab-opinion-3752808">agreed with that decision</a>. In their view, Founding Father <a href="http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9806/danbury.html">Thomas Jefferson’s “wall of separation between church and state”</a> means that the government cannot intermingle with religious organizations or give the appearance of endorsing religion. </p>
<p>As Justice Sotomayor writes in her <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/16pdf/15-577_khlp.pdf">dissent</a>, we should avoid “the dangers that result when the two become entwined… by drawing fairly clear lines of separation between church and state.”</p>
<p>The two justices support the <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1970/89">court’s 1971 “Lemon Test</a>,” which says that “excessive government entanglement” with religion is a violation of the Constitution. If this standard is followed, the “establishment of religion” includes almost any government involvement with a religious group, meaning all government programs must remain exclusively secular. </p>
<p>But the majority on the <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2016/15-577">current court</a> believes that “the wall of separation” was only Jefferson’s view, not the consensus of the Founders codified in the <a href="https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/amendments/amendment-i">text of the Constitution</a>, which uses very different language.</p>
<p>By itself, the Establishment Clause’s meaning appears clear: No government involvement with religion. But a second provision in the First Amendment also addresses religion, the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/free_exercise_clause">Free Exercise Clause</a>, which protects religious practice. </p>
<p>Together, these clauses seem to endorse a balance: government should neither enforce nor inhibit religion. This implies neutrality rather than separation. So the government is not prohibited from touching religion, but only from forcing it on citizens.</p>
<p>The court majority’s view in the Missouri case is that to treat a church daycare differently from a secular one is to discriminate unconstitutionally. </p>
<p>The liberal Justice Stephen Breyer joined the majority opinion. As he phrased it in a <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/588/17-1717/">2019 opinion</a>, we must consider “the basic purposes that the Religion Clauses were meant to serve: assuring religious liberty and tolerance for all, avoiding religiously based social conflict, and maintaining that separation of church and state that allows each to flourish in its separate sphere.”</p>
<h2>Gay rights and religious rights</h2>
<p>The second case began when a gay couple planning a wedding asked for a custom cake from Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colorado in 2012. The owner refused their request. In his view it would mean celebrating a ceremony that violated his deeply held religious convictions. </p>
<p>The Colorado Civil Rights Commission fined the baker for violating the state’s anti-discrimination laws. <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/masterpiece-cakeshop-ltd-v-colorado-civil-rights-commn/">The Supreme Court reversed the decision</a>, saying the state of Colorado demonstrated “clear and impermissible hostility” toward the baker and his religious beliefs. </p>
<p>Many commentators saw this dispute as a <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/06/the-court-slices-a-narrow-ruling-out-of-masterpiece-cakeshop/561986/">gay rights case</a>. But it is more accurately a religious rights case. The religious side brought the suit, and that side won in a way that expanded religious rights.</p>
<p>“Hostility” is the key word in the Masterpiece Cakeshop <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2017/16-111">ruling</a>. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote that the state government’s “hostility was inconsistent with the First Amendment’s guarantee that our laws be applied in a manner that is neutral toward religion.” </p>
<h2>Religious monuments on public land</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/the-american-legion-v-american-humanist-association">American Legion v. American Humanist case</a> was an old-fashioned religious dispute about a giant cross on public property. </p>
<p>Does the imposing Bladensburg Peace Cross, set in a highway median on the outskirts of Washington, D.C., violate the First Amendment? </p>
<p><a href="https://americanhumanist.org/">The American Humanist Association</a> – a secularism-promoting nonprofit whose motto is “Good Without a God” – brought suit asking that the cross be demolished or moved from public land, where its members would not have to see it while driving on the highway.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2018/17-1717">Supreme Court said no</a>. Like Kennedy in Masterpiece Cakeshop, Justice Samuel Alito in the Peace Cross case argued that government hostility toward religion was impermissible: “a government that roams the land, tearing down monuments with religious symbolism and scrubbing away any reference to the divine will strike many as aggressively hostile to religion.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293449/original/file-20190921-135084-yypoyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293449/original/file-20190921-135084-yypoyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293449/original/file-20190921-135084-yypoyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293449/original/file-20190921-135084-yypoyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293449/original/file-20190921-135084-yypoyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293449/original/file-20190921-135084-yypoyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293449/original/file-20190921-135084-yypoyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293449/original/file-20190921-135084-yypoyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Supreme Court decisions in the last decade have helped changed the power balance between religious and secular groups.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Supreme-Court-Vehicle-Searches/6fb1b4adfc834236bb20bc8082c35eb3/120/0">AP/Scott Applewhite</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Majority powers to minority rights</h2>
<p>Underneath these victories for religious citizens and institutions is a shift in legal status. Traditional Christians were long perceived to be – by themselves and by the court – the dominant majority. Now traditional Christians argue they are a persecuted minority with rights. The court tends to agree.</p>
<p>Around 2010 the Protestant majority dominant throughout American history up to that point <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/white-christians-now-minority-u-s-population-survey-says">dropped into the minority</a>. <a href="https://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/attendance-at-religious-services/">Active churchgoers</a> now represent only a third of Americans. </p>
<p>Conversely, Americans with no religious affiliation – the “nones” – have risen dramatically. They are now approximately a quarter of the population, up from around 15% only 10 years ago. <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/05/13/a-closer-look-at-americas-rapidly-growing-religious-nones/">About 35%</a> of millennials and 17% of baby boomers are now nones.</p>
<p>Along with these changes has come a <a href="https://stream.org/committed-christians-minority-your-kids-need-know/">shift in perceptions</a> of who is discriminated against. </p>
<p>According to a recent <a href="https://www.people-press.org/2019/04/15/sharp-rise-in-the-share-of-americans-saying-jews-face-discrimination/">Pew survey</a>, between 2016 and 2019, perceptions of discrimination against blacks, Hispanics, women and especially Jews have gone up. But so have perceptions of discrimination against Christians. </p>
<p>Among Republicans, the proportion who perceive of “a lot” of discrimination against Evangelical Christians has gone from 21% in 2016 to 30% in 2019. </p>
<p>In constitutional rulings, rights often protect minorities against majorities. Declining numbers can mean less power but rising protections.</p>
<p>A case accepted for the Supreme Court’s 2019-2020 term, <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/espinoza-v-montana-department-of-revenue/">Espinoza v. Montana,</a> concerns whether state-funded student aid programs <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/2019/09/symposium-principles-or-improvisations-why-and-how-the-justices-should-reject-anti-religious-discrimination/#more-289193">can exclude religious schools</a>.</p>
<p>That case will test whether the court’s transformation of the place of religion in American life continues.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119718/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Morgan Marietta does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
There’s been a reversal of power between religious and secular sides of American culture. The Supreme Court is now at the center of that shift.
Morgan Marietta, Associate Professor of Political Science, UMass Lowell
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/79603
2017-06-24T03:14:42Z
2017-06-24T03:14:42Z
30 years after Edwards v. Aguillard: Why creationism lingers in public schools
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175281/original/file-20170622-27875-xlu8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In 2013, pro-science supporters rallied before a Texas Board of Education public hearing on proposed new science textbooks.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Eric Gay</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This month marks the 30th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/482/578">Edwards v. Aguillard</a>, a groundbreaking case that ruled it unconstitutional to require creationism to be taught in public schools.</p>
<p>Though much has changed in 30 years, the broad questions raised by this case remain timely. Who gets to decide what knowledge will be transmitted to the next generation – parents? Elected officials? Academic experts? What role (if any) should the courts play in policing such decisions?</p>
<p>As a scholar of education law and First Amendment law, I’ve seen these very questions animate curricular controversies over climate change, American history, and more.</p>
<p>While recent debates seem to share a common structure with controversies about the teaching of evolution, there’s a key difference: Edwards v. Aguillard stands not for the broad idea that it’s unconstitutional for public schools to teach “bad science,” but for the narrower idea that it’s unconstitutional for them to teach religion as truth.</p>
<h2>A century of science and religion</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175287/original/file-20170622-27922-5lupr6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175287/original/file-20170622-27922-5lupr6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175287/original/file-20170622-27922-5lupr6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=941&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175287/original/file-20170622-27922-5lupr6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=941&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175287/original/file-20170622-27922-5lupr6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=941&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175287/original/file-20170622-27922-5lupr6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1182&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175287/original/file-20170622-27922-5lupr6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1182&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175287/original/file-20170622-27922-5lupr6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1182&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In 1883, illustrator Joseph Ferdinand Keppler envisioned a future where religion and science were one.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://lccn.loc.gov/2012645438">Puck, via Library of Congress</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some conservative religious believers – <a href="http://www.pewforum.org/2013/12/30/publics-views-on-human-evolution#differences-by-religious-group">mainly fundamentalist or evangelical Protestants</a> – have long viewed Darwin’s ideas as <a href="http://www.pewforum.org/2009/02/04/the-social-and-legal-dimensions-of-the-evolution-debate-in-the-us/">incompatible with their faith</a>. Consequently, they’ve resisted the undiluted teaching of evolutionary theory in public schools. </p>
<p>Early resistance took the form of statutes criminalizing the teaching of evolution, most famously the Tennessee ban at the heart of the famous “<a href="http://www.npr.org/2005/07/05/4723956/timeline-remembering-the-scopes-monkey-trial">Scopes Monkey Trial</a>” of 1925.</p>
<p>In the next four decades, the legal playing field changed dramatically. The Supreme Court applied the Constitution’s <a href="http://constitution.findlaw.com/amendment1.html">Establishment Clause</a> to the states in <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/330/1/case.html">1947</a>, initially reading the clause to require the “<a href="http://americanhistory.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.001.0001/acrefore-9780199329175-e-29">separation of church and state</a>.” In the early 1960s, cases banning school-sponsored <a href="http://supreme.nolo.com/us/370/421/case.html">classroom prayer</a> and <a href="http://supreme.nolo.com/us/374/203/case.html">devotional Bible reading</a> interpreted the separation of church and state to mean that schools could teach about religion, but they couldn’t constitutionally teach religion as true. </p>
<p>It followed that teaching the biblical creation story as a true account of human origins was out of the question. The Supreme Court put a categorical end to Tennessee-style “monkey laws” in its 1968 decision in <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/393/97">Epperson v. Arkansas</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175283/original/file-20170622-27907-1rnf59r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175283/original/file-20170622-27907-1rnf59r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175283/original/file-20170622-27907-1rnf59r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175283/original/file-20170622-27907-1rnf59r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175283/original/file-20170622-27907-1rnf59r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175283/original/file-20170622-27907-1rnf59r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175283/original/file-20170622-27907-1rnf59r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175283/original/file-20170622-27907-1rnf59r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Biology teacher Susan Epperson challenged Arkansas’ ban on the teaching of the theory of evolution. Little Rock Central High School, Arkansas, Aug. 13, 1966.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 1971’s <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/411/192">Lemon v. Kurtzman</a>, the Supreme Court solidified its views on church-state separation by adopting a three-prong “test” to determine whether laws violated the Establishment Clause. To be constitutional:</p>
<ol>
<li>A law must have a secular legislative purpose.</li>
<li>Its primary effect must neither advance nor inhibit religion.</li>
<li>It must not foster excessive government entanglement with religion.</li>
</ol>
<p>Lemon’s support on today’s Supreme Court is <a href="https://ssrn.com/abstract=2491538">much weaker than it was 40 years ago</a>, but it has been the dominant test employed in the case law on creationism and evolution.</p>
<h2>Can we teach a bit of each?</h2>
<p>Why, then, didn’t the Supreme Court’s adoption of the Lemon test close the book on creationist teaching once and for all? The answer, in a nutshell, is that creationism went underground.</p>
<p>Once the state could neither teach biblical creationism nor categorically forbid the teaching of evolution, creationists turned to new strategies.</p>
<p>The first post-Epperson wave of resistance involved a number of state legislatures that required the “balanced treatment” of both evolution and “<a href="http://www.plts.edu/faculty-staff/documents/ite_evol_fighting.pdf#page=6">scientific creationism</a>” in the science classroom. Students would be presented with two “scientific” accounts side by side and could make up their own minds. </p>
<p>Yet, for this strategy to succeed, proponents needed to convince courts that “scientific creationism” was more than just Sunday school in disguise. In <a href="http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/mclean-v-arkansas.html">McLean v. Arkansas</a> (1982), a federal district court struck down Arkansas’s balanced treatment law, ruling that it merely omitted biblical references without actually changing the religious purpose of the law. The court also developed a definition of “science” and concluded that “creation science” did not satisfy it.</p>
<h2>Edwards v. Aguillard</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175448/original/file-20170623-12623-1wnmgtx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175448/original/file-20170623-12623-1wnmgtx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175448/original/file-20170623-12623-1wnmgtx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=797&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175448/original/file-20170623-12623-1wnmgtx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=797&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175448/original/file-20170623-12623-1wnmgtx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=797&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175448/original/file-20170623-12623-1wnmgtx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1002&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175448/original/file-20170623-12623-1wnmgtx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1002&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175448/original/file-20170623-12623-1wnmgtx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1002&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the dissenting opinion in Edwards v. Aguillard. Today’s court is likely more sympathetic to Scalia’s views of the Establishment Clause.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Lana Harris</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 1981, Louisiana passed the “<a href="http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Text_of_Louisiana_Balanced_Treatment_for_Creation-Science_and_Evolution-Science_Act">Balanced Treatment for Creation-Science and Evolution-Science in Public School Instruction Act</a>.” Though similar to the law struck down in McLean v. Arkansas, Louisiana lawmakers took extra steps to attempt to <a href="https://ncse.com/library-resource/rise-fall-louisiana-creationism-law">cleanse religion from their law</a> after Arkansas’s balanced treatment act had been challenged in court. </p>
<p>Under the law’s terms, no school was required to teach either evolution or creation science, but if one were taught, the other had to be taught as well. The declared purpose of the law was protecting “academic freedom.” </p>
<p>On June 19, 1987, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in the case of <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/482/578">Edwards v. Aguillard</a> that the Louisiana law was unconstitutional. Writing for the court, Justice Brennan explained that the act had no secular purpose – and thus violated the first prong of the “Lemon test.” Further, Brennan rejected the act’s purported purpose of protecting academic freedom: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The Act actually serves to diminish academic freedom by removing the flexibility to teach evolution without also teaching creation science, even if teachers determine that such curriculum results in less effective and comprehensive science instruction.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>‘Teaching the controversy’</h2>
<p>Like Epperson v. Arkansas, the Edwards case was a decisive Supreme Court defeat for anti-evolution forces. </p>
<p>As creationists came to understand that the Supreme Court would not approve laws with religious agendas so close to the surface, many shifted their focus to more subtle tactics, which involved some version of “teaching the controversy” regarding evolution. One strategy was to adopt disclaimers explaining to students that evolution was a “<a href="http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/cobb/selman-v-cobb.html">theory, not a fact</a>” or that teaching evolution was “<a href="http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-5th-circuit/1279474.html">not intended to influence or dissuade the Biblical version of Creation</a>.” Courts uniformly ruled against these disclaimers.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/dover/kitzmiller_v_dover_decision.html">Kitzmiller v. Dover School District</a> (2005), the <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/evolution/intelligent-design-trial.html">best-known</a> post-Edwards case, addressed the strategy of substituting “intelligent design theory” for “scientific creationism.” A Pennsylvania school district’s evolution disclaimer included the suggestion that students consider the theory of “intelligent design” as developed in the textbook, “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Of_Pandas_and_People">Of Pandas and People.</a>”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175430/original/file-20170623-12636-w1s6l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175430/original/file-20170623-12636-w1s6l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175430/original/file-20170623-12636-w1s6l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175430/original/file-20170623-12636-w1s6l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175430/original/file-20170623-12636-w1s6l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175430/original/file-20170623-12636-w1s6l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175430/original/file-20170623-12636-w1s6l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175430/original/file-20170623-12636-w1s6l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A federal judge barred the Dover, Pennsylvania school district from teaching ‘intelligent design’ in biology class, saying the concept is creationism in disguise.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Bradley C Bower</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Intelligent design proponents argue that mutation and natural selection cannot adequately explain the emergence of “irreducibly complex” biological structures; such structures must have been designed. Officially, the “designer” could have been anyone – a space alien, perhaps – thus “intelligent design” is claimed <a href="http://www.intelligentdesign.org/whatisid.php">not to be religious in character</a>.</p>
<p>The district court, however, soundly rejected these arguments. As had the court in McLean v. Arkansas, the Kitzmiller court discussed the nature of science and concluded that intelligent design was not science.</p>
<h2>The legacy of Edwards today</h2>
<p>Courts have been remarkably consistent in rejecting creationist efforts to undermine the teaching of evolution. It’s tempting to see these cases as a sign that courts will protect the integrity of science and of academic judgments generally. (One might think, for example, that courts would just as readily step in when political actors reject the teaching of mainstream climate science in public schools.) But the cases don’t sweep so broadly.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175431/original/file-20170623-12623-1nmon66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175431/original/file-20170623-12623-1nmon66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175431/original/file-20170623-12623-1nmon66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=893&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175431/original/file-20170623-12623-1nmon66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=893&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175431/original/file-20170623-12623-1nmon66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=893&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175431/original/file-20170623-12623-1nmon66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1122&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175431/original/file-20170623-12623-1nmon66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1122&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175431/original/file-20170623-12623-1nmon66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1122&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In 2011, Joe Zamecki protests outside a building where the Texas Board of Education was considering how the next round of science textbooks should address issues of creationism and climate change.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Eric Gay</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Even in cases where courts explicitly state that creationism/intelligent design is not science, they make this point only as a step toward the critical point that creationism is religion. In other words, courts do not weigh in on whether science lessons must be supported by mainstream scientific experts, only that religious views can’t be taught as science.</p>
<p>Respect for academic expertise is incredibly important. One might argue, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5vkzhz">as Robert Post has done</a>, that the expertise fostered by academic disciplines deserves First Amendment protection. But the courts aren’t there yet.</p>
<p>Recent efforts to undermine the teaching of evolution have mainly taken the form of so-called “academic freedom” or “science education” bills, which have been proposed in a number of states and have passed in <a href="https://ncse.com/library-resource/louisiana-2008-sb-561-sb-733">Louisiana</a> (2008) and <a href="http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Text_of_Tennessee_House_Bill_368">Tennessee</a> (2012).</p>
<p>These bills exploit an opening left by Edwards v. Aguillard: Teachers are not required to teach creation alongside evolution; rather, they’re given the “academic freedom” to emphasize critiques while teaching evolution in their science classes. The bills downplay religion by not mentioning the topic of evolution or by mentioning it alongside other controversial topics like climate change. </p>
<p>Legal precedent would not allow public school teachers to explicitly use this “academic freedom” to <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2015/04/creationism_in_louisiana_public_school_science_classes_school_boards_and.html">undermine science education in favor of religion</a>. However, it’s difficult to know how many teachers are choosing to do so – and whether those choices have anything to do with the legislation.</p>
<p>Edwards v. Aguillard struck an important blow for science education, and it fundamentally reshaped the tactics available to creationists. Its influence on these fronts has been significant and laudable, but its reasoning is heavily reliant on historical links to old-school creationism and on a conception of the separation of church and state that’s stricter than the likely views of current Supreme Court justices. These points limit the case’s ability to speak to the full range of curricular problems we confront today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79603/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John E. Taylor does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Thirty years after the Supreme Court ruled that creationism cannot be required in schools, ‘creation science’ is still taught in some schools. What are the implications for climate education?
John E. Taylor, Professor of Law, West Virginia University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/77605
2017-05-26T01:32:35Z
2017-05-26T01:32:35Z
Trump says the IRS regulates churches too much. Here’s why he’s wrong
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170441/original/file-20170522-7327-1wg2m9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Who enforces regulations that bar churches from engaging in politics?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/politician-woman-holding-religious-bible-215878255">www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>President Donald Trump recently signed an <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/05/04/presidential-executive-order-promoting-free-speech-and-religious-liberty">executive order</a> that he said would keep his campaign promise to defend religious groups from the IRS when they engage in political speech.</p>
<p>Like other <a href="https://surlysubgroup.com/2017/05/04/trumps-johnson-amendment-executive-order-does-not-say-what-he-said-it-said/">experts</a>, I believe this move <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/05/04/president-trumps-religious-order-could-unleash-political-money/101289500/">does nothing</a> to change IRS policy. But as a law professor who used to litigate exempt-organization tax issues for the Internal Revenue Service, I’m concerned the news might suggest that charities are over-regulated. </p>
<p>In fact, the opposite is true. </p>
<h2>The Johnson Amendment</h2>
<p>During the campaign, Trump often trumpeted a false claim that churches were under attack by the IRS due to the Johnson Amendment, a 63-year-old law that bars all charities from engaging in political activities. </p>
<p>Soon after he took office, Trump swore he would <a href="https://theconversation.com/trumps-vow-to-destroy-johnson-amendment-could-wreak-havoc-on-charitable-world-72561">destroy it</a>. However, his recent order merely directed the IRS to keep up its already light regulation of religious groups. </p>
<p>Trump couldn’t defang the Johnson Amendment if he tried because the IRS rarely punishes any nonprofit organizations, including churches, for violating it. While the IRS has admonished churches that may have violated the amendment inadvertently, the IRS has <a href="https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/cases/branch-ministries-v-rossotti">revoked a church’s tax-exempt status</a> for violating the Johnson Amendment only once since it became law. In that instance, a Binghamton, New York church published newspaper ads urging Christians to vote against Bill Clinton in 1992.</p>
<p>In other words, the Johnson Amendment is mostly toothless.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170431/original/file-20170522-7379-8moxrm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170431/original/file-20170522-7379-8moxrm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170431/original/file-20170522-7379-8moxrm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170431/original/file-20170522-7379-8moxrm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170431/original/file-20170522-7379-8moxrm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170431/original/file-20170522-7379-8moxrm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1055&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170431/original/file-20170522-7379-8moxrm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1055&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170431/original/file-20170522-7379-8moxrm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1055&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Johnson Amendment establishes boundaries due to the separation of church and state.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/success?src=-rzkjocFM4Ojnv9N6f2eiA-1-4">www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Federal oversight</h2>
<p>One problem with the fuss Trump made over the law: It fostered the impression that churches are being oppressed by the IRS, when in reality the federal government does not employ enough regulators to properly oversee the nonprofit sector – including religious and secular groups.</p>
<p>In 2000, the IRS had about 800 employees dedicated to reviewing applications and auditing tax-exempt nonprofit organizations. In 2013 <a href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/670/667595.pdf">it had 842</a>. Staffing appears to have actually shrunk since the 1970s, when the Treasury Department undertook a thorough study of the charitable sector and its oversight environment, known as the Commission on Private Philanthropy and Public Needs. That commission <a href="https://archives.iupui.edu/handle/2450/812">counted 1,000</a> employees dedicated to this function. </p>
<p>While the agency’s staffing has declined, the number of charities registered with the IRS has soared to <a href="https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/16databk.pdf">more than 1.2 million in 2016</a>, from <a href="https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/80dbfullar.pdf">around 320,000 in 1980</a>. The real number is higher because churches <a href="https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/churches-integrated-auxiliaries-and-conventions-or-associations-of-churches">automatically qualify</a> for tax-exempt status without doing any paperwork. That means the nation’s estimated <a href="http://hirr.hartsem.edu/research/fastfacts/fast_facts.html#numcong">350,000 religious congregations</a> don’t need to register with the IRS or file tax returns – a fact at odds with Trump’s over-regulation myth.</p>
<p>In addition, nonprofit assets have almost tripled to <a href="http://www.urban.org/research/publication/nonprofit-sector-brief-2015-public-charities-giving-and-volunteering">US$3.2 trillion in 2013</a> from <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2658325">$1.1 trillion in 1995</a>.</p>
<p>Yet Trump’s proposed 2018 budget may weaken enforcement capacity even more. It calls for <a href="http://www.politico.com/tipsheets/morning-tax/2017/05/23/still-skin-and-bones-220465">cutting current IRS funding</a> – following a <a href="http://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-tax/irs-funding-cuts-compromise-taxpayer-service-and-weaken-enforcement">17 percent decline</a> since 2010 – by another $239 million in 2018.</p>
<p>The National Taxpayer Advocate, an independent office within the IRS that <a href="https://taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov/about-tas">represents taxpayer voices</a>, <a href="http://www.taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov/2012-Annual-Report/downloads/Most-Serious-Problems-Tax-Exempt-Automatic-Revocation.pdf">since 2012</a> has regularly described the IRS as <a href="http://www.taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov/2013-Annual-Report/downloads/EXEMPT-ORGANIZATIONS-The-IRS-Continues-to-Struggle-with-Revocation-Processes-and-Erroneous-Revocations-of-Exempt-Status.pdf">severely lacking</a> the resources needed to oversee the charitable sector. </p>
<h2>State-level oversight</h2>
<p>Theoretically, the federal government does not need to heavily regulate charities because state attorneys general typically bear the responsibility for providing this oversight.</p>
<p>In reality, the states don’t employ the staff or spend the money required to oversee nonprofits either. According to a survey conducted by University of Minnesota Law School Dean <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1010985">Garry Jenkins</a> 10 years ago, most states employed no more than the equivalent of a single full-time staffer to do this work.</p>
<p>Even New York state’s team of more than 20 full-time employees, the largest Jenkins found, was still arguably unable to keep up with its workload. Given the <a href="http://origin-nyi.thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/state-local-politics/327199-your-state-may-be-facing-the-dawn-of-an-unforgiving">economic stress</a> the states are experiencing, there’s no reason to believe that this situation has improved over the past decade.</p>
<h2>Rogue charities</h2>
<p>While the IRS has rarely found significant noncompliance among charitable organizations, reports of rogue charities are common enough to suggest that the nation needs stronger nonprofit oversight. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.npr.org/2016/06/16/482020436/senators-report-finds-fundamental-concerns-about-red-cross-finances">Red Cross</a> is still struggling to quell concerns from Congress <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2015/07/21/424988126/documents-show-red-cross-may-not-know-how-it-spent-millions-in-haiti">about its accounting</a> practices in Haiti after the group raised $500 million to response to that country’s 2010 earthquake. In 2013, the <a href="http://cironline.org/reports/part-1-dirty-secrets-worst-charities-4603">Center for Investigative Reporting</a> and the Tampa Bay Times zeroed in on 50 charities that spent as little as three cents on the dollar they raised for charitable activity on work tied to their missions. </p>
<p>And in 2016, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), all 50 states and the District of Columbia settled
with the <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2016/03/ftc-states-settle-claims-against-two-entities-claiming-be-cancer">Cancer Fund of America Inc.</a>, Cancer Support Services Inc. and the leader of both groups, James Reynolds Sr., barring them all from operating in the charitable world again. The FTC alleged that they spent most of their money on families, friends and operators rather than on charity.</p>
<p>Were the charitable sector small, the limited oversight resources might not matter much. However, nonprofits today account for <a href="https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2016/10/24/nonprofit-workforce-numbers/">almost 5 percent of GDP and employ roughly 1 in 10 American workers</a>. </p>
<h2>An independent agency</h2>
<p>Perhaps surprisingly, research by the IRS and reviewed by Notre Dame University law professor <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2658325">Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer</a> suggests that noncompliance isn’t widespread. But enough wrongdoing has surfaced that several legal scholars, including Mayer and Catholic University professor <a href="http://scholarship.law.edu/scholar/117/">Roger Colinvaux</a>, have called for significantly stronger nonprofit oversight.</p>
<p>Texas A&M law professor <a href="http://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1048&context=facscholar">Terri Lynn Helge</a> has reviewed various ideas for boosting oversight, such as creating state boards to oversee charities or allowing a charity’s big donors and founders to sue over perceived malfeasance. However, no state has significantly tightened its oversight. </p>
<p>Helge supports the creation of an independent self-regulating entity technically backed by federal agency power to strengthen nonprofit regulation. It would be akin to the <a href="https://www.finra.org/about">Financial Industry Regulatory Authority</a>, which oversees stockbrokers and brokerage firms. <a href="http://web.law.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/microsites/attorneys-general/Marcus%20Owens%203.18.pdf">Marcus S. Owens</a>, the former head of the IRS Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division, has made similar recommendations.</p>
<p>While the states have made little headway, the IRS has made some adjustments. In 2014, it introduced Form 1023-EZ, which allows small charities to file a very abbreviated application for tax-exempt status with no formal review by the IRS, to eliminate its backlog of applications and to focus its human resources on audits. This change, though, has been <a href="http://www.forpurposelaw.com/critics-concerns-about-form-1023-ez-spot-on/">widely criticized</a> by the charitable sector as making oversight worse because small charities can now form with no IRS check on basic compliance. It has also tried to zero in on high-priority charities such as <a href="http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1244&context=yjhple">hospitals</a> and <a href="https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-tege/CUCP_FinalRpt_050213.pdf">universities</a>. </p>
<p>What does this mean in terms of the Johnson Amendment and Trump’s wish to destroy it? There are real problems with charity regulation, but they have nothing to do with regulatory overkill.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77605/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Philip Hackney does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
President Trump claims that churches suffer from the over-regulation of their political speech. In reality, oversight is lax for religious groups and secular tax-exempt nonprofits alike.
Philip Hackney, James E. & Betty M. Phillips Associate Professor of Law, Louisiana State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/65985
2016-10-16T05:15:08Z
2016-10-16T05:15:08Z
Dangerous echoes of the past as church and state move closer in South Africa
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140907/original/image-20161007-21439-1ewt02a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">South African President Jacob Zuma kneels as a pastor prays for him.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Rogan Ward </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="http://www.kas.de/wf/doc/kas_41566-1522-2-30.pdf?150609093459">Global Values Survey</a> shows that religious organisations remain among the most trusted institutions in South African society. They enjoy higher levels of public trust than either the state or the private sector. This trust should not be abused or manipulated. </p>
<p>This is a challenge in most societies in the world. South Africa’s particular circumstances are complicated by a difficult historical relationship between the church and the state. </p>
<p>The state has often abused the church to garner votes and misinform, or to silence, its population. The church, on the other hand, has at times given moral and religious sanction that allowed the state to perpetrate significant injustices.</p>
<p>The issue of church and state relationships remains important for a number of reasons. First, South Africa is a deeply religious society. About <a href="http://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/P0318/P03182013.pdf">85% of its citizens</a> are Christian, while a further 3% belong to other faiths.</p>
<p>Second, it has a clear precedent where an inappropriate relationship between the church and the state led to wide scale human rights abuses in the country’s apartheid past.</p>
<p>There appears to be a reemergence of the abuse of the trust that South Africans place in religions. This is a dangerous situation. An example is the governing ANC’s courting of the largest mainline <a href="http://ojs.reformedjournals.co.za/index.php/stj/article/view/1323">denomination</a> - the <a href="http://ojs.reformedjournals.co.za/index.php/stj/article/view/1323/1846">Methodist Church</a> of Southern Africa.</p>
<p>When it does not find favour there, it reaches out to <a href="http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2012-12-13-ancs-conflict-with-the-south-african-council-of-churches-the-origin/">independent churches</a>, which are the <a href="http://city-press.news24.com/Trending/the-rise-and-rise-of-the-charismatic-church-20160327">fastest growing</a> religious groupings in the country.</p>
<h2>The church and apartheid</h2>
<p>The rise of apartheid politics in South Africa was <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=AKkxAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA213&dq=rise+of+apartheid+and+apartheid+theology&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=rise%20of%20apartheid%20and%20apartheid%20theology&f=false">inextricably linked</a> to apartheid theology. It was the heretical theological views about how society should be structured, and whom God favoured, that gave the moral and religious sanction for a so-called “Christian” nation to perpetrate unimaginable human rights abuses. </p>
<p>At the turn of the 1900s the fledgling Afrikaners nation (Volk) developed a theology in which they viewed themselves as <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=AKkxAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA213&dq=apartheid+theology&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiy6f_BibLPAhWKbRQKHQeoB-8Q6AEIPjAF#v=onepage&q=apartheid%20theology&f=false">chosen by God</a> for a particular task.</p>
<p>When the National Party came to power in 1948 they had the <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=bntLAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA103&dq=apartheid+backing+of+white+afrikaner+church&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjkpJm0o8bPAhVkB8AKHUtlBaEQ6AEIITAB#v=onepage&q=apartheid%20backing%20of%20white%20afrikaner%20church&f=false">firm backing</a> of the white Afrikaans churches. The churches – on the Nationalists’ behalf – used the bible and <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=AKkxAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA213&dq=apartheid+covenant+bible+smit&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiA-qTfo8bPAhXHAsAKHV-GB-EQ6AEIKjAB#v=onepage&q=apartheid%20covenant%20bible%20smit&f=false">covenantal theology</a> to construct a view that white Afrikaners had special rights at the expense of black South Africans, who according to the policy of apartheid, had none. Particular moral and religious values practised in the church and the home, became the laws of the nation.</p>
<p>Given the close relationship between the church and state, the moderator of the Dutch Reformed Church was jokingly referred to as the “second most powerful man in the country”, while the Dutch Reformed Church was referred to as the <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=nrHRz327yL8C&pg=PA60&dq=national+party+at+prayer&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj-qPWbjLLPAhUD1RQKHZyiBEYQ6AEIIjAB#v=onepage&q=national%20party%20at%20prayer&f=false">“National Party at prayer”</a>. </p>
<p>This dangerous relationship detracted from the role of the state to protect the rights of all of its citizens, regardless of their faith. It also eroded the ministry of the church, which should hold the state accountable for its service to the people. The church also needs to be free to exercise its religious and moral mandate without political interference.</p>
<p>These religious and moral convictions separated people according to race and privileged a minority at the <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=PA_yVEQ98DMC&pg=PA240&dq=privileged+minority+majority+south+africa+apartheid&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiL1tyfpMbPAhWNHsAKHVF9B8QQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=privileged%20minority%20majority%20south%20africa%20apartheid&f=false">expense of the majority</a>. We are still facing the consequences of those actions and choices.</p>
<h2>Abusing public trust in religious institutions</h2>
<p>Many gave a sigh of relief when the state and the church were disentangled at the end of the <a href="http://uir.unisa.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10500/6093/Bentley-11-07-2012.pdf?sequence=1">apartheid era</a>. Sadly, that form of separation was short lived. Once again a governing party, in this <a href="http://www.anc.org.za/splash/index">ANC</a>, is crossing that line. </p>
<p>Recently, <a href="http://www.methodist.org.za/news/05082013-1033">Reverend Vukile Mehana</a>, the ANC’s former chaplain general, defended President Jacob Zuma’s claim that people who voted for the ANC would go to heaven, while those who voted for other parties would <a href="http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page71639?oid=220386&sn=Detail&pid=71639">go to hell</a>. </p>
<p>Just before the 2014 elections Mehana, who is a very senior Methodist minister, <a href="http://www.bdlive.co.za/national/politics/2014/02/06/pastors-will-not-help-anc-win-votes-says-da">encouraged pastors</a> in Cape Town to solicit votes for the ANC, saying:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You cannot have church leaders that speak as if they are in opposition to government … God will liberate the people through this (ANC) government.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>He would have done well to heed former Methodist Bishop, Peter Storey’s <a href="http://uir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/6093">warning that</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>the years since 1994 have surely persuaded us that democracy is not to be equated with the arrival of the reign of God.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So, how did this happen again? Of course there are many complex reasons that lead political parties to want the trust, and moral sanction, of large constituencies such as churches.</p>
<p>On the other hand, there are many church ministers and members who seek the power and opportunity that comes from being connected with political parties and party officials. </p>
<h2>Mandela, the Methodists and unintended consequences</h2>
<p>My 2014 research, showed that the path for the current abuses of church and state relationships came from former President Nelson Mandela’s <a href="http://uir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/14102">relationship with his church</a>.</p>
<p>It was not Mandela’s intention to co-opt the church, or abuse the trust that society places in religious institutions. But in a period in South African history when the narratives of reconciliation, forgiveness, hope and reconstruction were so central, he found a natural partner in the church for the project of rebuilding South Africa. He <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/address-president-nelson-mandela-first-triennial-conference-methodist-church-south-africa">said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Religious communities have a vital role to play in this regard [nation building]. Just as you took leading roles in the struggle against apartheid, so too you should be at the forefront of helping to deliver a better life to all our people. Among other things you are well placed to assist in building capacity within communities for effective delivery of a better life. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Mandela worked with faith leaders and church communities, and because he was viewed as a “good person” and a trusted leader, he won their confidence. Senior church leaders, such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, worked alongside President Mandela in nation building initiatives. </p>
<p>The state also became accustomed to working with faith-based organisations, which in many poor and rural communities are important, and necessary, sources of support, development aid, and social identity.</p>
<p>But, as successive political leaders, and their political parties, came to power, their intentions seemed less honourable. Many outspoken activists and church leaders had been co-opted into senior government and party-political posts. And formerly trusted allies, such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, started <a href="http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2013-05-13-does-tutu-still-count/">facing a backlash</a> whenever they challenged political corruption or ineptitude.</p>
<p>And so, South Africa once again finds itself in a precarious position where a powerful and important social institution is being co-opted by political power. Political leaders are losing their religious and moral impartiality to serve the interests of particular churches and denominations at the expense of others. Political independence and religious freedom are once again under threat. </p>
<p>Of course there are many honourable religious politicians, independent and prophetic religious leaders. But, South Africans would be wise to heed the caution of motivational speaker <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=4cnwYG2mIUgC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Jesus+wants+to+save+Christians&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi1guTzlbLPAhUJShQKHY0qB2MQ6AEILzAA#v=onepage&q=Jesus%20wants%20to%20save%20Christians&f=false">Rob Bell</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>A Christian should get very nervous when the flag and the Bible start holding hands. This is not a romance we want to encourage.</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/65985/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dion Forster receives funding from the National Research Foundation for his research. He is a senior lecturer at Stellenbosch University and the Director of the Beyers Naudé Center for Public Theology.</span></em></p>
Once again South Africa is facing the challenge of a compromised relationship between the state and the church. Is Nelson Mandela inadvertently responsible?
Dion Forster, Head of Department, Systematic Theology and Ecclesiology, Senior Lecturer in Ethics and Public Theology, Director of the Beyers Naudé Centre for Public Theology, Stellenbosch University
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