Public Policy and Law - the 1st Amendment

There are a few issues in government and education I have encountered upon my return from overseas which have motivated me to study more to understand the arguments. For example, it's not hard to get me on a band wagon against No Child Left Behind policies.

Since I started this post weeks ago now, I should say, the other week I had a conversation with some moms who are frustrated "for" their children who are taking PSSA tests this week. Actually, I think most children are fine with it; I wonder if parents get more stressed than their children believing that the tests are indicators of how "good/smart/successful" their children are, and even worse, how good/bad their teachers are! I believe the current arguments being used to support standardized testing and the consequencial policies on the schools are, in the end, actually damaging to our public school systems. But this is just a sidebar to my thoughts at the moment.

Actually what I am wallowing through at the moment is the First Amendment, the foundation of our democracy and the most beloved of all the amendments. In it we find the federal government giving us the right to free speech, the right to free press, the right to assemble and the right to petition the government concerning grievances. But most pressing in my study right now is the first line which guarantees our religious freedom.

I get frustrated at the various ways I have heard this part of the first amendment interpreted depending on who is doing the interpreting, namely, Christians, the ACLU, politicians or those opposed to religion altogether. Mostly we hear this in terms of "separation of church and state." It is deliniated in the Establishment and Free-exercise Clauses which basically say, keep religion out of the public domain and keep the government out of the church. Sometimes I wonder if people understand the value of these clauses.

In the circles where I find myself right now, I have mostly heard people complain that the government wants to remove religion from the public domain (examples: manger scenes, Ten Commandments, prayer in school). When Christians get upset about what the government does they often point to the need for Christian government leaders who stand on Christian values. I have heard Christians say that our government was founded on Christian principles to which we need to return. In this way they seem to promote an intertwining of government and religion or faith. Ironically, however, many of those same Christians are happy to claim tax exemptions for church and religious institutions. This statute is based on the separation of church and state, or the establishment clause of the 1st amendment.

Another point I can't help but hear in this is that some people who say they want religious freedom, deep-down are meaning it only for Christians. All other religions are suspect or cults. They seem to imply that the first pilgrims came here for "Christian religious freedom" so that's what religious freedom really means. The government, then, should favor or trust or maybe even promote the Christian faith, but distrust or wage war against the "evil" Islamic faith or protect us from the animistic faiths or "New Age" influences.

In our church right now we are talking about how we should listen to the voices from the past, those who were closer to the start of the church because they will or should have a better interpretation of what is important in our worship and church functions. In the same way, I have found the voices of those who helped to write the first amendment helpful in my own understanding of it. James Madison was one voice I found very insightful. I'll save his voice for another post, since it has taken me too long already to finish this post. But his commentary has been extremely enlightening for me in this study.