Thoughts on Religious Liberty
by Tibor R. Machan
Over the years the idea of state sanctioned religious expression has been challenged all over America. Many have also found that challenge quite objectionable. The most recent controversy on this had to do with the prominent display of the Ten Commandments in the Alabama Supreme Court building. Not long ago there was a similar case, involving a dispute about whether a public high school football team's captain may ask for God's support at the beginning of a game. And the US Supreme Court has agreed to take up the challenge to the requirement that students in various public schools recite the Pledge of Allegiance which contains the statement, "I Pledge Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." And the list could go on. There are folks who are itching to go even further and challenge the inscription "In God We Trust" on the US Currency, or the presence of the chaplain at various federal and state legislative assemblies, claiming that those, too, are an affront to American citizens who are unbelievers or, in some cases, are members of non-Christian faiths.
One reason a great many people are pretty outraged about all these challenges is that they hold, quite rightly, that people in a community ought not to be forbidden to give expression to their religious faith. Schools, especially, are nearly homes away from homes to millions of children and their parents would just as soon not exclude religion from a place where they spend the better portion of their weekdays. The same goes for the places where kids play sports - why should these not admit of some show of faith? It is quite artificial to insist on such a divorce between society and religion. These places are not really provinces of proper state or government tasks but ones where government has inserted itself and now insists to follow the same rules it must follow where it properly belongs.
Consider that a court house has to be available to serve any citizen, no matter what religion - or the absence of any religion - he or she embraces. So it makes sense that in such official government regions religion should not be prominently featured. That is the point of the First Amendment's injunction that Congress - that is, government - "shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion."
Yet, the First Amendment also states there may not be any law, however, that prohibits the free exercise of religion. Now if government may not make laws - or public policies - in proper public places, where might one be free to exercise religion? The answer is, anywhere outside official government regions.
For example, there is no way that the ACLU would have a leg to stand on challenging the presence of the Holy Bible in private homes and in motels and hotels. Why? Because these are not the province of the government. So, the real problem with prayers or the Pledge of Allegiance in schools is not that they are in a school but that they are in a government school. The same goes for saying a prayer at a football game - there is nothing amiss in that except when it is a government owned sports arena where the game is being played.
The bottom line is that with the increasing encroachment of government in all realms of society, the sphere of the government is expanding. By the logic of the recent court rulings, no exhibition of religious convictions may occur at public parks, national forests, lakes, rivers, most museums, airports and innumerable other areas that the government has invaded, made "public" instead of leaving it private.
One of the preconditions of the peaceful co-existence of many religions - of which there are about 2500 in the USA - is that they all can carry out their worship in their own private realms. But, as is the case with all the vicious wrangling about Jerusalem, once houses of worship are placed in public places, the peace disappears.
And that spells the end of freedom of religion.
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