Dear Jim,
Please post and announce.
There will be a Memorial Service for Ed Schempp at Starr King UU Church in
Hayward, CA on February 29 at 2 PM.
Many will remember his long association with UU and his history of standing
up for separation of church and state in the Supreme Court decision of
1963, Abington vs. Schempp, which is often considered a "landmark". The
ACLU supported this case.
UUs , AHAs, and others interested in church-state issues are cordially
invited to this Memorial Service and to share thoughts and memories. The
family has chosen this date of February 29 as appropriate because Ed
Schempp was born on such a leap-year day.
Ed Schempp's obituary was published in the NY Times, the Washington Post,
and elsewhere. Below is the NY Times text.
Directions to Starr King UU are on their website
http://www.starrking.org/direct.htm
We invite all UUs and ACLUs and AUs and AHAs to attend and to meet family
and share.
Sincerely,
Ellery
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Edward Schempp, Who Fought School Bible Readings, Dies at 95
By DOUGLAS MARTIN
Published: November 23, 2003
Edward L. Schempp, a parent whose lawsuit against the required reading of
Bible verses in school led to a landmark Supreme Court decision in 1963
restricting such practices, died on Nov. 8 at a nursing home in Hayward,
Calif. He was 95.
A similar case in Baltimore, filed by the atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair,
was combined with Mr. Schempp's case by the court. Her name became much
better known, not least because of her outspokenness. But Mr. Schempp's
case elicited the bulk of the court's opinion.
Donald E. Boles, in his book "The Bible, Religion, and the Public
Schools," suggested that part of the reason was that Ms. O'Hair's atheism
might have tainted public reaction, while Mr. Schempp belonged to a
religious denomination, albeit a liberal one, the Unitarians.
Mr. Boles wrote that "public misunderstanding of the court's position
relating to religion would probably have been greater" if the atheist's
case had "formed the nub of the court's opinion."
The reaction was still strong, with Billy Graham arguing that a majority of
Americans had been penalized, and lawmakers proposing 150 constitutional
amendments permitting school prayer in the next year.
The 8-to-1 ruling on June 17, 1963, barring mandatory Bible reading in
public schools was a link in a chain of rulings that defined the lines
between church and state at school.
The ruling followed the Supreme Court decision in 1962 outlawing a required
prayer in New York public schools and preceded a milestone 1971 ruling that
declared direct governmental assistance to religious schools
unconstitutional.
The decision in the Schempp-O'Hair case was significant because it expanded
the constitutional grounds used in the New York case. In particular,
Justice Tom C. Clark in his majority opinion said the 14th Amendment due
process protections made the First Amendment prohibitions of establishing
or inhibiting religious expression applicable to the states.
Mr. Schempp was a native Philadelphian who took an ownership role in his
father's hardware business when he was 18. He later worked in a variety of
jobs involving electronics and enjoyed challenging conventional ideas by
writing letters to the editor and demonstrating for peace. He lived in
Roslyn, Pa., a Philadelphia suburb.
He became concerned about a 1949 Pennsylvania state law requiring the
reading of 10 Bible verses each day, followed by joint recitation of the
Lord's Prayer followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. (The decision by the
Supreme Court dismissed the question of the pledge in passing, under the
heading "activities which, though religious in origin, have ceased to have
religious meaning.")
Mr. Schempp objected because he and his family did not believe in Christ's
divinity and the doctrine of the Trinity, among other teachings. In 1956,
his son Ellory protested by reading from the Koran during the Bible
reading. After he was reprimanded, his father filed suit in federal court
against the Abington, Pa., school district, with the support of the
American Civil Liberties Union.
In 1959, a panel of three federal judges in Philadelphia ruled the
Bible-reading law unconstitutional. The school district appealed to the
Supreme Court, which sent the case back to the same federal court.
After the Philadelphia court upheld its earlier ruling, the state appealed
to the Supreme Court.
Edward Lewis Schempp was joined in the case by his wife, Sidney, who now
lives in Castro Valley, Calif., and their son Roger, of Pennsauken, N.J.,
and daughter, Donna Schempp of Oakland, Calif. His son Ellory, who now
lives in Medford, Mass., had originally been a party to the suit, but was
dropped because he had graduated from high school.
All survive Mr. Schempp, as does a legal precedent.
"In the relationship between man and religion," Justice Clark wrote in his
opinion, "the state is firmly committed to a position of neutrality."
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