http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=98174&ran=158031
Speaker reflects on divide of church and state
By NICOLE MORGAN, The Virginian-Pilot
© January 16, 2006
NORFOLK — Forcing students to collectively pray or say the Pledge of
Allegiance is more often an exercise of “going through the motions” than
one of reaffirming faith, said Ellery Schempp, who nearly 50 years ago
helped end open prayer in America’s public schools.
Many students don’t pay attention and want to get the recitations over
with, he said.
“It’s like going to the bathroom – necessary but not meaningful,” he said.
Schempp was the keynote speaker at Virginia Wesleyan College on Sunday
during a luncheon hosted by the Virginia chapter of Americans United for
Separation of Church and State.
When Schempp was a 16-year-old high school student in Abington , Pa. , each
day began with teachers leading students in Bible readings and prayer.
He once suggested that the Quran , the Muslim holy book, be read during
prayer time. For that, Schempp was sent to the principal’s office.
With the support of his parents, Schempp wrote a letter protesting prayer
in school to the American Civil Liberties Union in 1956 . The prayers were,
he wrote, “a gross violation of our religious rights.”
His protest led to the 1963 Supreme Court case, Abington School District v
.. Schempp, which joined a similar case called Murray v . Curlett. Madalyn
Murray was an atheist who said that her son was a victim of violence in the
Baltimore school district because he did not believe in God.
Schempp said his family, which attended a Unitarian church, was
discriminated against because of their stand. They were called communists.
His younger brother and sister were harassed in school.
Schempp went on to become a physicist and geologist. But he still speaks on
the subject that has landed him a place in history books.
The role of religion in public schools continues to be contentious, most
recently with debates in Kansas, Pennsylvania and California over whether
to teach “intelligent design” alongside evolution, as theories for how life
on earth developed. The idea behind intelligent design is that life is so
complex, it must have been orchestrated by an intelligent force.
Last month, a federal district court in Pennsylvania ruled that it was
unconstitutional to teach intelligent design in a public school science
course because it promoted a religious belief.
On Sunday, Schempp said this country was founded on the ideal that people
shouldn’t be subjected to the religions of others. Still, atheists are the
“most despised” people in America, he said.
Schempp said he respects nature, which has allowed mankind to evolve. He
finds pleasure in thinking.
“I think people tend to turn to gods when their own situations are unhappy
or confused,” he said. But religion has also been used to exert power and
control, Schempp said. “The promise of an everlasting life is a deception.”
Schempp said he fears that as certain religious beliefs are promoted by
government officials, Americans will become less vigilant in maintaining
the divide between church and state.
He predicted there would be more instances of posting the Ten Commandments
in public, such as the monument on the grounds of the Texas state capitol
in Austin. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last summer that the Texas display
was allowed, while framed copies of the commandments in two rural Kentucky
courthouses were unconstitutional.
Schempp said he believes prayer in schools will be overlooked more, as long
as it’s student-led. “What is this notion that everybody must be introduced
to Christ or Allah in order that their souls might be saved?” he asked the
room of about 50 listeners.
“The First Amendment has served us well,” Schempp said . “The more we
respect it, the more strength it gives us.”
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You are invited to check out the following:
The Rise of the Theocratic States of America
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocracy.htm
American Theocrats - Past and Present
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocrats.htm
The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
[and to join the discussion group for the above site and/or Separation of
Church and State in general, listed below]
HRSepCnS · Hampton Roads [Virginia] SepChurch&State
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HRSepCnS/
[Its not just Hampton Roads folks who are members, there are members from
all over the US and a couple from overseas as well]
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.. . . You can't understand a phrase such as "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion" by syllogistic reasoning. Words
take their meaning from social as well as textual contexts, which is why "a
page of history is worth a volume of logic." New York Trust Co. v. Eisner,
256 U.S. 345, 349, 41 S.Ct. 506, 507, 65 L.Ed. 963 (1921) (Holmes, J.).
Sherman v. Community Consol. Dist. 21, 980 F.2d 437, 445 (7th Cir. 1992)
.. . .
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USAF LT. COL (Ret) Buffman (Glen P. Goffin) wrote
"You pilot always into an unknown future;
facts are your only clue. Get the facts!"
That philosophy 'snipit' helped to get me, and my crew, through a good
many combat missions and far too many scary, inflight, emergencies.
It has also played a significant role in helping me to expose the
plethora of radical Christian propaganda and lies that we find at
almost every media turn.
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THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE:
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
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