Summary Of Chapter 11 And 12 Of Religion And The American Constitutional Experiment

The supreme court case of Trinity Lutheran Church vs. Comer, is a case in which the supreme court of the United States of America held a Missouri Program that denied funding to religious groups that would be used for profane purposes, that is provided to non-religious groups violated the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of religion. “The Trinity Lutheran Church Child Learning Center is a Missouri preschool and daycare center. Originally established as a nonprofit organization, the Center later merged with Trinity Lutheran Church and now operates under its auspices on church property.” The Trinity Lutheran v. Comer case finds that governments can not discriminate against churches that would otherwise qualify for funding just because

Meaning that while laws cannot interfere with religious belief and opinions, laws can be made to regulate some religious practices. For example, Human sacrifices are a part of some religious rituals, but they cannot be tolerated in the United States.  Chief Justice Waite stated that "If we do not make the Constitution the Supreme Law, and allow each person to make up their mind about what law to obey on religious grounds, we would put religious belief over the Constitution." Meaning this would undermine order and the government would only exist in

Edwards v. Aguillard Edwards v. Aguillard is a supreme court case that challenges the legality of the Creationism Law. The creationism law said that you didn’t have to teach evolution,but if you did you also had to teach creationism. The law was ruled unconstitutional in a federal court and then an appeals court. It was then moved to the supreme court, the supreme court ruled in a 7-2 decision that the law broke the establishment clause and therefore was unconstitutional.(Gordon) The law was first challenged by a parent of student who objected the legality of the Creation Law.

Hunter Estes Unit 2, Lesson 2 Gillespie’s Influence, a Legacy of Discrimination and Bigotry George Gillespie played a key role in the formation of the American Union’s fledgling government. Through his works, he convinced our Founding Fathers that civil government should be kept separate from the government of the church. By forcing this, he opened the door to arguments that shut religion out of politics and suppress the wishes of a large portion of our society. Today, we hold the “separation of church and state” to be one of the most important parts of our constitution, but we must confront the uncomfortable fact that, for much of American history, the phrase "separation of church and state" have often been expressions of exclusion, intolerance,

The issue in this case was whether school-sponsored nondenominational prayer in public schools violates the Establishment clause of the first amendment (Facts and Case Summary - Engel v. Vitale, n.d.). This case dealt with a New York state law that had required public schools to open each day with the Pledge of Allegiance and a nondenominational prayer in which the students recognized their dependence upon God (Facts and Case Summary - Engel v. Vitale, n.d.). This law had also allowed students to absent themselves from this activity if they found that it was objectionable. There was a parent that sued the school on behalf of their child. Their argument was that the law violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, as made applicable

“Faith and the Presidency: From George Washington to George W. Bush” was written by Gary Scott Smith, the book goes in depth about how presidencies brought religion to America and its government. This book was written to be read by students and scholars looking to further their knowledge about the presidents’ religious views and how they used their views in office. Gary Scott Smith is currently the chair and professor of history at Grove City College, were he graduated from in 1972 with a bachelor’s in art in Psychology. He also has his master’s in art in American History from John Hopkins which he received in 1979. In 1981 he received his Ph. D in American History from John Hopkins as well (Faculty, par.1).

Secular governing, also known as the separation of church and state, has not been around for a long period of time. Since before the United States was founded, there have been many radical changes in the general consensus on whether or not a government should encourage or even force a religion on its people. With Puritanism, Deism, and Transcendentalism, it is easy to see a change in attitudes as the years went by. The canonical literature created by some of the celebrated writers in the United States shows a progression over time in regards to different beliefs and their views on secular governments.

Though prayer can seem innocent enough, Smiths’ action of praying while performing the duty of a judge violates the establishment clause; seeing how Roger Robber is being subjected to Smiths’ beliefs. As made evident in the 1992 decision in the case of Lee v. Weisman, public schools, which function under the supervision of the government, cannot perform religious invocations and benedictions during a graduation, as doing so violates the establishment clause. A public school sponsoring a prayer at a graduation is considered “excessive government entanglement” when the objective is to create a prayer that is to be used in a formal religious exercise, which students, for all practical purposes are obliged to attend, resulting in a violation of the establishment clause. Going back to Smith, his inclusion of prayers while serving the government shows that there is no separation between church and state. This is a clear violation, seeing how Robber is placed in a highly religious environment, meaning that religious beliefs are likely to take the place of the law and completely disregarding the

Religion played an important role in each of the British colonies. Many Christian groups tried to enforce religious observance through the colony's government and the local town's rules. Some laws stated that everyone must attend a house of worship and pay taxes that helped fund the pay of ministers. Out of the thirteen colonies, only eight had official churches. In the colony, those who practice a different version of Christianity or a non- Christian faith were sometimes killed (www.facinghistory.org 1).

The Leonore Annenberg Institute for Civics video titled “Key Constitutional Concepts” explores the history of the creation of the United States Constitution in addition to key concepts crucial to the document. Two central themes explored in the video include the protection of personal rights and importance of checks and balances. The video strives to explain these concepts through Supreme Court cases Gideon v. Wainwright and Youngstown v. Sawyer. To begin, the video retraces the steps leading up to the Constitutional Convention in Virginia in 1787. It opens by explaining the conflict that led to the Revolutionary War and the fragility of the new nation.

Moreover, this led to a notable disruption in America at the time and led to many affronted Americans. “... more difficult Establishment Clause cases involve government assistance or approval of religion...” (Brannen) This quote is saying that, just like other cases that involve the Establishment Clause, the public school’s composed prayer was seen as a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment due to the government's assistance in all public schools. This quote also reinforces that the court case influenced America by changing how much the church, and religion, were influenced in public schools.

McCreary v. ACLU of Kentucky (2005) was a case that was presented to the supreme court. The issue at hand was that two Kentucky county courthouses displayed the 10 commandments publicly. As a result, the American Civil Liberties Union argued that this religious display violated the first 10 amendments of the Establishment Clause and sued the counties. After that, the courthouse continued to post not one but two displays alongside with the 10 commandments relating to their reasoning assuring the citizens to be on the same page with them. Which according to law, the government must not in any way favor one religion over another, moreover in this case the displays clearly violated the Establishment Clause because they were presented with texts-scriptures from the Bible involving in a particular promotion of Christian religion.

Over the past few years, anyone can tell you that religious importance in our country has become less, and less vital. Recent events like the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, New York, and the attacks on Paris, France, have made the freedom of religion harder and harder to come by. Having the free practice of religion has proved difficult. Christianity has suffered from these issues as the general acceptance of the religion has declined substantially in the few decades. A recent poll there was a sense of discrimination for the Islamic religion, as they have been responsible for the attacks, 8/10 Americans believe Christianity should be practiced freely, while only a mere 6/10 Americans think the Muslims should practice freely (Source #3).

“Religious liberty might be supposed to mean that everybody is free to discuss religion. In practice, it means that hardly anybody is allowed to mention it.” ― G.K. Chesterton Many occasions in the United States history have shown that religion has caused many controversial questions. These questions have brought the American Justice System to a running halt, leading society to begin to ponder about the importance of freedom of religion, true meanings of the free exercise and establishment clause, and if there should be limitations imposed on the free exercise of one’s religious beliefs.

Religion Conflict in America America is largely a Christian country. According to a Pew Research survey the Christian population has dropped from 78.4% in 2007 to 70.6% in 2014. In contrast, nonaligned groups population increased from 16.1% to 22.8% in the same period. Protestant and Catholics greatly contribute to the decline. Church attendance diminishes in most churches and religious convictions continue to disappear.