Debate Desk
Does Separation of Church and State Mean Keeping Faith Out of Public Life?
The First Amendment bars an established church and protects free exercise; it does not require a naked public square or silence believers.
The claim
Critics say that the First Amendment builds a wall between church and state, that religious reasons have no place in lawmaking or public schools, and that religious symbols and prayers in government settings violate the principle.
The answer in three points
- The phrase does not appear in the Constitution. The First Amendment says that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. It bars a state church and protects the right of believers to practice. Jefferson used the "wall of separation" image in a 1802 letter to a Baptist association in Danbury, to reassure them that the government would not interfere with their religion.
- A state that is neutral among religions is not one that is hostile to all of them. The founders did not make religion illegal in public. Congress opened sessions with prayer, appointed chaplains, and passed the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which said religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to good government, schools should be forever encouraged.
- Citizens bring their convictions to politics, as they do with all their views. Abolitionists and civil rights leaders drew on faith. A rule that bars arguments because they are religious would silence a large part of the American tradition of moral reform.
Neutrality among religions is not hostility to religion.
The numbers
- The First Amendment, ratified in 1791, provides that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
- Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptists was written on January 1, 1802, according to the Library of Congress.
- In Kennedy v. Bremerton School District (2022), the Supreme Court held by a vote of 6 to 3 that a coach's quiet prayer on the field was protected.
What they will say next
"Everson adopted the wall." The Court used the metaphor in Everson v. Board of Education (1947), and in the same case upheld public funds for bus rides to parochial schools. The Court has since moved to focus on history and tradition.
"Religious arguments impose beliefs." Every law imposes someone's view of right and wrong. The question is whether it can be defended in public, and religious citizens have the same right to offer reasons as anyone.
"Minorities will feel excluded." The answer is equal respect for all faiths and for those with none, not the removal of religion from public life.
"Washington said the government gives bigotry no sanction." In his 1790 letter to the Jews of Newport, he did say so, and he also upheld free exercise as a right and not a favor.
A free country protects believers and nonbelievers alike.
"Prayer in school pressures children." State-led prayer is barred, and students may pray on their own. The line the Court draws is between the government's message and individuals' freedom.