The Moral Dilemma of a Separation of Church and State in Schools

The moral dilemma I will be analyzing is the issue of separation of Church and State in schools. The Constitution's First Amendment states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” promoting religious freedom and preventing government hindrance on citizens’ right to worship freely. Roger Williams, who founded Rhode Island on the basis of religious tolerance, was one of the first to bring about the idea of “‘a wall or hedge of separation’ between the ‘wilderness of the world’ and ‘the garden of the church,’” in fear of government involvement or corruption of the church. Then in 1802 Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to the Danbury Baptist Association declaring that by adopting the establishment clause, the American people built the wall between Church and State. Both Thomas Jefferson and James Maidson fought to disestablish the Anglican Church in Virginia with the help of the Baptists, Presbyterians, Quakers, and other opposing faiths. They argued that by having an established church and compelling Virginian citizens to support a faith that they did not believe in with their taxes, was a violation of their natural right to religious freedom. 

The case Everson vs. Board of Education (1947), was one of the first where the court had to interpret the meaning of the establishment clause. The ruling of this case determined that allocating taxes in order to bus students to religious schools was constitutional under the premise that it did not breach the wall of separation and that the state of “New Jersey cannot . . . exclude individuals . . . because of their faith, or lack of it, from receiving the benefits of public welfare legislation”. 

In the 1963 case Abington School District vs. Schempp the Supreme Court banned the reading of the Bible and recitation of the Lord’s Prayer in public schools, ruling that it was in violation of the establishment clause. Later the Court established a test to determine violations against the establishment clause in Lemon vs. Kurtzman (1971), which resolved that “To be constitutional a statute must have ‘a secular legislative purpose,’ it must have principal effects that neither advance nor inhibit religion, and it must not foster ‘an excessive government entanglement with religion.’ Because of varying disagreements in the case County of Allegheny vs. American Civil Liberties Union (1989), Justice Anthony M. Kennedy led a group to develop a coercion test asserting that the government is not in violation of the clause unless it directly aids to religion in favor of an establish a state church or involved or coerced citizens in religion against their will.

 After the Lynch vs. Donnelly (1984) case Justice Sandra Day O’Connor proposed an endorsement test that is often involved in religious display cases. The neutrality test requires the government to treat religious groups equal to any other group, which was invoked in the case Zelman vs. Simmons-Harris (2002) where it was ruled that school vouchers provided to individuals in need did not impede on the establishment clause because it was the individual’s choice of which school to attend, whether it was public, private, secular, or religious. 

Since the doctrines founding America were first being drafted to present day, religion has played a role in the upbringing of this country yet the establishment clause and separation of Church and State, especially in schools, infringes on our right to religious freedom. This is what causes the topic of separation of Church and State in schools to be considered a moral dilemma. While the separation of Church and State may be necessary concerning the government possibly corrupting the Church or a government-established church; however, I do not believe that it is necessary in the educational domain such as schools. In school, in order for students to really learn and be able to form their own opinions they must take into account what they use as sources which would include their personal experiences and religious beliefs. 

I believe that students should learn about world religions and be able to speak freely of their own religious beliefs. Learning of other religious ideas allows for them to be more considerate and open-minded while also forming their own opinions and beliefs.