State and Church

Dear Ted and Jody:

I was in the 7^th Grade when I first knowingly encountered a Supreme Court decision. We had recently moved from Badger Village, Wisconsin to Terre Haute, Indiana. For me that involved moving from a 7^th Grade classroom in an elementary school, into Woodrow Wilson Junior High School. The routines were different at the two schools. In elementary school, we stated each morning with the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. At Woodrow Wilson Junior High School, the day started with an academic class, in my case US History, and by fourth period we were in Home Room for 30 minutes. Home Room started with a prayer and then the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. Sometime during that academic year, the Supreme Court ruled that compulsory prayer in schools violated the First Amendment to the Constitution as it, in my understanding as a 7^th Grader at the time, was the equivalent to a state sanctioned religion—just the act of making people be there during a prayer was a violation of separation of church and state. Needless to say, our Home Room prayer was no more.

However, neither the U. S. House of Representatives nor the U. S. Senate ceased their praying. The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag still contains the words, “One Nation under God,” and our currency still asserts that we “Trust in God.” there are a myriad of ways God and mention of him slip into our official “goings on”—the best example is oaths. And, justification for some laws, procedures and the like are referenced to Biblical, religious writings or similar sources.

So, it should not come as a surprise to anyone that something like the white Christian nationalist movement would have a large following in our country, or that the Federalist Society would find white Christian nationalists among those they support for judgeship and justice on the federal bench.

So literally since December 15, 1791 when the First Amendment was ratified, we have lived in “declared” secular state that has, nonetheless, tolerated various forms of state supported religion. With over 230 years of such toleration it should not come as much of a surprise that a large chunk of our population doesn’t quite understand that the state can not impose religion, in any form, on its citizens. That lack of understanding spills over to include members of the Federal Bench.

The birds in the images are red-winged blackbirds. The moon was shot around 9 PM last evening.

Love, Ed