Louisiana Senate picks prayer fight in cultural war By Glynn Wilson NEW ORLEANS, April 20 — In defiance of the courts and in a special session called for the purpose of enhancing economic development, the state Senate went off on a vote-getting tangent from the religious right last week and approved two bills to allow silent prayer in public schools and vocal prayer in one parish. The ill-timed move is guaranteed to bring out the lawyers again and rain negative national publicity down on another southern state, at a time when religious conflict in the world is on the highest state of alert in decades. It just goes to show that the long-running cultural battle over the wall of separation between church and state is far from over. "We told them it was unconstitutional, but they chose to ignore the law," says Joe Cook, Executive Director of the Louisiana ACLU. "The problem with the bills is you have government endorsement of religion." But Sen. Max Malone, R-Shreveport and a staunch supporter of school prayer, made the case for the silent prayer bill. "What we want is simply to allow our students to have voluntary prayer before, during and after school," he said. That position ignores court interpretations of the First Amendment, however, which outlines the doctrine of church and state separation in the Bill of Rights in what is known as the Establishment Clause. It reads, in part, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion . . . " It has come to mean through a series of court rulings since 1940 that government cannot authorize a church, cannot pass laws that aid or favor one religion over another or favor religious belief over non belief, and cannot force a person to profess a belief, according to experts on the law and courts. In short, the government must be neutral toward religion and cannot be entangled with any religion. The cultural fight over the separation of church and state issue seems to be centered in southern states. Representatives and legislators from Texas to Florida, notably Alabama and Louisiana, seem to have trouble with this doctrine and the law, perhaps because a majority of their constituents have trouble with it too, Mr. Cook agreed. According to a Gallup poll conducted in August, 2001, 78 percent of the American public surveyed said they favored a Constitutional Amendment to allow voluntary prayer in public schools. "At one time, a majority was in favor of slavery, of killing Native Americans, committing genocide, of denying women the right to vote, of segregation and lynching blacks," Mr. Cook said. "That's why we have a Bill of Rights, so we don't have the tyranny of the majority over the minority." Crux of the fight The crux of the cultural fight has to do with balancing one part of the First Amendment with another. Congress passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act in October 1993 in an attempt to get around the Establishment Clause and reinforce what is known as the Free Exercise Clause, which reads: ". . . or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . . " The 1993 act said the government must show a "compelling interest" to justify any substantial restriction on religion. But the U.S. Supreme Court heard a challenge to the Constitutionality of the act in February, 1997 based on a Texas case pitting the Boerne, Texas' historic district law against St. Peter's Catholic Church, which wanted to rebuild and expand a part of its church to accommodate its large membership. Boerne city officials refused to permit the building, prompting church leaders to sue, arguing that the law infringed on religious exercise. The federal trial judge ruled the restoration law unconstitutional. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the decision, but the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the law unconstitutional as applied to the states in June, 1997. A two-time former governor in Alabama tried unsuccessfully to write a uniform, ecumenical prayer the courts could uphold in the 1980s. But Gov. Fob James' case was also struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court also struck down another law of a similar nature in Alabama in the mid-1980s. In Wallace v. Jaffree, one of the most important precedents used in cases today, the court found a state law enforcing a moment of silence in schools had a religious purpose and was therefore unconstitutional. In passing the Louisiana school prayer bill in special session last week, sponsored by Rep. Jane Smith, R-Bossier City, the Louisiana Senate defied a long line of federal court rulings. The state allowed silent prayer in Louisiana schools prior to 1999, when the Legislature voted to allow vocal prayers as well. But the court struck down both types of prayer. If Gov. Mike Foster signs the bill, written by Rep. Tony Perkins, R-Baker, then silent, student-led prayer statewide will be allowed in public schools beginning in June, barring a court injunction on enforcing the law. At the same time, however, the upper chamber sent a clear message that Bossier Parish will face the legal fight alone if it encourages defiance of the federal courts. An amendment was added to the bill in committee and refined on the Senate floor requiring the school system to cover the cost of defending against any lawsuit. Rep. Smith said her constituents were "clamoring for the right to pray aloud in schools and at school functions and that she will not be intimidated by the prospect of a lawsuit," according to the Times-Picayune. But the ACLU will sue again, Cook said, based on three legal tests guiding the courts in these cases. The Legislature is supposed to have a secular purpose, the law says you can't advance or inhibit religion, and there can't be an excessive entanglement of government and religion. "The only purpose for this is to put God back in the classroom. This clearly advances religion. They make no bones about it," he says. "They want to see open, verbal prayer at school sponsored meetings. That's prohibited. "They can't delegate their responsibility to children in their custody who are subject to their total control to uphold the law, to young people they're supposed to be guiding in what the law and rules and regulations say." The Louisiana Supreme Court found that the old silent prayer law failed all three tests. "The people behind having government promote religion want to destroy that wall of separation between church and state. They've got public schools confused with Sunday school," he said. "The place to promote religion is in the home and places of worship." Troubling Parallel Mr. Cook agreed there is a troubling similarity between those who promote government sponsorship of religion in public schools in the U.S. and the leaders of the Taliban and Al Queda, who received their education from religious schools in Pakistan, and the Palestinian suicide bombers, who have no history of experiencing a society based on laws with a wall between church and state. "There's certainly a parallel and a danger," Mr. Cook said. "They want to use government as a way to enforce religious orthodoxy. That's why the ACLU stands up to this." James Madison, one of the key Founding Fathers and an early advocate of church and state separation, once said: "We must keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe for centuries." It is instructive to "look at what's going on in the Middle East right now," Mr. Cook said. "That has a lot to do with religious belief between the Muslims and the Jews. Look at what happened in Bosnia. That was between Serbs who were Christians, and Muslims. Look at what happened in Afghanistan. There people tried to use the government to promote religious orthodoxy." Bad Public Policy Even if the courts were to allow some form of silent prayer in public schools, Mr. Cook said, "it's still bad public policy. This is not something that is benign." Whenever students don't participate in government sponsored religious exercises, as in the Doe case out of Monroe, students are harassed, intimidated and ostracized because they didn't want to participate in a prayer service. One student, he said, "was called a devil worshiper and a Catholic atheist." In another case in Alexandria, La., a Muslim fifth grader "was told she was going to hell, to burn forever and so would her whole family," he said. "The school should not be in the business of promoting or trying to persuade or compel students to participate in religious exercise. If people want their children to get a religious education they should send them to a private religious school and not use public tax dollars to promote it." While it may be politically difficult, Mr. Cook agreed that if politicians are going to lead they should be honest with their constituents in acknowledging that prayer in public schools will not solve the real problems they face. "Prayer can't keep priests and clergy who are supposed to be representative of a supreme being from molesting young children in their care," he said. "How can it possibly do anything to help the public schools? "Prayer won't solve the problems facing the schools in Louisiana or anywhere else. It won't reduce class sizes. It won't provide more money to pay for more qualified, certified teachers. It won't fix the crumbling, leaking buildings. It's not going to fix the wiring." Related measure In a related measure, the Senate unanimously passed a resolution already passed by the House by Rep. A.G. Crowe, R-Slidell, which urges Congress "to adopt a proposed Constitutional amendment permitting prayer and recognition of religious beliefs on public property, including schools." The only religion-related bill with opposition would mandate the creation of a specialty license plate bearing the words "In God We Trust." Sen. Lynn Dean, R-Caernarvon, cast the single dissenting vote. "I don't want the ACLU or some other outfit to come along and say, 'That's unconstitutional,' and take us to court," Dean said. "I know where our hearts are, but let's keep it within the law." His lone voice failed. The governor called the Legislature into special session for economic development purposes to try to keep the Saint's in New Orleans, attract the Hornets basketball team, and fund another phase of the Civic Center. Mr. Cook was not alone in wondering what school prayer had to do with economic development. "We have real economic problems in this state," he said. "Why is there a sudden need to put it on a license plate? License places are places to identify cars, not a place for religious slogans." Relevant Links: A version of this story first appeared in The Dallas Morning News, Saturday, April 20, 2002. Louisiana Legislature Louisiana ACLU
Copyright © The Southerner 1999-2002.  |
