The Wall of Separation Blog

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Hobby Lobby

Kim Davis

AU Student Essay Contest Finalist: The Do No Harm Act Would Help Protect Transgender Rights

LHayes — Wed, 08 Sep 2021 12:00:00 +0000

AU Student Essay Contest Finalist: The Do No Harm Act Would Help Protect Transgender Rights LHayes Wed Sep 08, 2021 - 08:00

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By Oliver Petersen

Editor’s Note: Oliver Petersen, a 2021 graduate from the School Without Walls High School in Washington, D.C., writes about how the Do No Harm Act will help protect the rights of transgender people. Oliver’s essay placed third in AU’s 2021 Student Essay Contest, winning a $500 prize. You can learn more about the contest and the other finalists here.

In the past decade, transgender people have become much more widely recognized and accepted within the United States. Prominent transgender figures, such as Laverne Cox, Caitlyn Jenner and Elliot Page, have used their platforms to garner public support concerning trans issues, which has helped drastically shift public opinion. In fact, recent polling by the Public Religion Research Institute in 2019 found that 62% of Americans reported that they have become “more supportive toward transgender rights compared to their views five years ago.”

As a transgender person myself, the rise in support and understanding amongst friends and family due to increased awareness and representation in the past few years has been palpable. However, despite these positive changes, transgender people in the U.S. still face discrimination in almost every aspect of their lives, effecting their physical and mental well-being, as well as their ability to lead normal and healthy lives.

Over the past 5 years, especially during the Trump administration, constant streams of policies have been introduced and passed on both the state and federal levels that negatively impact transgender people, specifically in the realms of health care, education and employment. Notably, many of these bills allowed and encouraged the right to deny transgender people services and care on religious grounds, due to exploitation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).

This act, which was put in place to provide heightened but not unlimited protections for religious minorities, has been used in bad faith for decades. Although RFRA was created with the best of intentions, and at its creation was backed by many civil rights groups, it has been abused in cases like Burwell v. Hobby Lobby and EEOC v. R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes, and has been used as precedent to attack almost every aspect of transgender people’s lives, effectively setting back many of the strides that have been made as a country regarding anti-discrimination laws.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has been particularly harmful with its anti-transgender policies. In 2018 HHS proposed a policy called the Denial of Care Rule that the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) said “encouraged medical providers to use religious grounds to deny treatment to transgender people,” and in 2019 published the final rule “encouraging hospital officials, staff, and insurance companies to deny care to transgender patients based on religious or moral beliefs.” This policy, even if eventually challenged and blocked in court, is extremely threatening as it sets a dangerous precedent and increases mistrust transgender people have of the health care system.

In fact, according to the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey, almost 25% of respondents reported avoiding medical help when they needed it due to fear of being discriminated against. These fears held by transgender people are not in any way unfounded, as the same survey found that “33% of respondents reported having at least one negative experience with a health care provider in the past year related to being transgender.” The barriers established by the HHS’s discriminatory policies make it harder for transgender people to seek routine health care that is unrelated to their transgender identity, leaving individuals vulnerable to illness and larger health issues later in life.

Anti-transgender legislation with religious justification has also been pushed by the Department of Labor, affecting employment. In 2019, the department announced a proposed rule that NCTE said would radically expand “the ability of federal contractors to exempt themselves from equal employment opportunity requirements, allowing employers to impose ‘religious criteria’ on LGBT employees.” As with health care, this kind of legislation affects transgender people’s quality of life, and exacerbates the existing barriers to employment.

This problem is outlined in the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey, in which it is reported that the unemployment rate for transgender people is 3 times the national average, and that “30% of transgender employees reported having been fired, denied a promotion, or experienced another form of mistreatment in the workplace due to their gender identity or expression.” With limited access to workplaces that are safe and affirming, transgender people are put at greater risk for poverty, homelessness and involvement with criminalized work.

Discriminatory anti-transgender policies favoring religious institutions also affect transgender youth in America’s schools. In 2019 the Department of Education “published regulations permitting religious schools to ignore nondiscrimination standards.” These policies are extremely dangerous to vulnerable transgender youth, many of whom are struggling with their identities and are not accepted by their families. In school, students must feel comfortable in order to foster an effective learning environment; however, the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey found that “84% of transgender students do not always feel safe in the classroom.” This not only affects a student’s ability to learn, but also can be detrimental to their mental and physical well-being. These issues are some of main factors as to why 17% of transgender students drop out of school before the age of 18, according to the survey. By ignoring nondiscrimination policies, these schools put transgender youth at a serious risk of harassment or violence. (Editor’s note: The Department of Education recently announced it is reconsidering this rule, which Americans United is challenging in court.)

The Do No Harm Act would be monumental for the protection of transgender rights as they relate to church and state separation. Over the years, we’ve seen people attempt to and successfully use the freedom of religion as a front to openly push hateful and discriminatory legislation, which must come to an end. Those in opposition, such as the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, say that this act will “do significant harm to the landscape of legal protections foundational to America’s first freedom,” when, in reality, the Do No Harm Act will continue protecting freedom of religion, while strengthening RFRA to make sure that individuals, businesses and government bodies cannot use said freedom to trample on those most vulnerable.

Issues

LGBTQ Rights

Transgender Rights

Discrimination In Health Care

Denials of Service

Tags

Do No Harm Act

Employment Discrimination Rule

Denial of Care Rule

U.S. Department of Education

Title VII

Announcing AU’s 2021 Student Essay Contest Winners – All Supporters Of The Do No Harm Act

LHayes — Tue, 07 Sep 2021 12:40:14 +0000

Announcing AU’s 2021 Student Essay Contest Winners – All Supporters Of The Do No Harm Act LHayes Tue Sep 07, 2021 - 08:40

Authored by

Alicia Johnson

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“The Do Not Harm Act would bring about an immeasurable amount of safety, security and above all hope,” says Michael Hallinan, in his first-place submission to Americans United’s 2021 Student Essay Contest. Young people across the country agreed with Michael – we were blown away to receive over 330 submissions to this year’s contest, which asked high school students to make the case for the Do No Harm Act, important federal legislation to protect religious freedom and equality for all.

Regular readers of this blog and longtime supporters will know that AU’s annual essay contest is one way we encourage young people to reflect on why religious freedom and church-state separation are important to them, their peers, their families and their communities. And now I’m thrilled to share the 2021 winners with you.

In his winning essay, Hallinan, a resident of Lakewood, Colo., shares his perspective as a gay, Christian teenager fighting for equality for all, including in foster care and adoption programs. Sarah Geist of San Diego won second place for her essay which makes the case for why her fellow Christians should support the Do No Harm Act despite the flawed claims of the Religious Right. And Oliver Petersen of Washington, D.C., wrote about the importance of the Do No Harm Act to address discrimination against transgender people, especially in health care and employment.

These three essays rose to the top of hundreds submissions from across the country that included personal experiences, compelling storytelling, historical research, policy analysis and more. The AU team read meticulously through these thoughtful and well-written submissions throughout the spring. We first narrowed the submissions down to fifteen finalists, then a panel of youth leaders and staff from across the organization read, discussed and chose the three winners from among the finalists.

It was difficult to choose just three winners, but we think you’ll agree: The prize-winning essays are passionately written, well-researched and articulate a strong argument for how the Do No Harm Act would impact church-state separation and the real lives of people in the United States. The contest winners received prizes of $500-1,500 and will have their essays published on this blog this week. Our top prize winner was also featured in Church & State magazine this month; you can read that article here.

Keep visiting au.org and our social media channels @americansunited on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram over the next three days as we share more about the third-, second- and first-place prize winners, and be sure to share them with your networks to help us amplify the voices of the youngest generation fighting for church-state separation.

Issues

LGBTQ Rights

Tags

Student Essay Contest

Essay Contest

Do No Harm Act

AU Student Essay Contest Winner: Do No Harm Act Would Bring Safety And Hope For LGBTQ People

LHayes — Tue, 07 Sep 2021 10:01:00 +0000

AU Student Essay Contest Winner: Do No Harm Act Would Bring Safety And Hope For LGBTQ People LHayes Tue Sep 07, 2021 - 06:01

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By Michael Hallinan

Editor’s Note: Michael Hallinan, a 2021 graduate from Lakewood High School in Colorado who will attend the Colorado School of Mines this fall, reflects on how the Do No Harm Act would help protect the rights of LGBTQ people like him. Michael’s essay placed first in AU’s 2021 Student Essay Contest, winning a $1,500 prize. You can learn more about the contest and the other finalists here.

Religion is one of the few social concepts that can shape and define an individual’s life. It can determine how we choose to interact, the clothes we wear, the people we associate with, the beliefs we have and how we choose to perceive the world. Religion can be beautiful and instrumental, but it can also be harmful.

When the Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) was introduced in 2015, the focus was never on maintaining freedom and beauty, but preserving discrimination and the ability to subjugate others to one’s own beliefs. Fortunately, activists are currently trying to purge the impurities and injustice lurking in the federal RFRA through the Do No Harm Act (DNHA), which seeks to prevent protections granted by the federal RFRA from being weaponized and manipulated to harm others.

As a gay teenager, one of the most worrying aspects of the RFRA to me surrounds the ability to adopt children. Children are one of the most beautiful parts of life for most people. They can be an outlet for creating a unique and often unbreakable lifelong bond and bring more meaning to one’s own life. However, for some people like me, having kids biologically isn’t an option. I often daydream about my future, hopefully being able to have a husband and eventually adopting some beautiful kids, fulfilling some of my lifelong goals. However, the reality of my dreams is appearing more like an unattainable fantasy as I hear about cases like Fulton v. City of Philadelphia.

Within Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, Megan Pazko, a future foster parent who was thoroughly prepared, applied to make her and her partner’s dreams of fostering happen. However, all of that was crushed when she was told that they (the foster care agency) “didn’t want to waste two hours of our time” as they didn’t work with LGBTQ people because of the agency’s religious beliefs, although the city had a paid contractual relationship with them. Fortunately, the agency Pazko worked with caved because of their contract being threatened; however, a similar group, Catholic Social Services (CSS), has not. Upon Philadelphia’s termination of CSS’s contract because of their LGBT discrimination, the case has been brought to the Supreme Court, with the outcome still being undetermined as of May 2021. (Editor’s Note: The court narrowly backed CSS in June.)

Existing as an LGBT individual is already challenging enough, but knowing that your government, a body who is supposed to protect and support your rights, lacks the backbone to fully protect you, leaves you feeling vulnerable, uncertain and, worst of all, hopeless. People like me and Pazko aren’t the only ones left exposed though. This extends to all the United States’ population whether it’s in health care that cases like Burwell v. Hobby Lobby try to eliminate or the evading of child labor laws.

The Do No Harm Act would bring about an immeasurable amount of safety, security and, above all, hope. People of different backgrounds, whether it’s me, Pazko, or any other individual would no longer have to fear for their ability to foster and adopt because of their difference in sexual orientation or their religious background. Additionally, the amount of children desperately needing loving homes would decrease significantly with this obstacle being removed.

Furthermore, these protections extend far past adoption, preventing all facets of religious-oriented workplace discrimination and remove the ability for the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to be weaponized. It would rather function as a safeguard for religious believers from all backgrounds, as it was originally intended to. Without the ability to be weaponized, everyone, not just religious minorities or LGBT individuals, will have a tremendous step toward true freedom. This means no longer having to question if your birth control might be denied by your employer, no longer worrying that you might get turned away from a government-funded job because of who you are and the liberating idea that a religious belief may not be weaponized against you, but be shielded from it.

Outside of the individual protections both emotional and physical, the Do No Harm act would beautifully enable and uphold the principle of separation of church and state. As an avid Christian myself, it’s extremely challenging to straddle this wall of believing in my religion, whilst still maintaining my identity as a gay man, although many people who share my religion rarely share the idea that my identity is valid or acceptable. This paradox has created a huge emotional rift in myself, with parts of me feeling rejected and outcast, and the other parts of me wanting to engage and advocate for religious freedom, something I’m sure a plethora of Americans might experience.

Some may argue the Do No Harm act usurps separation of church and state, or limits religion. However, the Do No Harm Act creates the perfect middle ground for these feelings. It allows for the practice of religion to be sustained, supporting the advocacy side, whilst still enabling protections for my identity and many other institutions and people like it, making this bill necessary for a more equal and free America. The RFRA was never meant to allow the religious beliefs of others to infringe or subjugate outsiders but sanctify personal expression. After all, one can believe whatever they want, but with the RFRA as it currently stands, it doesn’t just stop there. It allows those beliefs to extend and be enforced on others through the law, which encroaches on the idea of separation of church and state, further reinforcing the net positive impact of Do No Harm.

Issues

LGBTQ Rights

Government-Funded Discrimination

Denials of Service

Tags

foster care

Fulton v. The City of Philadelphia

Do No Harm Act

RFRA

Know Your Rights! How The Ten Commandments Led Me To Americans United

boston — Thu, 02 Sep 2021 12:34:36 +0000

Know Your Rights! How The Ten Commandments Led Me To Americans United boston Thu Sep 02, 2021 - 08:34

Authored by

Liz Hayes

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In a roundabout way, it was a Ten Commandments display at a public high school that led me to Americans United.

I was a journalist in 2012 when I began reporting on a legal challenge involving a huge Ten Commandments monument in front of a public high school outside Pittsburgh. Local families, assisted by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, had filed lawsuits after that school district and another in the region refused to remove the displays.

Although I’d grown up in the area and had been to this high school countless times for work, I typically used doors around the side of the building and had never seen the display up close. I had assumed the taller-than-me stone monument in front of the building was inscribed with the name of the school, or perhaps a dedication to students or school leaders. I was stunned and disappointed to learn the district had been displaying the Ten Commandments between the school gym and student parking lot for more than half a century.

I was equally disappointed, but not terribly surprised, by the community’s reaction to the lawsuit. Insults and threats were lobbed at the mom who was the lead plaintiff. Rallies and prayer vigils were held, and a Facebook group was created in support of the monument. School officials made what seemed to be conflicting arguments for keeping the display – hardly anyone even knew it was there, but also it was an important historical touchstone for the community. There was little compassion for children who might feel ostracized by a monument declaring a particular religious view.

This was essentially my community. I had grown up nearby and attended the neighboring public school district. From what I can recall, I think my small district generally did a decent job respecting the separation of church and state. I don’t remember any prayers or Bible reading in school, and I didn’t learn until I was an adult that some people didn’t believe in evolution.

And yet, from the classroom Christmas parties and Christmas carols, to Easter holiday breaks, to my school bus that also stopped at a local Catholic private school, there was a presumption that everyone was Christian. It was anxiety-inducing when I realized in high school that I didn’t believe in God – it felt like something I should hide to avoid being singled out. My school didn’t have a Ten Commandments display (that I know of), but that probably was less because of respect for students’ religious freedom and more because the school hadn’t been built yet in the 1950s when Eagles clubs were donating thousands of monuments to schools and communities across the nation.

The phrase “Christian nationalism” wasn’t in my vocabulary then, but I felt it nonetheless – the impression I was somehow less patriotic, less American because I wasn’t Christian like I assumed everyone else was. It felt like such a daring thing to my 16-year-old self when I stopped saying the words “under God” when we recited the Pledge of Allegiance (I certainly wasn’t brave enough to stop saying the Pledge altogether, as was within my rights, unbeknownst to me).

That’s why, 15 or so years later, I thought it was very brave for the mom, Marie Schaub, to speak up and challenge that Ten Commandments display. By trying to make her daughter’s high school more welcoming and inclusive for all students, she was challenging the perhaps subconscious – but very real – Christian nationalist mindset of the community. And they let her know they didn’t appreciate her efforts.

Although Americans United didn’t represent Marie, AU was one of the organizations that filed a legal brief supporting her case. As I reported on the litigation, I learned about AU, and its vision really resonated with me – that the separation of church and state is what protects the rights of everyone to believe, or not, as we choose. There can be no religious freedom, no equality, without it. And so, it felt like it was meant to be a few years later when I saw a job posting for AU just as I was looking to leave journalism and move to advocacy communications.

I’m proud of the work AU does – including the “Know Your Rights” guides we just released. My teenage self would have benefitted from knowing what my rights were, and the assurance that not everyone has the same beliefs about religion. And not only is that OK, but it’s inherently, fundamentally American.

My only regret is that I didn’t get to report on Marie’s victory in the case. Just a few months after I left the newspaper, the district agreed to donate the monument to a private Catholic school in the community. It was such an obvious solution that benefited everyone. I just wish it had been reached five years – or five decades – sooner.

Issues

display of religious symbols

Tags

Know Your Rights

Ten Commandments

Pennsylvania

Know Your Rights! A Coach At My High School Wanted To Pressure Students To Pray. Americans United Made Him Stop.

boston — Wed, 01 Sep 2021 12:46:35 +0000

Know Your Rights! A Coach At My High School Wanted To Pressure Students To Pray. Americans United Made Him Stop. boston Wed Sep 01, 2021 - 08:46

Authored by

Samantha Sokol

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The public high school I attended, East Brunswick High School in central New Jersey, was and still is a microcosm of our country’s religious diversity. My classmates were Jews, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Egyptian Copts, Catholics, Protestants and atheists. While there wasn’t perfect harmony all the time, our school district aimed to protect the religious freedom rights of everyone. But in 2005, when I was in the 8th grade, that goal was put to the test.

That year, a few football players, cheerleaders and parents alerted the superintendent that the high school football coach was leading Christian prayers before games, at team dinners and in the locker room. Coach Marcus Borden – or Señor Borden, as I knew him, because he also taught Spanish class – was leading prayers, taking a knee, bowing his head in participation and asking that all students stand and join in. And he told students who were uncomfortable during the prayer that they could wait in the bathroom until it was over.

Right away, our school did the right thing. The superintendent told Borden that he could not lead, encourage or participate in student prayer. This is exactly what the U.S. Constitution requires. Federal courts have consistently held that public school employees are forbidden to lead, initiate or participate in religious activities involving students, even when those activities occur before or after school. School staff must not participate in the students’ prayer in any way, and this means that coaches may not take a knee for player-led prayer before or after games. To be clear, students can lead genuinely voluntary and student-initiated prayer as long as it is not coercive or disruptive. But Borden wanted to violate the law and participate.

Unfortunately, Borden sued the school district, alleging that they had violated his religious freedom rights. But the district had simply followed the Constitution. The case wound its way through the courts, and eventually, the school district got a new set of lawyers in their effort to protect students’ religious freedom: the attorneys at Americans United for Separation of Church and State! A federal appeals court not only rejected Borden’s arguments that he had a First Amendment right to lead or join his students in prayer, but also concluded that his conduct actually violated that amendment. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case in 2009, thus preserving AU’s victory on the school district's behalf.

While I wouldn’t work at AU for another decade, I already knew that Borden’s conduct was wrong in 2005. Public schools are a unifying force in our diverse community. But a coach and teacher leading Christian prayers made many students – including me – feel alienated in our own school. I remember Borden as a great coach and enthusiastic Spanish teacher. But even if they don’t mean to, a coach and teacher leading a prayer sends the message that every kid should join in – or they might never make it off the bench at the game or get extra credit in Spanish class. While I wasn’t on the football team or the cheerleading squad, I remember feeling frustrated that a coach and teacher was imposing his religious beliefs on our classmates.

As a Jewish student, hearing a Christian prayer endorsed by a teacher at a school event would really hurt. And unfortunately, some other students who supported Borden made hateful and anti-Semitic comments online about the Jewish students they believed had complained to the district in the first place. It divided our community and made religious minorities, including me, feel unsafe and unwelcome. All of this could have been avoided if the coach had simply followed the law.

But there’s a hero in this story: my public school district! I feel fortunate that I attended a public school that defended the religious freedom rights of all students. Their actions protected students like me and ensured that our school could remain welcoming to students of all faiths and none for years to come.

If you’re a student or teacher at a public school, you should get familiar with our new Know Your Rights guides so that you can be a defender of religious freedom too. If you see a violation like this one in your public schools, you can report it to us here. Who knows – one day, Americans United attorneys might be headed to court in your town to advocate for your religious freedom!

Issues

East Brunswick high school

Tags

Know Your Rights

New Jersey

coercive prayer

Know Your Rights! Ensuring That Public Schools Welcome The Boy Who Was Left Behind

boston — Tue, 31 Aug 2021 12:45:12 +0000

Know Your Rights! Ensuring That Public Schools Welcome The Boy Who Was Left Behind boston Tue Aug 31, 2021 - 08:45

Authored by

Richard B. Katskee

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The launch of Americans United’s Know Your Rights campaign has led many of us on staff to recall stories of our experiences with religion in public schools. Some of these memories can be painful, but it’s important that the stories be told.

Here is mine:

I grew up in Omaha, Neb., a city of 450,000, with a Jewish community of around 6,000. My family lived in a different part of town from where most of the Jewish families lived, so my sister and I were the only Jews in our elementary school.

We knew that our public schools weren’t designed with us in mind. I felt cheated that I couldn’t ever earn a perfect-attendance award because being out for the High Holidays counted against me. And my parents had us participate in the religious activities at school – the Christmas concert, the Easter art projects, and all the rest – because they wanted us to fit in.

It felt weird to sing “Silent Night” in the Christmas pageant, but my mother assured me that “it’s just a song.” And when the music teacher in first grade found out about our family’s Jewish faith and decided that I couldn’t be a “skating reindeer,” it didn’t feel so great. Singing “Silent Night,” fine; wearing a reindeer mask and sliding around the stage in socks, not okay. Go figure?

But my personal experience of being a religious minority wasn’t bad, even if we were always aware of being different.

In third grade, though, I witnessed something that has stuck with me ever since.

Where I was the one Jewish kid, my classmate Paul was the one Jehovah’s Witness. Unlike my parents, who had us participate in all the activities so that we didn’t stand out, Paul’s parents weren’t willing to have him go along to get along.

Knowing what I know now, that isn’t a surprise. It was Jehovah’s Witnesses who in the 1940s challenged requirements that public-school students had to stand, salute the American flag, and say the Pledge of Allegiance.

Back then, the words “under God” weren’t in the Pledge yet. That was a product of the postwar red scare in the 1950s. To Jehovah’s Witnesses, flags are graven images. It doesn’t matter what the words of the Pledge are; to them, saluting and pledging allegiance to a flag is idolatry.

In the 1930s, Jehovah’s Witness children who refused to salute the flag were expelled from public schools in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, and their parents were put in jail. At the same time, Jehovah’s Witnesses in Germany were being rounded up and sent to concentration camps for not saluting the Nazi flag.

Paul, in my third-grade class, didn’t pledge allegiance to the flag. He didn’t draw Santa Clauses or Easter Bunnies. And he didn’t sing in the Christmas concert.

Our school had one of those big multipurpose rooms – what they now call a “cafetorium.” It was the gym, but with a stage on one side so that folding chairs could be set up on the floor for performances. At the far end were doors to the lunch line. And there were tables and benches that pulled out from the other wall to convert the gym into the lunchroom.

Every afternoon all December long, we’d rehearse for the Christmas concert. So our teacher would send Paul to the assistant principal, who would take him to the cafetorium, pull out one of those long tables, and have him sit there, all alone, to wait.

The teachers and administrators probably thought that they were being respectful. I’m sure that they never considered how it must feel to have to go to the assistant principal’s office every day – the place you were sent for serious misbehavior.

And every day when we marched past the gym on the way to and from rehearsals, we’d see Paul through the long, thin windows in the gym door – you know, the ones with the crisscrossed wires running through the glass so that the windows won’t break if a ball hits them. We’d see Paul sitting there, looking sad and lonely. And kids would point at him and ask, “What’s that weirdo doing? Why isn’t he with the rest of us? What’s wrong with him?”

I think about Paul almost every day. He’s a big part of why I do the work that I do. I go to court to try to ensure that those of us, like Paul, who don’t share the majority’s religious beliefs, aren’t told that we don’t belong.

Through efforts like the Know Your Rights campaign, Americans United works to ensure that there are no more Pauls in our public schools. I’m pleased to be part of that work, which is only possible thanks to your support.

Issues

Tags

Nebraska

Know Your Rights

Judaism

Know Your Rights! Religion And Government Don’t Mix In Public Schools – And That Means ALL Religions

boston — Mon, 30 Aug 2021 12:44:40 +0000

Know Your Rights! Religion And Government Don’t Mix In Public Schools – And That Means ALL Religions boston Mon Aug 30, 2021 - 08:44

Authored by

Naomi Paiss

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Unlike some of my AU colleagues who have blogged recently to celebrate our Know Your Rights guides, I grew up in a big city – Philadelphia. But back then, Philly was such an ethnically segregated place that my classes in the public school I attended from fourth through sixth grade were each comprised of 35 Jewish kids, including me.

And one Protestant.

Barbara B., my former classmate, this blog post is in honor of you. With a school system that didn’t yet close because of high absenteeism during the High Holidays, what did you do on those days when every single classmate (and our teachers!) were in synagogue? How did you take those in-group jokes that just assumed that everyone was getting eight presents on Hanukkah and couldn’t eat bread for the eight days of Passover?

At least you were not learning, as I later did when sent to a Hebrew Day School, that the Torah was the source of all wisdom. Our public school teachers might have been culturally monotonous, but there were no prayers in that school – although I think we all learned some fairly secular Christian songs like “The 12 Days of Christmas” out of respect for the larger culture. But when as a proto-atheist and all-around troublemaker I fought with my Judaica teachers later on, I sometimes thought of that one Christian girl in my public school and wondered how it affected her later in life.

This is all to say that religion, even in its best iterations, often fosters inclusion for its participants and exclusion for others. That’s one of the best reasons to ensure that religion is never, ever backed by the power of the state.

Later in life, I lived in Israel, a country with no formal division between religion and state. There is no civil marriage; everyone has to be married by the clergy of their own religion, and for the Jewish secular majority, that means following the rules of the ultra-Orthodox rabbinate. Divorce, burial, even public transportation on the Jewish Sabbath are all controlled or influenced by that same rabbinate and its outsized political power.

If I hadn’t already been a strong supporter of religion-state separation as a religious minority in America, being part of the silently oppressed majority in Israel would have confirmed it. In other words, it’s not that Christians in the U.S., or Muslims in Afghanistan or Hindus in India all want to oppress religious minorities or claim that their religion represents the only real belonging and identification with the polity. It’s that a majority religion backed by the power of the state, even when that religion is a tiny minority worldwide as with officially Jewish Israel, always seems to find a way to overstep its bounds and exclude those who don’t belong to or agree with it.

When we at Americans United talk about Christian nationalism, it’s not because we think that American Christians want to bigfoot everybody else. The vast majority do not. But we see evidence every day of those who insist that America is a Christian country that should follow very narrowly interpreted Christian religious beliefs, and of what happens when those extremist beliefs are weaponized into law and public policy.

That’s what we fight here. That’s why we provide the facts about church-state separation, as in the guides to religious freedom in public schools we published this week.

And that’s why we ask you to join us.

Issues

Tags

Know Your Rights! You Don’t Have To Convince Me We Need Separation Of Church And State – I Grew Up In A Town Without It

boston — Thu, 26 Aug 2021 12:52:18 +0000

Know Your Rights! You Don’t Have To Convince Me We Need Separation Of Church And State – I Grew Up In A Town Without It boston Thu Aug 26, 2021 - 08:52

Authored by

Amy Couch

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When people ask me where I grew up, my typical answer is, “In a town of 3,394 people in southeast Arkansas about five miles north of the Louisiana border. Our town had one stoplight, two gas stations and 27 churches.” When people ask me what it was like growing up in a little evangelical town on the edge of the Mississippi River, my answers sound more like atheist versions of Flannery O’Connor stories – tall tales of morally flawed, racist folks living their lives under the watchful, often wrathful, eye of God.

Where I grew up there simply was no separation of church and state. In fact, I can’t remember a school day that didn’t begin with a class prayer followed by a standing rendition of the Pledge of Allegiance – or a church service when our pastor didn’t boisterously preach politics from the pulpit along with our Christian obligation to vote on behalf of the Lord.

Science was almost a swear word in my town. I remember the day my high school science teacher smugly said, and I paraphrase, “The Department of Ed says I have to teach you evolution. But I am not going to fill your heads with that kind of nonsense. We did not come from monkeys; we came directly from God’s hand.” I don’t think any of us knew this was illegal.

Annoying, definitely. But none of us raised a hand to object. A few students in the back of the class snickered when she mentioned “evolving from monkeys,” but we just moved on to the Genesis Chapter One version of the Earth’s origin for our geology lesson.

That was around 1988, before the internet changed the world. One would think, 30-plus years later, these kinds of blatant violations of religious freedom rights would be a thing of the past. Sadly, they aren’t. All across the country, citizens of little towns with more fundamentalist churches than gas stations still bow their heads during official prayers at public school football games and shake them at those poor misguided teachers who are “lost” enough to believe in and teach evolution.

Growing up and going to public school in a place like that can be lonely for a freethinker. You feel gaslighted by everyone around you. Whether directly or indirectly, your freedom to be who you are, to think freely, to love who you love is denied. Being the only person in a family or community who doesn’t believe in Christianity is muzzling. Independently speaking out against a Christian nationalist majority can be dangerous. Sometimes the only protection you have is the existence of things like our First Amendment – legal provisions that confirm you are not insane or damned for thinking independently. This is why AU’s Know Your Rights campaign and guides are so important. It’s cliché for a reason – knowledge really is power.

Americans United fights every day to educate and defend everyone’s right to believe – or not – by protecting and strengthening the wall between religion and government. The Know Your Rights guides we have shared this week are an important resource for anyone whose religious freedom rights are being violated and a lifeline to everyone who works to protect church-state separation in our public schools.

Read them. Download them. Share them. Someone somewhere will be thankful you did.

Amy Couch is digital communications manager at Americans United

Issues

Nontheists' Rights

Tags

Creationism

Arkansas

Know Your Rights! How A Fourth Grader’s Request Sparked A Classroom Lesson On Tolerance

boston — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 12:17:28 +0000

Know Your Rights! How A Fourth Grader’s Request Sparked A Classroom Lesson On Tolerance boston Wed Aug 25, 2021 - 08:17

Authored by

Alex Bodaken

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In the fall of 2014, I was in my first year of teaching fourth grade in a Baltimore public school. Our class had an established routine: The kids would trickle in and could chat for a couple of minutes before the bell rang to start the day. The Pledge of Allegiance would then come over the loudspeaker, we would all stand and recite it and then we would begin working.

That routine was uneventful until one day in October, when one of my students, whom I’ll call “Michael,” came into class and softly requested to ask me a question. He then said that his parents had told him that it was against their religion to stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance, and he asked for permission to sit when the Pledge came over the loudspeaker.

Now, I have to confess something that I am not particularly proud of: My first instinct was to worry about the impact Michael’s choice would have on my class. For a first-year teacher, classroom order is valuable currency. I feared that other students, seeing Michael sitting during the Pledge, would fail to understand his reasons for doing so and would instead see an opportunity to, like Michael, opt out of classroom rules. Indeed, religious dissenters often face this attitude: that things would be easier if they just didn’t rock the boat.

But Michael wasn’t trying to rock the boat. He and his family were simply exercising their right to practice religion free from state interference. As long ago as 1943, in the case of West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, the Supreme Court made it clear that students cannot be compelled to recite the Pledge of Allegiance because “no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion.”

At the time, I didn’t know the Barnette case – I wouldn’t enter law school until years later. But whatever my worries about how Michael’s actions might impact the class, I didn’t have to know the law to realize that forcing a student to violate his religious beliefs in the classroom was wrong. So, despite my fears about how Michael’s decision might impact classroom order, I told him that he was free to sit and thanked him for informing me about his and his family’s choice.

Minutes later, the Pledge came over the loudspeaker. I stood, as did the class – except for Michael, who remained seated. As those of us standing recited the Pledge, students looked quizzically at Michael. I braced myself for an expected torrent of “How come Michael doesn’t have to stand?” and “That’s not fair!”

But when the Pledge ended, the students instead started asking questions – first, to Michael, about his decision to sit, his faith and why he couldn’t say the Pledge of Allegiance. And then they started asking me questions too: about the Pledge, why we do it, and what it means. After talking for 20 or 30 minutes, all of us – my students, Michael and I – had a greater understanding of what the Pledge was, why we said it and what it meant to each of us.

Dissent, in the form of religious difference or non-religion, can be scary. It can feel uncomfortable or disorderly. But that day in a class of fourth-graders, I saw how creating space for those with non-majoritarian beliefs doesn’t just protect those believers (or non-believers). It also presents us all with an opportunity to reflect on and gain a greater understanding of our own views and traditions. In other words, the rights of dissenters protect all of us. And I’m proud to work at Americans United, where through our Know Your Rights campaign and other vehicles, we protect those rights every day.

Alex Bodaken is the Steven Gey constitutional litigation fellow at Americans United.

Issues