There are few issues more fraught with misunderstanding today than the relationship between the U.S. Constitution and religion. Nowhere is this better demonstrated than in what often transpires in the public school system during this season of the year.
In the forward of Matthew Staver's book Faith and Freedom, Dr. Charles Rice of Notre Dame Law School quotes a New York Times article: "Pity the public school principal in December between Hanukkah, Christmas and Kwanzaa (a Black-American holiday that celebrates family and community and is based on African harvest festivals). This long, last month lays a minefield of grand proportions for educators trying to acknowledge the holidays without bridging the separation of church and state."
It's a common argument in our time that there must be a "wall of separation between church and state." Some say, "It's in the First Amendment of the Constitution." But the phrase "wall of separation of church and state" is not actually in the Constitution. It's in a letter written by Thomas Jefferson to Danbury Baptist in Connecticut and was never meant to convey what some have perverted it to mean. Jefferson wasn't even involved in the drafting of the First Amendment; he was in France at the time. Furthermore, he didn't take the extreme view that expressions of faith are not allowed in the public square or through public policy.
The First Amendment simply says: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ... " The subject of the First Amendment isn't the church, the school, the clergy, or religious people. Its focus is on what Congress is allowed to do. Congress is not allowed to establish a national church, neither can it require sectarian policy be imposed upon the individual states. It was written so the God-given right to free and unrestricted worship would be protected for all. Nevertheless, some have misconstrued it to say its purpose is to separate government, public facilities and education from God, specifically the Christian religion.
Total separation between "church and state" is impossible. As Staver points out in his book, even the U.S. Supreme Court acknowledges this in Lemon v. Kurtzman, saying "[t]otal separation is not possible in the absolute sense. Some relationship between government and religious organizations is inevitable." And in Committee for Public Education & Religious Liberty v. Nyquist, the high court stated it "has never been thought either possible or desirable to enforce a regime of total separation ..." Total "separation of church and state" would actually show hostility toward religion.
Yet public school authorities across the country are often advocating "total separation" by instructing that only secular expressions of Christmas be allowed in the public school's holiday celebrations. According to an article by AgapePress, "Many Arizona public elementary schools' winter concerts do not have children singing about angels, Bethlehem, or the little Lord Jesus this year. Instead, it's 'Frosty the Snowman,' 'Winter Wonderland,' and 'Jolly Old St. Nicholas.'" In Chicago public schools, the words "Merry Christmas" have been excised from a popular Christmas song. Even in my own home state, Johnston County, North Carolina, a memorandum was sent by school officials to all school principals that read: "Please remember that Christmas is commemorated in our schools as a secular holiday -- not sacred or religious. Please stay with Santa Claus, reindeer, elves, snowmen, trees, stockings, mistletoe, etc." The memo prohibited nativity scenes and angels -- essentially religious expressions of the Christmas holiday.
