By Edwin Cooney
Exactly fifty years ago today the United States Supreme
Court decided, by a vote of eight to one, Abington School Board vs. Edward
Schempp. Ah! You’ve never heard of Mr. Schempp? Okay, but perhaps you’ve heard of the other plaintiff in the
case decided on that historic occasion, Madalyn Murray O’Hare.
On Wednesday, February 27th and Thursday,
February 28th, 1963, the high court heard the arguments consolidated
from two cases, School District of Abington Township, Pennsylvania, et al. v.
Edward Schempp, et al. and Murray, et al. v. Curlett, et al., Constituting the
Board of School Commissioners of Baltimore City. Both cases challenged the constitutionality of Bible reading
in the public schools.
Edward Schempp, a member of the Unitarian Universalist
church, objected to his son’s exposure to Biblical doctrines his faith didn’t
endorse, such as the divinity of Christ and the doctrine of the Trinity. A 1949 Pennsylvania State law, more
than allowing Bible reading, actually required ten verses of Bible reading
along with recitation of The Lord’s Prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance at the
daily opening of all public schools.
Although the state, during the adjudication of Schempp’s lawsuit,
amended the law to allow exemptions from participation in the Bible reading and
recitation of prayer, Mr. Schempp objected to the social ostracism he viewed as
inevitable when religious minority or non-religious students would seek such
exemptions.
Most mainline Protestant and non-orthodox Jewish religious
institutions accepted the court’s decision. However, evangelical Protestants, the Catholic Church and
orthodox Jews (and of course Billy Graham) saw the court’s decision as
exchanging faith in God for a new and promiscuous secular faith.
Even more outrageous and thus more repulsive to millions of
Americans was the outspokenness of Ms. Madalyn Murray, founder and president of
American Atheists. At the time of
and subsequent to Abington School District vs. Schempp. Ms. Murray, who married
Richard O’Hare in 1965, was a frequent guest on American talk shows and an
aggressive opponent of Christianity.
Her attacks on religion in general, and on Christianity in particular,
were strident and thus offensive to many, gratifying as they were to
others. Far more than Edward
Schempp, Ms. O’Hare became synonymous with anti-religious pro-secular forces
here in the United States and thus more permanently linked in the public mind
with the high court’s banning of Bible reading and prayer in America’s public
schools. A 1964 Life Magazine
article declared that Madalyn O’Hare (who was born Monday, April 13th,
1919 and would be murdered by Richard Rowland Waters Friday, September 29th,
1995) was the most hated woman in America. (Note: Waters didn’t murder O’Hare,
her son John, and granddaughter Robin out of religious revenge; he was merely a
very disturbed individual.)
Far more significant than either Ms. O’Hare or Edward
Schempp (who died peacefully in a Hayward, California nursing home at the age
of 95 on Saturday, November 8th, 2003) is the legacy of Schempp vs.
Abington School District. Millions
of Americans have come to see the decision as an attack by a secular-minded
liberal Supreme Court on a God-fearing public. The decision, which was eight to one, was handed down by
seven white Anglo-Saxon Protestants and one Jew. The dissenter was Mr. Justice Potter Stewart who objected to
the conclusion that the establishment clause of the First Amendment applies to
the states as it applies to the federal government. In other words, the federal government may not establish a
religion or prohibit “...the free exercise thereof,” but the states may
encourage religious activities within their borders. Thus, if the State of New York sought to establish a prayer
to be said in its public schools or if the State of Pennsylvania proscribed
that ten Bible verses be read before the daily opening of public schools, that
was okay with Justice Stewart.
Many Americans would assert that 50 years ago today God was
driven from America’s classrooms.
Others, however, will assert that God, being omnipotent, can’t be driven
from anywhere and is most powerful not in the classroom but from within you and
me. As true as this might be, conservative
commentators and office seekers have gotten a lot of mileage out of the idea
that God can be and was victimized by a secular minded Supreme Court
sympathetic to the advancement of socialist and materialistic doctrines foreign
in nature to the “American way.”
Yet, most of the eight justices who joined in the majority decision in
Abington vs. Schempp were affiliated with Christianity or Judaism.
For religious minorities and secularists today, June 17th,
2013 marks 50 years of freedom without explanation or apology to be
themselves. If there’s anything
more American than that, this observer can’t imagine what it is!
I don’t see how any reasonable observer can avoid asking the
following two questions. If God
reigned in the American classroom until driven out by secularist Supreme Court
Justices in 1963, how is it that such official policies as Native American
genocide, chattel slavery and racial segregation lingered in our law as long as
they did? Second, whether God prevails is more our individual business than
that of either federal or state government’s business, is it not?
Then, there’s the final observation of John F. Kennedy’s
1961 Inaugural that works for me:
“Here on earth, God’s work must truly be our own.”
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
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