Document Type
Symposium
Abstract
(Excerpt)
Thanks for having me. I’m grateful to St. John’s, the Mattone Center, and Professor Movsesian for the invitation. I’m glad to be here with Eric, whom I admire greatly. I’ve worked with Eric and Becket on several projects, and we see some things quite similarly. But on these issues, we see things differently, which I hope will make for good conversation.
Religious liberty is one of America’s great contributions to the world. Centuries ago, religious liberty brought an end to the war of religion. And in our modern society, religious liberty enables people to live together with fundamentally different commitments. Yet it feels increasingly under attack from all directions. Everyone fears intolerance but responds in kind. And public schools become the natural battleground because that’s the future—that’s the place where you can influence other people’s kids. We saw this last term in Mahmoud v. Taylor about public elementary schools reading books positive about same-sex marriage and changing one’s gender notwithstanding parents’ contrary religious views.
We see it now in these Ten Commandments cases. The First Amendment secures religious liberty in two ways. The First Amendment has a Free Exercise Clause protecting the right of religious exercise of individuals, churches, and other voluntary organizations. The government doesn’t interfere with their religious practices; it lets them live in accordance with their religious commitments. But the First Amendment also has an Establishment Clause that has meant that the government doesn’t take religious positions of its own. Americans will disagree, often heatedly, about religion. The government stays out of those disagreements. The reasons for this are numerous and interrelated, and deeply historical. Governmental attempts to push certain religious views and disfavor others caused immense suffering in Europe and here. Beliefs about religion are extraordinarily important to people—important enough to die for, important enough to kill for, important enough to fight to prevent the government from adopting the enemy’s faith. But religion, America discovered, is not a thing on which the state needs to take a position. The government doesn’t need to take stances on theology or liturgy to govern well.