1406 SCOTUS Protected Public Religious Liberty
The war on public spirituality by the secular left and the radical religious left was dealt a severe blow on May 5th. The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) actually, albeit narrowly, upheld the First Amendment right of community leaders to recognize the spiritual side of humanity.
What a concept; that the routine practice of every variety of public officials at every level of government throughout every generation of American since colonialism should actually be acknowledged by the highest court in the land. The achievement is no small thing but it is tragic for the nation that it had to be an achievement at all.
The case involved a practice that is no doubt common across America but was specifically challenged in the town of Greece, New York. Two women were offended by the city council’s practice of inviting local church leaders to open council meetings with prayer as part of the opening ceremonies that included the Pledge of Allegiance. When Linda Stephens and Susan Galloway challenged the practice, the city responded by offering invitations to as many local spiritual leaders as possible. That was not enough for the two dissenters or for Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
Justice Elena Kagan’s dissent was instructional. She wrote, “When the citizens of this country approach their government, they do so only as Americans, not as members of one faith or another.” Apart from Justice Kagan’s historical naiveté and apparent lack of association with any member of the vast majority of Americans who consider spiritual matters to be significant, she seems to have been able to separate her soul from her citizenship. Her logic takes for granted that citizens of the freeist nation in the world can be whole people exercising their full liberties in the political realm by being half persons. In her view, by expunging the inner-most part of themselves from interacting with government, Americans survive within political relationships by operating as sophisticated brain bundles like other animal brain bundles.
A few examples demonstrate that the majority of the court was far more in touch with reality.
On History: “There is historical precedent for the practice of opening local legislative meetings with prayer as well. [Marsh v. Chambers] teaches that the Establishment Clause must be interpreted ‘by reference to historical practices and understandings.'”
On citizens’ religion: “The prayer opportunity is evaluated against the backdrop of a historical practice showing that prayer has become part of the Nation’s heritage and tradition.” “[T]he First Amendment is not a majority rule and government may not seek to define permissible categories of religious speech.”
On soul: “the town is acknowledging the central place that religion, and religious institutions, hold in the lives of those present,” “[Greece’s prayer] purposes are to…acknowledge the place religion holds in the lives of many private citizens.”
The response to the May ruling by various atheist and secularist organizations is as instructive as Kagan’s dissent. The Humanist Society now has a website dedicated to helping create secular invocations and information on how to find “qualified” people to perform the services.
Although these folks should be welcomed into the process, on a purely rational basis, the concept is absurd. One sample “invocation” on the website is from Dan Derren of Tulsa Oklahoma. He refers to “hearts” and “dignity” and “worth” and “a common fate.” Humanists dream about heart, dignity and worth but have no sources for any of them. If they are true to their philosophy, a heart is a pump connected to a cluster of nerve cells in their head. Dignity has no place to reside except in evolution’s macro roll of the dice, in the electrical circuits of “naked apes” (Desmond Morris, 1967), brains and in the tissue of other people’s heads. Worth has no reference point except in their value to the herd and a future of extinction after their bodies begin to decay under their common fate.
These are the illusions that atheists, secularists and humanists want for public America. In truth, reality is much more rational than that and, thankfully, at least five men of power recognized it.