The Constitution reads “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;” to prevent the U.S. government from sponsoring religion as the European monarchs that the colonists fought against had done since the Middle Ages.
However, the influence of religious beliefs on public institutions is an everyday occurrence on our money, in our schools, the Pledge of Allegiance and even in the United States Capitol Building. While the presence of religious influence on money is harmless, the overreaching of religion into the public education system has had negative, long-term effects on American youth.
School prayer, for example, a long-contested topic in the United States, finally got its time in court with the case Engel v. Vitale. In a historic decision in 1962, the United States Supreme Court voted six to one to overturn the original decision of courts in New York and classified school prayer in public schools as unconstitutional.
The majority led by Associate Justice Hugo Lafayette Black called the practice “wholly inconsistent” with the First Amendment and noted that the unconstitutionality of school prayer was made more evident by the fact that the prayer was written and enforced by a state government, not by a student praying to themselves at their desk.
Black nullified the claims of previous courts saying that even though the prayer was nondenominational and voluntary it is a form of “religious coercion”. An example of this “religious coercion” would be the ritual awkwardness that a student would face if they chose not to participate in the mandated prayer opening students up to bullying, humiliation, and discrimination.
Even though Justice Black’s writing was clear, fighting for a student’s right to an unbiased education is not worth losing votes to most politicians allowing religious infiltration into public schools.
These pro-religion, anti-science approaches have real-world consequences. For example, Christian dominated school boards require abstinence-only sex education curriculum or force biology teachers to lecture students on the ideas of creationism rather than introduce students to the work of Charles Darwin and Gregor Mendel that have the support of the scientific method.
A 2011 study by the Public Library of Science found that states with strict, abstinence-only sex education curriculum had a teen pregnancy rate 14.46% higher than that of states with proper sex curriculum. New Mexico, a state with some of the strictest abstinence-only laws, had a teen pregnancy rate 57% higher than that of New Hampshire, a state with a science-based curriculum and lowest teen pregnancy rate.
There are numerous religious schools such as Catholic schools, Jewish academies and even Muslim schools that combine religion and education in a private, comfortable environment. However, it is the choice of the student and their family to go to these private, religious institutions, therefore eliminating the imposition of biased views on children in public schools funded by taxpayers.
Historically, religion has dictated how whole groups of people act and what they think good and bad or right and wrong means with examples such as the Crusades, Spanish Inquisition and Salem Witch Trials. This influence often carried an ulterior motive leading to the suppression of science and progress, the conquering of peaceful people and the oppression of minorities and women and has no place in the public education system.
It is time for elected officials to be responsible and uphold their Oath of Office to “support and defend the Constitution” and guarantee students the education they are promised.
