{"id":10063,"date":"2015-05-14T17:17:46","date_gmt":"2015-05-15T00:17:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/?p=10063"},"modified":"2018-11-14T08:42:25","modified_gmt":"2018-11-14T16:42:25","slug":"u-s-constitution-does-not-prohibit-religious-references-in-public-places-and-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/u-s-constitution-does-not-prohibit-religious-references-in-public-places-and-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Constitution Does Not Prohibit Religious References in Public Places and Schools"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"U.S. by Mike Miller (Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia) – <\/p>\n

During a speech\u00a0at Colorado Christian University on Wednesday, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia argued that the U.S. Constitution<\/a> does not prohibit religious references in public places, including schools: \u201cI think the main fight is to dissuade Americans from what the secularists are trying to persuade them to be true: that the separation of church and state means that the government cannot favor religion over nonreligion.\u201d <\/p>\n

Scalia suggested that if Americans want a more secular political system<\/a>, such as those in Europe, they can \u201cenact that by statute, but to say that\u2019s what the Constitution requires is utterly absurd.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the heart of the\u00a0argument over separation of church and state lies\u00a0the age-old debate over\u00a0the intent of the First Amendment: <\/p>\n

\u201cCongress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So is\u00a0the intent \u201cfreedom of<\/em> religion,\u201d or \u201cfreedom from<\/em> religion\u201d?\u00a0Justice Scalia argues that it is\u00a0the former:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do Him [God] honor in our pledge of allegiance, in all our public ceremonies. There\u2019s nothing wrong with that. It is in the best of American traditions, and don\u2019t let anybody tell you otherwise.<\/p>\n

I think we have to fight that tendency of the secularists to impose it on all of us through the Constitution.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As a conservative on the bench, Scalia has endured the wrath of liberals for years. These comments are sure to add to the fire. His take on his critics?<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat can they do to me? I have life tenure.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

HT: Independent Journal Review<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Mike Miller (Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia) – During a speech\u00a0at Colorado Christian University on Wednesday, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia argued that the U.S. Constitution does not prohibit religious references in public places, including schools: \u201cI think the main fight is to dissuade Americans from what the secularists are trying to persuade them … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":497,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,68,79,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-history","category-christianity","category-freedom","category-religion-in-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/497"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10063\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}