Dear Editor
DEAR EDITOR THE PRAYER Since most liberal newspapers and magazines responded to the Supreme Court's Regents' Prayer decision with beads of praise. Reinhold Niebuhr's "A Dissenting Opinion" (NL,...
...In the words of Jefferson, the clause against establishment of religion by law was intended to erect "a wall of separation between Church and State...
...Any expression of piety, of credence, of participation in religious activities indicates an attitude toward religion...
...Thus the Constitution not only forbids establishing religion...
...Simple reflection should indicate that in our culture, and perhaps universally, it is impossible for a human being not to have religious convictions of one sort or another...
...The problem really arises because many persons equate a neutral attitude toward religion with an anti-religious one...
...The thrust of Reinhold Niebuhr's "dissenting opinion" seems to be that the Court engaged in "legislation" in the prayer case, and thus took upon itself the responsibility of school board to the nation...
...Imagine the effect on a class of youngsters...
...Niebuhr more honor to be gracious enough to admit that perhaps the issue was not fought only on a simple religious plane, but on one encompassing civil liberties as well...
...Niebuhr's observation that the Court used "a meat-ax for solving a delicate problem requiring a scalpel...
...I confess I do not see it...
...The decision in McCollum flowed directly from the principles of Everson...
...This group of tolerant non-participants is probably very large, and may in fact be the largest single religious group in the United States...
...Of course, the remedy is simple and obvious: a religious test for teachers...
...Black, for instance, simply could not see how the bus transportation in Everson had anything to do with religion...
...It has certainly lacked sufficient articulation and positive leadership, and by its very nature is not likely to get them...
...That their beliefs may be considered by some to be negative does not mean that they are negative...
...The affected persons were not only "sophisticated youngsters" but included six- and seven-year olds...
...If the teacher indicates disagreement, the result might well be doubt and question, rather than docile acceptance by the pupil...
...If there are religious aspects to secular education, is it still secular...
...Also, Niebuhr's interpretation of the constitutional amendments involved may make interesting reading—perhaps more interesting from his particular historical point of view—but it is absolutely irrelevant to the issue which he himself clarifies to his disadvantage in the last paragraph of the article...
...I think it is safe to say that no significant religious group in our society would favor the use of law or governmental coercion to extend even its own viewpoints, much less others, on different religious groups...
...Did it not say in effect that no agency of government shall go into the business of promoting religion, of any or no denomination, and neither should it be anti-religious...
...Yet on the subject of the Court's new role —that "it would no longer defer to local authorities on such issues"—I cannot help but believe it is increasingly assuming the role of intellectual dictator...
...The dissenters fully shared these sentiments, and the full Court thus rejected the narrow conception of the clause as meaning only no favoritism or official status for a single sect...
...Most telling was Dr...
...The true significance of Everson is that it set forth in unmistakable terms a broad, Madisonian-Jeffersoman interpretation of the "no-establishment" clause...
...These differences over facts have created a skein of superficial contradiction about the churchstate cases, but this should not blind us to the doctrinal continuity of the Court's work in this area...
...If my child prays in school against my religious judgment of what is beneficial to his moral advancement (and please let us forget the hypocritical absurdity of voluntary abstinence), I cannot remove whatever ill effects I deem the prayer to have without efforts I also consider negative and destructive...
...They believe that the public schools may and should inculcate in children a belief in God and the efficacy of prayer...
...New York City Edward G. Shufro Reading Reinhold Niebuhr's opinion dissenting from the Supreme Court's decision in the Regents1 Prayer case was a disheartening experience...
...According to Niebuhr, if I read him correctly, this is the only true secular education we can have within our nation's traditional framework...
...As for upsetting the "complicated adjustments" by which communities attempt to solve problems of "human relations," this is by definition what the Court does whenever it exercises its function of judicial review of state action...
...From Niebuhr's own exposition, I find it hard to see how secular education means hostility toward religion...
...In his article in the same issue, Reinhold Niebuhr submitted that "the decision is not as important as it seems at the moment...
...Can such considerations be called a "tempest in a teapot...
...He sets us up by referring to "people without religious convictions or practices," and then declaring: "The latter category, rather than any one of the traditional faiths, challenged the constitutionality of the Prayer...
...Niebuhr, however, went further than most churchmen...
...Niebuhr suggests that the Court might have used the doctrine of judicial "self-restraint," and suggests the same restraint in interfering "not only with laws, but with administrative procedures by which some communities try to solve problems of human relations...
...Its position should simply be neutral...
...Harsh words, yes...
...To labor the obvious, the Court exists to upset certain kinds of local arrangements which run counter to constitutional norms...
...Richard S. Fuegner I find Reinhold Niebuhr's article on the Regents' Prayer crassly propagandistic...
...As has been the case with most discussions of the Regents' Prayer, however, a central point—perhaps the central point— has been neglected...
...The Regents' Prayer was intended as a simple, innocuous daily recognition of the presence of an Almighty, couched in language that would not offend the sensibilities of any of our major religious groups...
...No tax," said Black, "in any amount, large or small, can be levied to support any religious activities or institutions, whatever they may be called, or whatever form they may adopt to teach or practice religion...
...This is what the Board of Regents' Prayer did in New York State school districts where it was adopted...
...Louis, Mo...
...On the other hand, the parent who disagrees with me can pray with his child at home or in church...
...and people are certainly free to practice religion as they see fit, as he readily points out...
...Presumably, voluntarism would prevail and the teacher could be excused...
...In constitutional law, as in so many other aspects of life, the ownership of the gored ox is always of moment...
...For myself, I always thought neutrality implied not favoring any side...
...When one says that the Court will not defer to local authority on matters of public question, even though that same local authority has the consent of its constituents, then how else can one describe it...
...Both offerings seem to me marred by a hurried and unreflective quality uncharacteristic of your magazine...
...openly or secretly, participate in the affairs of any religious group and vice versa...
...Everson is one of those "inverted" Supreme Court decisions in which the Court's holding is incidental to the principles of law enunciated...
...Is the absence of the Regents' Prayer as great or a greater deprivation on those children whose families wished them exposed to it as its existence was to those whose families did not wish them exposed...
...New York City Richard E. Morgan The articles by Reinhold Niebuhr and Ray Warner are both interesting and thoughtprovoking...
...Perhaps it is personal prejudice on my part, but it seems to me absolutely clear that this is not the case...
...New York City Gerald Berenson The two articles in The New Leader on the Supreme Court's decision in the Regents' Prayer case should not pass without comment...
...But in between there is a large group of religiously literate, tolerant, non-activist people who do not "practice religion" for what to them are good reasons, and who do not criticize or campaign against those who do...
...Roland Jameson Ray Warner is to be commended ("No Ground for Retreat," NL, July 9) for giving the reader a lucid understanding of the reasoning behind the Supreme Court's decision on the Regents' Prayer...
...Niebuhr puts a different emphasis on this aspect: It [the Prayer] could only have offended very sophisticated youngsters," and it "was not conpulsory," except for those who "voluntarily" asked out...
...Free exercise by individuals is lost when a government body orders that a religious exercise be held by public servants in school buildings...
...When the Court interferes," Dr...
...Some will disagree with the above on the ground that participation was "voluntary...
...The Court was not hostile to religion, as Niebuhr implies it was...
...But the Courts decision did not rest on the determination of whether or not a young school child can or should be expected to volunteer not to participate in a prescribed school procedure...
...Detroit, Mich...
...Everyone has been exposed to religion and religious thought, just as we all have been exposed to politics and political thought...
...Can the Court's decision be justified on the grounds that it is following a new road, one which cannot be deviated from under any circumstances...
...similarly, man is a religious animal...
...Neither a state nor the Federal government can...
...Segregation in schools, to take the most glaring example, was an attempt at adjusting to a problem in human relations in local laboratories...
...What is generally called secularism by our religious leaders encompasses many things, running the gamut from passivity and indolence to violently anti-clerical attitudes...
...He questioned those Supreme Court tendencies that have made possible some of the great human and civil advances of recent years...
...The Supreme Court properly answered "yes" to the first, and that was sufficient ground on which to base its decision...
...it guarantees affirmatively the "free exercise" of religion by each and every person in the nation, a natural corollary to the establishment clause...
...In my opinion, the Regents' action also effectively amounted to a denial of free exercise...
...The notion that interpreting the Constitution is (or ought to be) something other than lawmaking should never survive an introductory course in American government...
...But apparently Niebuhr's idea of "neutrality" is an act of the Court which would please him...
...What else is needed to constitute an establishment...
...One aspect of the problem of religion in the schools that has been generally ignored is the role of the teacher...
...Suppose the teacher has scruples of conscience against participating in a prayer ritual...
...Many who consider themselves members of the liberal community and are firmly committed to the principle of church-state separation, I am sure, found the article an accurate reflection of their own reaction to the Court's finding...
...The question in the Prayer case was: Did the Board of Regents' action constitute an infringement of the establishment clause of the Constitution and did it also impinge on the right to the "free exercise" of religion...
...It would do Dr...
...Niebuhr asserts that the founding fathers "wanted a religiously neutral state, not one hostile to religion...
...In the second article, Ray Warner's assertion that the Supreme Court's decisions in the religious practice cases lack consistency loses force because of the failure to explain the reasoning behind Justice Black's decision in the Everson case (1947), and the uncritical adoption of the canard that the McCollum decision (1948) contradicted Everson...
...Yet a problem remains in the definition of the word "religion...
...The suggestion of "voluntarism" evokes memories of arguments that children have a constitutional right to work 12 hours a day, voluntarily...
...Dr...
...and even if they were, that does not make them less morally or legally defensible than any other credo...
...so, too, was the teacher's loyalty oath imposed by Oklahoma, the censorship of movies in New York, and the mandatory flag salute in West Virginia...
...It should also not be forgotten that normally non-participation in school activities would be considered disobedient and thus punishable...
...The whole purpose of a prayer is to inculcate a point of view...
...Putting even the best theory into practice is often an extremely complex matter, and in this case there can be little doubt that local communities are best able to determine the methods and measures of application...
...It is generally accepted that man is inherently a political animal...
...Many churchmen disagreed with the decision forthrightly...
...They cannot expect the state to pay the bill, however...
...The application of this doctrine, I believe, would have resulted in tl different history in the past decade...
...But those who responded to the outlawing of the Regents' Prayer with ritualistic cries of joy would do well to ponder the complexities of the issue...
...Perhaps more important, it forebodes an adverse decision if the question of government aid for religious schools should come to the Court...
...True, probably only a small minority was disturbed...
...And to me the phrase "consistently secular" makes no sense...
...The First Amendment to the Constitution reads, in part, as follows: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...
...Not only does it outlaw an "official" non-denominational and innocuous prayer but it clearly threatens denominational practices in many schools...
...Of course the Supreme Court makes law for the nation...
...So, equally, does the passive or self-consciously active omission or disavowal of such actions...
...Their dismay at the decision is understandable...
...Yet it is certainly not necessary to plead in these columns for the constitutional rights of small minorities, even when the protection of those rights causes the majority to lose its untrammeled right to do as it pleases...
...Thus the devil himself is our adversary, and who can be blamed for not trying to exorcise, if not excoriate, him...
...This is Niebuhr's hidden major premise...
...Cosmopolitan New York City, for example, wisely rejected the Regents' Prayer, while those communities which adopted it obviously found it fulfilling what they considered to be a need...
...Distaste for politics and refusal to vote is certainly a distinct political attitude...
...it should also be accepted as a distinct, proper and positive religious belief to ignore or renounce conventionally positive religious activity...
...Assuming this analysis is correct, the question then becomes: Who is imposing on whom...
...To him it seemed a justifiable highway safety measure...
...Niebuhr writes, "not only with the laws but with administrative procedures by which communities try to solve some problem of human relations, it makes law for the whole nation and interferes with the local laboratory experiments of several communities...
...New Rochelle, ?. ?. Harold Siegel Reinhold Niebuhr replies: The point of my article was simple, I thought it unwise for the Supreme Court to decide a local issue of religion in the schools on the basis of the First Amendment, which raises questions concerning the establishment of religion that were relevant in the 18th century but are not relevant now...
...But a court decision on this issue prevents all local accommodation in a pluralistic society...
...In a pluralistic society such as ours, of course, matters involving religion always excite passions...
...but no harsher than the Court's prevailing tendency...
...If people wish religious education, they are at liberty to get it...
...In my opinion, it is a shame that in our country, except in · certain limited circles, prominent persons are seriously inhibited by our ethos, our publicists and our denominational leaders from expressing what they really believe, which in its essence is as distant from Soviet "secularism" as it can be...
...Nevertheless, the Court's decision is clearly indicative of the prevailing secularistic attitude being promulgated in our culture...
...Reinhold Niebuhr's "A Dissenting Opinion" (NL, July 9) was especially welcome...
...Is this not exactly the concept that was upheld by the Supreme Court...
...I do not think that the necessary and inevitable tension between the religious and secular components of our culture can be solved by enjoining or prohibiting an innocuous prayer, On the whole, I think the pluralism of our society, and the disproportionate furor raised by the Regents' Prayer issue, proves it unwise to have religious observance in public schools...
...There has been disagreement within the Court as to the facts in church-state cases...
...In my opinion, there must be ground for retreat in the pluralistic society in which we live...
...The Southern politicians who quickly expressed themselves after the Prayer decision saw this clearly, and spoke with passion, not restraint...
Vol. 45 • August 1962 • No. 16
