From Darryl Hart at The Front Porch Republic:
Protestant conservatives of the Religious Right variety may be surprised
to know that the strongest arguments for undressing the public square
(of religious garments) came from Protestants. Whenever Roman Catholics
wanted public funds or support for parochial schools, from the 1830s to
the 1950s Protestants invariably responded by insisting on the
separation of church and state. In other words, Protestants generally
crafted the arguments that Supreme Court justices would use eventually
to exclude religion from public schools. If support for parochial
schooling was an illegitimate establishment of religion, how could
prayer and Bible reading in public schools be construed as anything but
another instance of using public funds to support a particular religion
in a public institution?
1 comment:
If support for parochial schooling was an illegitimate establishment of religion, how could prayer and Bible reading in public schools be construed as anything but another instance of using public funds to support a particular religion in a public institution?
Or: The latter-day left has assumed the shameful role of intolerance and anti-pluralism of previous generations of Protestants [and "free thinkers"].
Post a Comment