COMMENTARY: Jefferson’s Wall Could Be Crumbling

c. 2004 Religion News Service (Rabbi Rudin, the America Jewish Committee’s Senior Interreligious Adviser, is Distinguished Visiting Professor at Saint Leo University.) (UNDATED) I was a third-grader at Maury School in Alexandria, Va., when I first encountered religious bigotry and the liberating beliefs of Thomas Jefferson. There were 30 youngsters in my class, and on […]

c. 2004 Religion News Service

(Rabbi Rudin, the America Jewish Committee’s Senior Interreligious Adviser, is Distinguished Visiting Professor at Saint Leo University.)

(UNDATED) I was a third-grader at Maury School in Alexandria, Va., when I first encountered religious bigotry and the liberating beliefs of Thomas Jefferson. There were 30 youngsters in my class, and on the first day of the school year, our teacher announced there would be a 10-minute Bible reading each morning.


I thought little about it until the next day when she asked if any Catholics or Jews were in the class. I raised my hand along with two Catholic students. The three of us were told to leave the room and remain in the hallway until the teacher’s Bible reading was completed. Naturally, we did as we were told.

It was mortifying to stand outside the classroom door. Although we constituted 10 percent of the students, my Catholic classmates and I never complained. After all, we were 8-year-olds who dutifully followed the teacher’s command.

The daily expulsions went on for about two weeks until one evening at dinner, I burst into tears and told my parents about the humiliating experience. It was the middle of World War II, and at that time my father was an Army major on active duty at nearby Fort Belvoir, Va.

My mother and father expressed outrage at the teacher’s religious prejudice. About a week after my outburst, my father told me at breakfast that he and two of the Catholic parents would be meeting that afternoon with the school principal to protest the teacher’s actions. That night my father described the meeting. Even decades later, I vividly remember the details of what he said.

It seems the principal summoned my teacher to her office, and sharply criticized her in front of the Jewish and Catholic parents. The principal’s words went something like this: “The Bible reading and sending children out into the hall must end now. After all, Mr. Jefferson built a wall of separation between church and state, and that means no Bible reading in a public school, and it especially means that you as a teacher cannot disgrace or punish children because of their religion.”

Perhaps the principal used poor management skills in rebuking a staff member in front of angry parents. But her technique quickly achieved the desired results. The expulsions and Bible readings stopped, and I was pleased to return to “full-time status” as a third-grader.

Like most elementary school students in Virginia, I knew Jefferson was a U.S. president from our state. But when I heard of the principal’s remarks about Jefferson’s “wall of separation,” I wondered whether he had actually built a physical barrier of some kind at his Monticello home near Charlottesville. Wherever and whatever that wall was, it was clear “Mr. Jefferson” had helped restore me to the class.


It was only years later that I learned about Jefferson’s 1802 letter to the Danbury, Conn., Baptist Association. After stating, “Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his GodâÂ?¦,” he praised the Constitution’s First Amendment, which has resulted in “building a wall of separation between Church and State.”

Jefferson’s vivid image described his profound commitment to the principle of church-state separation that permits all religious groups in America, no matter their doctrine, dogma or demographic size, to function freely without government (public school) interference, control or punishment.

But today, despite “Mr. Jefferson” and the First Amendment guaranteeing religious liberty, there are ominous attempts to break down that wall and replace it with a new church-state relationship that seeks a close, even incestuous relationship between government and religion.

Such efforts include the allocation of public funds for vouchers for students in parochial or private schools, direct involvement of religious groups in influencing elections and public monies to support charter schools. The Bush administration’s policy to fund “faith-based charities” with taxpayers’ money is an attempt to weaken church-state separation.

The Richmond, Va.-based Council for America’s First Freedom released its recently commissioned survey on public attitudes on the principle of church-state separation. I think “Mr. Jefferson” and my school principal would be discouraged by some of the findings.

The good news: 83 percent of those polled are opposed to any legislation creating an “official religion’ in America. And 52 percent of those surveyed consider freedom of religion the second most important American liberty, surpassed only by freedom of speech.


The bad news: 49 percent believes the separation of church and state has become too restrictive or is simply not needed in America.

Clearly, Jefferson’s “wall” is in danger of crumbling.

MO/PH END RNS

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