Supreme court’s new standards for religious liberty

Word from the Center
Written By Gene Edward Veith

You may have heard that the Supreme Court sided with the football coach who lost his job for praying on the field.  What you may not have heard is that, in doing so, the court overturned a restrictive ruling on church/state relations from two decades ago and created new standards for religious liberty cases.

The case, Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, involved a football coach in Washington State, Joseph Kennedy, who had the personal custom of going to the middle of the field and praying after each game.  Some players and other students, of their own volition, would join him.  The school board believed this constituted an establishment of religion and refused to renew his contract.

Lower courts agreed that the coach was violating the Establishment Clause, but the Supreme Court ruled otherwise by a 6-3 vote.  Neil Gorsuch, who wrote the majority opinion, said that the school board action “rested on a mistaken view that it had a duty to ferret out and suppress religious observances even as it allows comparable secular speech.”  On the contrary, the government should not “be hostile” to religion.

The bottom line, according to the Wikipedia article on the ruling, is that the government “may not suppress an individual from engaging in personal religious observance.”

Click here to read the rest of the article.

Dr. Gene Edward Veith is the author of some 20 books regarding Christianity and culture.

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See Also
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The Bulletin Insert is designed to be printed and cut in half to fit conveniently inside a Sunday worship bulletin. Each month an insert will offer insight, encouragement, and information from the LCRL on the topics of Religious Liberty, Life, Marriage, or Education.

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Gene Edward Veith
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