Fumbling the First Amendment – Commonweal

Gorsuch uses other specious arguments. The most glaring fallacy occurs on a crucial point, when he rejects the claim that students felt pressure to join the prayers. Such social pressure was a key point in an earlier school-prayer case (Lee v. Weisman). According to the District Court, students at Bremerton had told their parents that they felt compelled to participate in the prayers and didnt want to separate themselves from the team. Gorsuch calls this hearsay, though its on record. (And anyone who has been part of a cohesive group as a teenager understands it instinctively.) Next, the coach was suspended for such prayers and also for his postgame religious talksdelivered to the captive audience Gorsuch claims the coach did not have. After the suspension, Kennedy returned to games and prayed alone on the field, as the school district suggested. None of his students joined him, but other people did. Clearly, the reason his students did not join him is that he had just been suspended for this, and the students didnt want to get in trouble or suspended from sports. But look what Gorsuch concludes from these facts: he uses the students lack of participation in the post-suspension prayers as evidence that they had not felt pressured to participate before the suspension. This is obviously faulty reasoning on probably the most important point of the ruling.

As an elected official, Im furious. I believe in the American experiment, in the hopes of religious diversity and e pluribus unum. At our best, we hold majority rule and minority rights in tension, just as we have tried to hold the Establishment and Free Exercise clauses in balance. But the last time teacher-led school prayer was legal (more than sixty years ago), our country was over 90 percent Christiannear 100 percent in many areas. That number has dropped to around 70 percent, and its significantly lower in some parts of the country. This ruling pretends to defend religious freedom for everyone in this increasingly diverse country, but in reality it will not encourage minority religious rights of free exercise. Ask any non-Christian in the Bible Belt how they felt during (Christian) team prayer in high school.

Moreover, e pluribus unum needs careful curation during moments of civil religion, in order to avoid government endorsement of religion or coercion of citizens. Gorsuch defends his ruling in part by reference to Town of Greece v. Galloway, a recent case that permitted prayer before town-council meetings. But the analogy between an orderly civic meeting of adults and an unregulated spontaneous prayer session with children confuses more than it clarifies. When the town that I serve puts on a civic event like Memorial Day, serious attention is paid to the invitations to religious leaders for invocations and benedictions. We can create conditions for salutary interactions among diverse people. But we cannot give the floor to anyone to pray however they want at a government-sponsored eventwhether a town parade or a high-school football game.

As a Catholic, Im disturbed. Even though the current Supreme Court has been labeled as a Catholic takeover, this particular ruling brings nothing good to Catholicism. Catholics already have the largest network of private schools in the country precisely in order to educate children separately in our values, beliefs, and rituals. Moreover, the form of public prayer defended by this ruling is only one specific type of religious expression: the spontaneous, charismatic, words-only prayer associated with Protestant Christians.

A Catholic coach at a public school might call a Hail Mary pass at the end of a game, but hes not going to lead the team in a rosary afterwards. A Greek Orthodox English teacher is not going to set up an icon in the corner of her classroom for prayer. Muslims and Jews will not feel emboldened to bring out prayer rugs or phylacteries to pray before students during school activities. Gorsuch does attempt one analogy to a Muslim teacher wearing a headscarf in the classroom, but he must know this is a category error. We have different kinds of legal analysis for religion in government monuments, symbols, funding, and prayer. It is forms of prayer at issue in this case, which is why Gorsuch makes no analogies to the actual ways that people besides Protestant Christians pray.

Finally, as a Bible-reading Christian, Im embarrassed. Im embarrassed for the Christian coach and the Christian justices. Catholic employees need Good Friday off for services, Muslims need private prayer breaks, and Jews need protection for Sabbath observance. But Biblical doctrine does not instruct Christians to pray in public places. Far from being a religious requirement, praying in public so that people can see you is literally the opposite of Jesus teachings. Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them, he warned. Do not be hypocrites who pray at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others.... But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door (Matthew 6:16). This teaching is not obscure. Its in the Sermon on the Mount. In a tragic irony, we thus have a Free Exercise case in which someone fought for and won the right to do what their religion explicitly teaches them not to do. In addition to causing problems for parents, schools, law, and government, this ruling is Christian hypocrisy in its purest form.

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Fumbling the First Amendment - Commonweal