Running head: Religious Symbols in Public Schools
Religious Symbols in Public Schools
Where is the wall that separates church and state and does the wall even exist. Public schools are a government agency ruled by the same laws that preside over government offices. Public schools must uphold this wall of separation between church and state.
The Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights are laws and rules to direct and guide the American people regardless of race or creed. The United States is an extremely diverse nation with many beliefs and a wide variety of religious and non-religious sects. Part of this diversity is what makes America great but there is also tension from the various groups to persuade others to their beliefs. Who is right? Who makes the decisions? How high and movable is the “wall of separation”? According to the Establishment Clause, a fundamental principle that underlies all the decisions of the Constitution, commands that public school may not take sides in matters of religion and may not endorse religious perspectives. The wall of separation is not designed to keep Christianity out of public school but is a safeguard to keep the various religions that perhaps believe in a different god or no god at all from indoctrinating students who are there to receive an unbiased education.
According to the First Amendment of the United States, the government will make no law respecting an establishment of religion. This creates, as Thomas Jefferson states, a “wall of separation’ between government and churches. Thomas Jefferson one of our nation founding fathers was an intellectual skeptic and deist who supported not Judeo-Christian deity but the notion of “Nature and nature’s god”. In his letter to the Baptist of Danbury, Connecticut he stated, “I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declare that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion,...