1. 1 Constitution, Society, and Leadership Week 10 Unit 6 The Constitution in the Future: Protecting Religious Diversity Christopher Dreisbach, Ph.D. Johns Hopkins University

2.  Unit topic: Religion and the Constitution in 2020  Focus on the First Amendment’s ▪ No Establishment Clause ▪ Freedom Clause  Two selections  N. Feldman, The framers’ church-state problem— and ours  W. Marshall, Progressives, the religion clauses, and the limits of secularism 2

3.  Point: need to resolve the “deep divide over the role belief should play in politics and government”  Driving principle: No coercion and no money  Constitution=first time in history no official religion at all  Framers’ main principle: “protect liberty of conscience of religious dissenters”  Framers’ main political reason: religious dicversity among Americans 3

4.  Framers’ position in sum: No coercion, no money  Courts are ambivalent about  State sponsored religious symbols  Government funding of relgion  Need to return to No coercion, no money  But we can’t be neutral  We need to worry more about religious symbolism than framers did  So “need to reexamine original principle in contemporary terms” 4

5.  Point: Progressives need to reframe the debate about church and state to get rid of concepts of  Pro-religious conservatives  Anti-religion secularists  Progressives are the true protectors of religious liberty—by  Protecting religious liberty of all  Keeping religion and government separate 5

6.  The U. S. is a religious country  But secularism has instrumental value  Secularism=“government should not promote, advance, or endorse religion”  Values of secularism  Avoid harms to religion generally ▪ Religions can maintain their purity and integrity ▪ If government got involved it would probably get it wrong 6

7.  Avoid harm to other religions ▪ By not showing any preferences ▪ By not giving one religion permission to harm another  Avoid harm to government ▪ No diversion of resources ▪ No lethal mix of governement and religion 7

8.  Overly rigid secularism can harm in 3 ways  Internal contradictions: anti-religion is a theological position  Non-neutrality  Clash with public culture  Need for balance of secularism and its limitations  Identify a progressive approach to funding issues ▪ Base decisions on potential harm to religion 8

9.  Progressives should draw the line in three respects  “Oppose efforts to exempt religious organizations from regulatory requirements connected to funding programs.”  “Insist on true neutrality.”  Object to funding purely religious activity.  Be careful about attacking long-standing public religious displays  To avoid divisiveness and hostility 9

10.  But object to attempts to add new religious displays and references  Suggests the state is “captured by sectarian interests”  “Provides impetus for religions to seek additional government favor”  “Excites human behavior”  Therefore, balanced, rather than rigid secularism 10

11. Week 10 Unit 6 The Constitution in the Future: Protecting Religious Diversity 11