Americans Ignorant about First Amendment Rights

Americans Ignorant about First Amendment Rights

By Brent Walker, Exec. Dir. Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty

Washington, D.C.

Fall is my favorite season. Cooler weather, college football, the World Series, and my birthday—September 13. I also look forward to—and in a sense dread—the publication of the First Amendment Center’s annual “State of the First Amendment” national survey. I look forward to it because it gives me a bead on the popular attitudes about the First Amendment generally and the religion clauses in particular. I dread it because inevitably, it reflects sentiments that give me grave concerns. This year was no exception.

You can read the full report at www.firstamendmentcenter.org. The 2007 survey reveals three attitudes that I find particularly troubling—one dealing with woeful ignorance of the Constitution and history, one reflecting a popular misunderstanding of the Establishment Clause, and one revealing a cramped view of rights under the Free Exercise Clause.

First, when asked to name the specific rights guaranteed by the First Amendment, only 19 percent could name “freedom of religion.” Moreover, 55 percent think that the Constitution itself establishes a “Christian nation” and an unbelievable 65 percent agree with the statement that the “nation’s founders intended the United States to be a Christian nation.” How could so many be so wrong about so much? Yes, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but they are not entitled to their own facts. The Constitution never mentions Christianity, or God for that matter. It is a decidedly secular document. It mentions religion only once and then, in Article VI, to disallow a religious test for public office. Some of our founders wanted to mention Christianity, but they lost the debate in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787. No doubt most of our founders were men of faith of some ilk—rationalists, deists, orthodox Christians. And our nation today is Christian demographically. But it’s a plain canard to say that our founders intended a Christian nation or that the Constitution establishes one.

Second, with respect to the Establishment Clause, more bad news. The survey revealed 58 percent think teachers in public schools should be allowed to lead in classroom prayer. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 45 years ago that state-sponsored, teacher-led prayer violates the Establishment Clause. Of course, the 58 percent who want teachers and public school officials to lead in prayer assume that is going to be their own prayer. In our amazingly pluralistic society, that will not necessarily be the case. And, why would we want school officials deciding when, where and what our children should pray? The BJC works to show the dozens of ways in which voluntary, vital and voluminous religion can be included in the school day without counting on the government to do our religion for us or to foist, if not force, school-sponsored religion exercises on students who are in the classroom by compulsion of law.

Finally, concerning the free exercise of religion, only 56 percent think that religious liberty applies to all religions. And an astonishing 28 percent said that the freedom of worship as one chooses “was never meant to apply to religious groups that the majority of the people consider extreme or on the fringe.” So, religious freedom applies only to those groups that the majority thinks is acceptable? The BJC has worked for more than seven decades to defend and extend religious liberty for all.

The BJC has been quite successful in convincing Congress, the courts, governmental agencies and policymakers that the Bill of Rights generally is counter-majoritarian. It does not matter what the majority thinks. The protection for religious liberty in the First Amendment protects against the tyranny of the majority. But, we must do a better job in convincing the culture. Eventually, it does matter what the majority thinks. They can elect new members of Congress and vote for presidents that will make new appointments to the Supreme Court and, in rare cases, a super-majority can amend the Constitution. So, ironically, for this counter-majoritarian understanding of the First Amendment to survive challenges, it must be embraced by a majority, if not a consensus, of the American people.

This is where you can help. Stand up for the truths that America is not a Christian theocracy, that our public schools should not inculcate a particular religious point of view, that everyone, no matter how extreme, foolish, or wrong their religious beliefs are, should be able to worship as they see fit. This important enterprise demands that we all cooperate to dispel the myths and misunderstandings that inform these results.

I hope and pray for a better birthday present next year.

This article was originally published in the October, 2007, Report from the Capital.