To say that God is everywhere in American life is as much a statement of fact as of faith. His name appears on every coin, on every dollar bill and in the vast majority of state constitutions. Schoolchildren pledge allegiance to one nation, under him. The President of the United States ends his speeches with a benediction. God bless America. In a country born of a pilgrim’s dream, a country that exalts freedom of worship as a sacred right, perhaps none of that is surprising. What is surprising is that for most of the ensuing 200 years, Americans have not stopped arguing about God. In the past decade alone, the Supreme Court has decided more religion cases than ever before, and each day brings a fresh crusade. At issue is the meaning of the basic principle enshrined in the First Amendment: that Congress, and by later extension the states, “shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” The modern Supreme Court has taken that to mean that government cannot do anything that promotes either a particular faith or religion in general. The backlash was a long time coming, but now it is here with a vengeance. The fight is not so much over what people ought to believe; it is over what they can say, and where, and to whom. The battleground spreads from the courtroom to the schoolroom to the town square: — Last month the Pennsylvania Supreme Court threw out the sentence of a murderer who killed a 70-year-old woman with an ax, on the ground that the prosecutor had unlawfully cited biblical law to the jury in his summation urging the death penalty. — In Decatur, Ill., a primary-school teacher discovered the word God in a phonics textbook and ordered her class of seven-year-olds to strike it out, saying that it is against the law to mention God in a public school. — The town of Oak Park, Ill., blocked a private Catholic hospital from erecting a cross on its own smokestack because, councilors say, some local residents would be offended. This is not simply a struggle between believers and nonbelievers, or between liberals and conservatives. The conflict is far more subtle, a product of centuries of legal evolution. It gets to the very heart of America’s identity, for it is about a clashing of rights and responsibilities: Should Christian Scientist parents be allowed, on religious grounds, to reject medical treatment for a dying child? Should Mormon parents be allowed to claim a tax deduction for the money they spend sending their children out as missionaries? Like so many other issues — abortion, the right to die, the right to bear arms — the issue of religion’s place in American life is at once deeply personal and yet highly public. It falls to the courts to find a way to preserve freedom of conscience while protecting individuals from the imposition of other people’s beliefs. THE TWO SIDES
