Printer friendly version

February 25, 2004

Separation Means Suppression, Apparently

And the elite delegitimization of religion as a worthwhile pursuit continues:

The Supreme Court, in a new rendering on separation of church and state, voted Wednesday to let states withhold scholarships from students studying theology.

The court's 7-2 ruling held that the state of Washington was within its rights to deny a taxpayer-funded scholarship to a college student who was studying to be a minister. That holding applies even when money is available to students studying anything else.

I don't know the specifics of this case, but it would seem relevant to ask whether a student seeking a healthy education in secular humanism and the genius of Marxism would have similar difficulties procuring tax-payer dollars.

Posted by Justin Katz at February 25, 2004 11:55 AM
Religion
Comments

I completely agree with you here.

It is, may I use the word, hypocrisy. (maybe 'double-standard' is more apt).

It is maddening and it is a complete distortion of what was the original intent of the 'separation of church and state'.

What next ? Should Christmas be taken off the list of national holidays ?

Sad story.

Posted by: Mark Miller at February 25, 2004 12:29 PM

Justin,
Your pithy comment about secular humanism and Marxism reminded me of something. I've long thought that perhaps the only way to stop this obfuscation and confusion about what the separation of church and state is SUPPOSED to mean would be to point out that so-called secularism is a religion of another sort. In fact, what it really is is the modern form of what was called Deism. (That's as far as I'll go here, I don't want to bore everybody. If interested, go to the Ocean State Blogger for a History Lesson.) Back to your main point, though...the simplistic attitude that seems to have developed in this country regarding the separation of church and state is disturbing. To see that simplistic interpretation now firmly established in the halls of the highest court in the land is indeed worrisome.

Posted by: Marc at February 25, 2004 2:05 PM

Marc,

I'll have to check out your site on Deism when I've got a chance. My general impression is that, as a philosophical group, it's broader than most people treat it, stretching from just about atheism all the way to devout Christianity. Most often it seems to be used as a sort of "sludge" category through which secular humanists attempt to claim historical figures as among their own.

(Boy, there's a whole lot o' really interesting stuff that one could research, given time. That's one reason I've never had any difficulty imagining eternal life to be forever interesting.)

Posted by: Justin Katz at February 27, 2004 2:13 PM