Subject: The American Model of the Relationship between Church and State

[Mick Jagger]

Subject: The American Model of the Relationship between Church and State
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What's wrong with the follow excerpt, regarding the model of the relationship between church and state, from Justice Scalia's dissenting opinion in McCreary County vs. ACLU?

On September 11, 2001 I was attending in Rome, Italy an international conference of judges and lawyers, principally from Europe and the United States. That night and the next morning virtually all of the participants watched, in their hotel rooms, the address to the Nation by the President of the United States concerning the murderous attacks upon the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, in which thousands of Americans had been killed. The address ended, as Presidential addresses often do, with the prayer “God bless America.” The next afternoon I was approached by one of the judges from a European country, who, after extending his profound condolences for my country’s loss, sadly observed “How I wish that the Head of State of my country, at a similar time of national tragedy and distress, could conclude his address ‘God bless ______.’ It is of course absolutely forbidden.”

That is one model of the relationship between church and state–a model spread across Europe by the armies of Napoleon, and reflected in the Constitution of France, which begins “France is [a] . . . secular . . . Republic.” France Const., Art. 1, in 7 Constitutions of the Countries of the World, p. 1 (G. Flanz ed. 2000). Religion is to be strictly excluded from the public forum. This is not, and never was, the model adopted by America. George Washington added to the form of Presidential oath prescribed by Art. II, §1, cl. 8, of the Constitution, the concluding words “so help me God.” See Blomquist, The Presidential Oath, the American National Interest and a Call for Presiprudence, 73 UMKC L. Rev. 1, 34 (2004).​

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Mick:

Shouldn't Scalia look to the the words of the U. S. Constitution (not some fairy tale about George Washington adding the words “so help me God" to his oath of office - for the lawmakers will regarding the American relationship of religion to civil authority.

Somebody needs to inform Scalia that the Constitution grants the government no authority whatsoever over religion. In other words, religion is totally exempt from civil authority.