Real Separation Of State And Church

The Obama "Justice" Department took a huge hit in the Supreme Court this week...

In what may be its most significant religious liberty decision in two decades, the Supreme Court on Wednesday for the first time recognized a “ministerial exception” to employment discrimination laws, saying that churches and other religious groups must be free to choose and dismiss their leaders without government interference.
“The interest of society in the enforcement of employment discrimination statutes is undoubtedly important,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote in a decision that was surprising in both its sweep and its unanimity. “But so, too, is the interest of religious groups in choosing who will preach their beliefs, teach their faith and carry out their mission.”

Whatever its precise scope, the ruling will have concrete consequences for countless people employed by religious groups to perform religious work. In addition to ministers, priests, rabbis and other religious leaders, the decision appears to encompass, for instance, at least those teachers in religious schools with formal religious training who are charged with instructing students about religious matters.

Douglas Laycock, a law professor at the University of Virginia who argued the case on behalf of the defendant, a Lutheran school, said the upshot of the ruling was likely to be that “substantial religious instruction is going to be enough.”

Asked about professors at Catholic universities like Notre Dame, Professor Laycock said: “If he teaches theology, he’s covered. If he teaches English or physics or some clearly secular subjects, he is clearly not covered.”

Actions like the EEOC's are exactly what Thomas Jefferson and the Danbury Baptists had in mind in Jefferson's oft misquoted letter establishing the so-called separation of church and state.

Bishop William E. Lori, chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ ad hoc committee for religious liberty, called the ruling “a great day for the First Amendment.”

“This decision,” he said in a statement, “makes resoundingly clear the historical and constitutional importance of keeping internal church affairs off limits to the government — because whoever chooses the minister chooses the message.”

Newt Gingrich was derided for his remarks about the media's anti-religious bias in a recent debate but he was correct.  There is a very real religious war going on in this country - not between religious sects per se, but between religious and the anti-religious. Groups like the Freedom From Religion Society have long gone after any display of religion in the public square as a violation of the "separation" clause when in reality what they are doing is the violation.  The 1st Amendment is very clear when it states "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." - something that the Obama Justice Department needs to remember.