Word: secularity
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...case involved Pawtucket's use of public funds ($1,365 initially, $20 a year now) to buy and then reerect annually a crèche as part of a Christmas display that also featured such secular holiday symbols as reindeer and a Santa Claus house. Chief Justice Burger, writing for the court majority, found the Nativity scene to be a "passive" symbol and its presence in the display "no more an advancement or endorsement of religion than...the exhibition of literally hundreds of religious paintings in governmentally supported museums." Said Burger: "We are unable to perceive the Archbishop...
...sure, the Justices are quick to strike down laws that they see as advancing or favoring religion. Four years ago, in Stone vs. Graham, the court declared that Kentucky could not post the Ten Commandments in classrooms. But the court has upheld laws that are aimed at secular goals like promoting education and that advance religion only as a side effect. Thus, it permitted Minnesota to allow tax deductions for private school tuition, even though most private schools in the state are church-affiliated...
...departure by the court in interpreting the First Amendment ("Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."). Writing for the 5-4 majority, Chief Justice Warren Burger seemed to argue that the traditional guidelines-that a law must serve a secular purpose, neither advance nor inhibit religion, and not entangle the state in purely religious questions-were merely "useful," rather than mandatory. "A more flexible standard may be emerging," says U.S. Solicitor General Rex E. Lee. The real test, set forth by the Chief Justice, now seems to be simply whether...
...there is a sense in Israel that they are becoming more like Americans, copying fashions and fads, desiring more material benefits, and losing a unique moral vision (whether secular or religious). This, though, has nothing to do with the Lebanon. Instead it has to do with the process of institutionalization encountered by a second or third generation of settlers...
Eakins' masterpiece, The Gross Clinic, 1875, certainly bridges two cultural worlds. On the one hand, one can read it as a very American icon of progress; it is a fervent, secular celebration of objective scientific knowledge, with the realism of paint serving that of science. Dr. Gross, light shining from his high forehead and glittering on his bloody hand and scalpel, is a pragmatic hero, and his skill is set before us as part of his American nature...