Word: worshiper
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Other separationists are most concerned with protecting atheists or members of minority faiths from pressure to conform. This is a far more diverse country than it was in 1892, when the Supreme Court declared, "This is a Christian nation." Millions of Americans attend worship services each week, but the locales range from Hindu temples in California to churches of snake- handling Pentecostalists in Appalachia. Baptist parents might like their child's school day to start with a Bible reading, but could a Muslim teacher choose a passage from the Koran instead? Do Satanists have the right to distribute materials...
...heart of the legal debate is the clashing of two constitutional principles enshrined in the First Amendment. The idea of guaranteeing "free exercise" of religion while shunning any "establishment" of religion was designed to protect liberty and keep the peace. Anyone could worship however he or she pleased, the framers said, but the government was forbidden to install a monopoly state church along the lines of the Church of England...
...other hand, when fifth-grader Monette Rethford, in Norman, Okla., is told that she cannot get together with other students on school property to pray or read the Bible, it looks very much like a restriction of her freedom to worship. To publicize their own fervor, tens of thousands of students gathered around their school flagpoles to pray last Sept. 11. "I don't want a government church or a teacher opening class with prayer," says Jay Sekulow of Christian Advocates Serving Evangelism, a conservative organization specializing in church-state litigation. "But the First Amendment protects individual speech, even religious...
...first major ruling on that issue came in 1879, when $ Mormons were forbidden to practice polygamy. One of the leading precedents was fixed in 1963 in Sherbert v. Verner, when the Supreme Court ruled that a worker who refused to work on Saturdays because it was a day of worship was still entitled to unemployment compensation. In that opinion, the court stated that government had to demonstrate a "compelling interest" in order to justify an infringement of religious liberty...
...further into religious contention. Some yardstick of moderation, and perhaps a measure of common sense, is necessary. What is too often missing from all the talk of religious and secular rights is any mention of mutual respect. When people claim the right to pray or not to pray, to worship or not to worship, as they choose, they must also respect the right of others to choose differently. For government to arbitrate in such intensely personal matters invites insurrection; but if the court and the Congress decide to distance themselves from religious disputes, they must also keep the playing field...