Is Nothing Secular?

Jeffrey Rosen November/December 2000 Whatever else it achieves, the presidential campaign of 2000 will be remembered as the time in American politics when the wall separating church and state began to collapse. George W. Bush set the tone by raising the likelihood of his candidacy after a prayer breakfast and later declaring that his favorite political philosopher was "Christ, because He changed my heart." Not to be outdone, Al Gore boasted that he decided important questions using the religious shorthand "'W.W.J.D.'- for a saying,'' he explained, "that's popular now in my faith, 'What would Jesus do?'"

Bush and Gore have enthusiastically endorsed a provision of the 1996 welfare-reform bill called charitable choice, which allows faith-based organizations to administer welfare programs with public funds, as long as there are secular alternatives.

It's not just the candidates who are eroding the wall between religion and public life; the courts, by and large, are giving their blessing. If and when the justices finally agree to resolve the constitutionality of vouchers, they will do so against a backdrop of decisions that have been chipping away at the wall between church and state over the past decade. The next president, through the justices he appoints if openings arise, will decide just how much of a wall is left standing.

One thing is clear: the era of strict separation is over. For a surprisingly brief period, from the early 1970s to the late 1980s, strict separationism commanded the support of a majority of Supreme Court justices. During the separationist era even after-school prayer disappeared from public schools, as did cr
Article Author: Jeffrey Rosen