In theory, there were three ways the case could come out: (1) that the church was constitutionally entitled to equal treatment ("neutrality" (12)); (2) that the church was constitutionally excluded from the program ("strict" (13) or "no-aid" (14)
separationism); or (3) that the state was free to choose whether to include the church or not ("play in the joints" (15)).
Lupu, The Lingering Death of
Separationism, 62 GEO.
In their view, American
separationism brought about a tendency to divorce religion completely from social and political life.
He urges Baptists to avoid
separationism and sectarianism and to embrace ecumenism enthusiastically, offering the wisdom of their tradition as a gift to the wider church.
(248.) See Richard Albert, "American
Separationism and Liberal Democracy: The Establishment Clause in Historical and Comparative Perspective" (2005) 88:5 Marq L Rev 867 at 879.
The short postscript talks mostly about Jefferson's alleged extreme notion of church-state
separationism that was enshrined into American constitutional law by the Supreme Court in the twentieth century.
no American should at any point feel alienated from his government." Striking down legislative prayer as categorically unconstitutional, he concluded, would have "invigorated both the 'spirit of religion,' and the 'spirit of freedom.'" (79) His paean to
separationism as the constitutional essence of religious freedom and religious individuality was certainly heartfelt, but it was also an idiosyncratically expansive reading of the Establishment Clause evoking some of the more extreme separationist blasts of the late Vinson and Warren Courts.
It's made the executive the most dangerous branch, he writes, fostering one-man rule when "deadlocks produced by divided government...encourage a power-seeking president to disregard the legislature and rule by decree." Still, is there anything that
separationism is good for?
Has strict 'no-aid
separationism, (30) been followed?
The second crisis worrying Ledewitz is his perception--and he says this as a secularist himself--that secular Americans unthinkingly endorse strict
separationism, thus failing to consider or appreciate religious perspectives and insights.
On this view, both the Free Exercise Clause and the Establishment Clause were once understood primarily in terms of liberty, or
separationism, or other values, but are now understood, by the courts and others, as centering on whether a law affecting religion violates principles of equality.