Separation of Church and State: What the Founders Meant by Barton David

Author:Barton, David [Barton, David]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781932225419
Publisher: BookBaby
Published: 2013-06-24T16:00:00+00:00

The letter from the Colorado State Board of Education is simply recognizing the wisdom of the federal law signed by President George Washington on August 7, 1789, stipulating that schools and education systems were indeed the proper means to encourage the “religion, morality, and knowledge” so “necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind.”51

Another aspect of behavior directly impacted by the removal of religious principles was morality. Recall that both George Washington and Fisher Ames had warned that neither national morality in general nor student morality in particular could be maintained apart from religious principles. Statistics now verify the accuracy of their warnings.

For example, following the 1962-1963 court-ordered removal of religious principles from students, teenage pregnancies immediately soared over 700 percent,52 with the United States recording the highest teen pregnancy rates in the industrialized world.53 Similarly, sexual activity among fifteen year-olds skyrocketed,54 and sexually transmitted diseases among students ascended to previously unrecorded levels.55 In fact, virtually every moral measurement kept by federal cabinet-level agencies reflects the same statistical pattern: the removal of religious principles from the public sphere was accompanied by a corresponding decline in public morality.56

To help combat the escalating teen pregnancy rates, some schools began to teach abstinence; but opponents of that teaching claimed that pre-marital sexual abstinence was a “religious” teaching and that it thus violated “separation of church and state.” They therefore filed suit in court, where judges agreed with their view and disallowed the teaching of abstinence.57 The sex education curriculum utilized by the opponents is described as “comprehensive sex-education” and takes an approach in which no morals – no “rights” or “wrongs” – are presented. Instead, students are told all the various possibilities of what can be done sexually in cultures around the world and then encouraged to make their own choices, no matter how extreme or abhorrent (or even illegal under American laws) those sexual behaviors may be. In essence, students are told: “It’s your sexual life – live it as you choose! Do not let anyone tell you what is right or wrong. Do what is sexually pleasurable for you.”

With such teachings, it certainly is not surprising that teen pregnancy rates soared – as did the massive economic costs associated with teen mothers. What economic costs? According to recent statistics, eighty percent of teen mothers end up on welfare;58 half of all long-term welfare recipients started their families as teens;59 and teen mothers are much more likely to live below the poverty level.60 Consequently, over $9 billion dollars is spent annually through federal, state, and local welfare and poverty programs to address the economic costs of teen pregnancies.61

In an attempt to reduce the extremely high teen pregnancy rate and the massive governmental spending that it generates, Congress passed the Adolescent Family Life Act, offering federal grant money to any group that would teach pre-marital sexual abstinence.62 Not surprisingly, that law, like the previous abstinence measures, was immediately challenged and taken to court, where the lower court held that abstinence was a religious teaching and thus could not be taught to students.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.