Seminole County School Board Announces New Guidelines Which P ermit High School Choir To Sing At Religious Events

[Michael Newsom]

My personal experience with gospel choirs is that, for them, singing is a
religious experience, not merely an art form.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Rick Duncan" <conlawprof at YAHOO.COM>
To: <RELIGIONLAW at listserv.ucla.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, November 26, 2002 10:57 AM
Subject: Re: Seminole County School Board Announces New Guidelines Which P
ermit High School Choir To Sing At Religious Events


> A stand alone Gospel Choir (i.e. one that focuses only
> on Gospel music) should be able to pass EC muster so
> long as its purpose and effect are to teach and
> perform Gospel music as an art form. The Court has
> clearly held on a number of occasions that it is
> permissible to teach about religion. Gospel music is a
> recognized musical genre and there is no reason why
> the public schools may not offer a course on this art
> form.
>
> The fact that the music is being *performed* does not
> transform an otherwise academic course into forbidden
> worship. Music students are supposed to perform; that
> is the purpose of their studies.
>
> So long as the choir director is careful to emphasize
> the art form, and to avoid teaching the lyrics as
> religious truth, there is absolutely no EC problem
> with the course. Just as a school can offer an
> academic course on, say, Islam, without being required
> to teach about other religions in the course, a school
> can offer a Gospel Choir class without including music
> from other traditions. What matters is whether the
> class is taught as an academic performance art class,
> not whether its subject matter is more narrow than
> some critics would prefer.
>
> Cheers, Rick Duncan
>
> --- Michael Newsom <mnewsom at LAW.HOWARD.EDU> wrote:
> > If I may intrude, obviously the Court has held that
> > some December holiday
> > displays pass EC muster, so long as there is enough
> > secular content.  The
> > Court also said that in American culture Christmas
> > has largely become a
> > secular holiday.
> >
> > Assuming that the Court is right, it does not
> > necessarily follow that gospel
> > choirs can pass EC muster.  First, we are not
> > talking about "displays" in
> > the same sense.  The various choirs are not somehow
> > grouped together in one
> > performance, are they?  Second, the dynamics of
> > stigma, coercion and the
> > like are entirely different in the two situations.
> > You cannot remove the
> > element of coercion, it seems to me.  It inheres in
> > the situation itself, or
> > at least the Court so intimated in Engel, Schempp,
> > Lee and Santa Fe ISD.
> > Again, the opt out remedy is no defense, at least
> > not in those cases.
> > Third, I am not sure that gospel choirs and gospel
> > music have become as
> > secularized as Christmas has.  You have to go to a
> > black church, Protestant
> > or Catholic, with a gospel choir one Sunday morning
> > to see -- and hear --
> > what I mean.  There is nothing secular in what
> > unfolds.  Indeed, to suggest
> > that all that happens is merely the exposition of a
> > musical genre with only
> > cultural or ethnic significance without any
> > connection or relation to God
> > would be an insult most of the black people in the
> > pews for whom gospel
> > music takes on almost sacramental dimensions, as a
> > means or channel of God's
> > grace.  To the extent that the gospel music
> > tradition finds expression in
> > white churches, I strongly suspect that the
> > worshippers there would have a
> > similar take on the music.
> >
> > Your Ten Commandments hypotheticals more nearly
> > evoke Lynch and the other
> > cases, to be sure, but they don't adequately speak
> > to the gospel choir
> > situation.  Accommodating a gospel choir and
> > accommodating the Decalogue are
> > not comparable.
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Berg, Thomas C." <TCBERG at STTHOMAS.EDU>
> > To: <RELIGIONLAW at listserv.ucla.edu>
> > Sent: Monday, November 25, 2002 12:16 PM
> > Subject: Re: Seminole County School Board Announces
> > New Guidelines Which P
> > ermit High School Choir To Sing At Religious Events
> >
> >
> > > Alan writes:
> > >
> > > "As to Tom's comments, about a school with
> > multiple choirs where only one
> > is
> > > religious, I think this brings us back to a common
> > dilemma we see in
> > > Charitable Choice programs and other settings. The
> > problems inherent with
> > > providing public support for religious programs
> > reflecting majority
> > beliefs
> > > are not cured by providing religious minorities
> > secular alternatives. That
> > > solves a coercion concern, but does nothing to
> > satisfy equality or
> > > endorsement concerns about religious favoritism."
> > >
> > >
> > > Alan, would you then say that it is impermissible
> > for the Court to have
> > the
> > > Ten Commandmanents in the courthouse *even if* it
> > is  part of a larger
> > > display about the origins of American law, with
> > secular components like
> > the
> > > Declaration and the Magna Carta (analogous here to
> > the Classical Choir and
> > > the Jazz Choir)?  If having significant secular
> > alternatives -- and
> > thereby
> > > removing the element of coercion or pressure to
> > sing in a religious
> > choir --
> > > doesn't satisfy the Establishment Clause concerns,
> > then the
> > impermissibility
> > > of the Commandments even in the overall context
> > would seem to follow.  But
> > > to say that no religious presence is permitted,
> > even as part of a larger,
> > > overall secular context, unless all religions have
> > an equal presence is a
> > > recipe for secularization, isn't it?
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > *******************
> > > Thomas C. Berg
> > > University of St. Thomas School of Law
> > > Mail # TMH 444C
> > > 1000 La Salle Avenue
> > > Minneapolis, MN   55403-2005
> > > Phone: (651) 962-4918
> > > Fax: (651) 962-4915
> > > tcberg at stthomas.edu
> > >
> > > ************************
> > >
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Alan Brownstein
> > [mailto:aebrownstein at UCDAVIS.EDU]
> > > Sent: Sunday, November 24, 2002 7:48 PM
> > > To: RELIGIONLAW at listserv.ucla.edu
> > > Subject: Re: Seminole County School Board
> > Announces New Guidelines Which
> > > P ermit High School Choir To Sing At Religious
> > Events
> > >
> > >
> > > As the proud father of an 18 year old daughter
> > with a very fine singing
> > > voice who participated in high school choir, let
> > me assure Vince that
> > other
> > > list members had children latter in life and that
> > not all public schools
> > > with multiple choirs have Gospel choirs. Davis
> > High has a madrigal choir,
> > a
> > > jazz choir, and a general choir. Of course, there
> > are not many
> > > African-Americans living in Davis (and not all
> > that many Jews live here
> > > either).
> > >
> > > But the thrust of his post is that because Gospel
> > choirs represent a
> > > response to racial inclusion, they do not
> > constitute a problem in terms of
> > > religious endorsement or exclusion. As a general
> > principle, I'm just not
> > > sure that works although it works on some
> > occasions where the racial or
> > > national element of the event completely
> > transcends any religious
> > > connotations (e.g. St. Patrick's Day Celebrations
> > in NYC). (I leave it to
> > > others with more musical experience and aptitude
> > to evaluate whether that
> > > is the case for Gospel choirs.)
> > >
> > > Canada often equates the accommodation of
> > Catholicism with the
> > > accommodation of its French minority. That has
> > resulted in some bizarre
> > > judicial decisions that seem impossible to justify
> > from a religious
> > > equality perspective. One can think of other
> > examples in the U.S. and
> > > elsewhere where there is a powerful correlation
> > between race or ethnicity
> > > and religion. Accommodating the former with
> > specific religious programs
> > > seems problematic to me. It is even more of a
> > problem when the faith of
> > the
> > > racial or ethnic minority represents the majority
> > religion in the
> > > community. (By the way, where there is a very
> > strong correlation between
> > > race, ethnicity or nationality and religion, I
> > think the converse
> > situation
> > > is a potential problem too. Attempts to
> > accommodate the religion may
> > result
> > > in de facto preferences for certain ethnic or
> > national groups.)
> > >
> > >
> > > Alan Brownstein
> > > UC Davis
> >
> === message truncated ===
>
>
> =====
> "Do you not think an angel rides in the whirlwind and directs the storm."
>     --President George W. Bush (quoting John Page)
>
> "When the Round Table is broken every man must follow Galahad or Mordred;
middle things are gone."  -C.S. Lewis
>
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