Huntington in WSJ re "Under God"

Wed Jun 16 16:01:36 PDT 2004

Well, if you state it as a tautology, there isn't much to say about it. But 
I would think that the underlying premise -- that non-Christians 
are  "outsiders" -- not full members of the political community whose 
political status is properly determined by the religious community to which 
they belong -- is controversial in some places. (I haven't been to Chicago 
recently, so maybe this is accepted wisdom there.)

I work with lots of Christians who would challenge that contention. (Maybe 
they are just being polite.) And just this Fall, I spoke on a panel at a 
University of St. Thomas symposium. The University of St. Thomas is a 
Catholic school.  I didn't think I was an outsider of lesser status. Tom 
Berg teaches there. Maybe we should check with him. The key note speaker at 
the Symposium dinner was a Jewish United States Senator from Minnesota. He 
concealed his political outsider status very effectively. I missed it 
completely.

(Now I will say that when I participate in an event at a religious 
institution of another faith, I feel a bit out of place when prayers are 
offered -- since I can not really participate in these religious exercises. 
But I don't feel like an outsider of lesser status. I'm a guest. I'm not a 
member of the community that invited me to the event. My feelings have 
nothing to do with status. My non-Jewish friends who will attend my son's 
Bar Mitzvah this July will not feel that they are of any lesser status 
because they will not participate in the religious service at our 
Synagogue. That kind of an experience of difference does not make one an 
"outsider")

But when we are speaking about outsiders in terms of not being full members 
of the political community, we are speaking about a different kind of 
experience -- and here opinions are all over the map. Some members of this 
list, for example, have argued that conservative Christians are outsiders 
today in contemporary, secular America. And I hear it a lot from the far 
Right and the far Left that Jews run the country and the media -- that we 
are the ultimate insiders. And what about minority Christian denominations 
like Christian Scientists, Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh-day Adventists. Are 
they insiders or outsiders?

The problem with Huntington's analysis is that he apparently buys into the 
idea that there should be religious insiders and outsiders in the United 
States. That's the kind of analysis that suggests that the conventional 
understanding of the Establishment Clause is to make outsiders feel like 
insiders. I suggest an alternative interpretation -- The Establishment 
Clause should prevent government from treating people like insiders or 
outsiders because of their religious beliefs. We are all American citizens 
of equal worth and status and deserving of equal respect from government. 
That shouldn't be controversial. Unfortunately, it is.

Alan Brownstein
UC Davis

At 04:17 PM 6/16/2004 -0500, you wrote:

>I take his point to be simply that religious outsiders may feel like 
>outsiders because they are outsiders.  A pretty uncontroversial point as 
>far as it goes, if not often said in polite company.  More interesting is 
>the tacit corollary, a challenge to the conventional legal wisdom that a 
>chief function of the EC is to make outsiders feel like insiders.
>
>Richard Menard
>Sidley Austin Brown & Wood
>202-736-8016 (office)
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>-----Original Message-----
>From: religionlaw-bounces at lists.ucla.edu <religionlaw-bounces at lists.ucla.edu>
>To: Law & Religion issues for Law Academics <religionlaw at lists.ucla.edu>
>Sent: Wed Jun 16 16:59:15 2004
>Subject: Re: Huntington in WSJ re "Under God"
>
>An odd piece. The author doesn't distinguish between being a minority and
>being an outsider. He doesn't distinguish between the experience of
>difference that arises when private individuals and institutions espouse
>beliefs and engage in practices that do not parallel one's own beliefs and
>practices and the experience of having the government explicitly endorse
>those differences. He doesn't distinguish between being a visitor or guest
>and being a an equal member of a community.  And he doesn't distinguish
>between is and ought -- the fact of religious demographics and normative or
>legal questions regarding how a society committed to liberty and equality
>should take account of those demographic differences.
>
>Most of the points Huntington makes were made decades ago by commentators
>responding to the school prayer decisions in the Sixties.
>
>Alan Brownstein
>UC Davis
>
>
>
>At 01:03 PM 6/16/2004 -0400, you wrote:
> >Long op-ed of likely interest to list members:
> > 
> <http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/?id=110005223>http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/?id=110005223 
>
> >
> >
> >Sent from the BlackBerry Wireless Handheld of:
> >
> >Anthony R. Picarello, Jr.
> >Vice President & General Counsel
> >The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty
> >1350 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 605
> >Washington, DC 20036-1735
> >Phone:  (202) 955-0095
> >Fax:  (202) 955-0090
> >
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