Religious Symbols in Public Life

Not since 1954, when the Supreme Court, in Brown v. Board of Education, in effect ordered the desegregation of public schools, has a decision of the high tribunal aroused such widespread and impassioned public reaction as the recent outlawing of the Regents Prayer in the State of New York. But, whereas Brown v. Board of Education divided the nation into hostile and opposing parties, largely regional, one applauding, the other denouncing the Supreme Court, the verdict in the Engel case has met with instant and violent disapproval on the part of the American people. The Conference of Governors, in session at the time, unanimously (with Governor Rockefeller abstaining) protested against it; with few exceptions the newspapers of the nation condemned it; in Congress, it evoked fervent denunciation and proposals for a constitutional amendment to annul it; every survey of public opinion has revealed the great majority of the American people bewildered and outraged by it. Even the hitherto almost solid front of official Jewish opinion has been broken; many rabbis have come out publicly against the Supreme Court ruling, and therefore also against the ultra-separationism that has for years been a kind of conditioned-reflex response of Jewish institutional spokesmen in matters of church and state.

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WH

About the Author

Will Herberg

Not since 1954, when the Supreme Court, in Brown v. Board of Education, in effect ordered the desegregation of public schools, has a decision of the high tribunal aroused such widespread and impassioned public reaction as the recent outlawing of the Regents Prayer in the State of New York. But, whereas Brown v. Board of Education divided the nation into hostile and opposing parties, largely regional, one applauding, the other denouncing the Supreme Court, the verdict in the Engel case has met with instant and violent disapproval on the part of the American people. The Conference of Governors, in session at the time, unanimously (with Governor Rockefeller abstaining) protested against it; with few exceptions the newspapers of the nation condemned it; in Congress, it evoked fervent denunciation and proposals for a constitutional amendment to annul it; every survey of public opinion has revealed the great majority of the American people bewildered and outraged by it. Even the hitherto almost solid front of official Jewish opinion has been broken; many rabbis have come out publicly against the Supreme Court ruling, and therefore also against the ultra-separationism that has for years been a kind of conditioned-reflex response of Jewish institutional spokesmen in matters of church and state.

Strict Construction