No room for any gods in the legal dictionary

kw: book reviews, nonfiction, religion, law, sacred practices, tombstones, memorials

I picked up The Impossibility of Religious Freedom by Winnifred Fallers Sullivan, thinking it might be a discourse on conflicting religious traditions, or on the increasing persecution many religions are experiencing around the world. I found instead a narrowly-focused history of the civic and legal conflict between the city of Boca Raton, FL, and a number of citizens who had erected various memorials on their relatives' graves in the city cemetery. The memorials followed various traditions, Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish among them.

Though the practice was variously tolerated, overlooked, and even abetted at times, over decades, the cemetery rules clearly stated that memorials were to be confined to brass plates set into the ground, that could be mowed over. The city officials eventually decided to enforce the regulations, and ordered that the "nonconforming" displays be removed; they set a deadline, announcing that the displays would be removed by the city thereafter.

The ACLU and about a dozen of the citizens brought suit. It is nearly the only case in which the ACLU has brought a suit that is favorable to religious practice. Their nickname around here is "Anti-Christian Legal Union". Dr. Sullivan was an expert witness in the case, hired by the plaintiff's attorneys. The plaintiffs lost the initial case in 1999, it has been appealed, and to date, the matter is not resolved.

I confess I skimmed much of the material. Ms Sullivan has both JD and PhD, is an academic, and writes too drily for my taste, though her style is among the more facile...which means most academics write abysmally. Sad, but true.

Short version: the five experts on religion, three for the plaintiffs and two for the defendants, have impressive credentials and experience. The conflict in the courtroom resolved to a decision based on "organized" versus "personal" or "folk" religion. It was made clear that "personal" religion is really where the rubber hits the road. Our faith is what we do in our daily life, not the local edifice we happen to visit weekly.

Yet, the author made it clear that the judge disregarded all the experts' testimony and based his decision on his own understanding of religion. That made the appeal a slam-dunk decision. The author's thesis then is that this kind of treatment is typical: only "organized" religion has legal standing.

However, in these days of "sensitivity" and "respect", it is possible to attain at least tolerance, even legal tolerance, of one's personal religious practice. In the 1980s, I was one of several that set up a nonprofit corporation on behalf of our church. We then went through the application process for nonprofit—section 503(c)(3)—status, formally recognized by the IRS.

The crux of the matter was a statement in our bylaws (you gotta have 'em to file), that the church would meet in a location or locations as decided by the officers. I spent an hour on the phone with an IRS official who wanted us to state the church's address in the bylaws. I said I couldn't do that, that the church was the people, and wherever they happened to gather, that was a meeting of the church. At one point, I said, "This is a matter of our religious freedom. It is very important to us. To us, the real church cannot have an address." At that point, the gentleman thanked me, hung up, and shortly our registration was approved.

Just an aside to those who are bent out of shape, on either side, about the "prayer in school" issue. While we practice vocal, group prayer, we also learn to "pray at all times," which is solitary, silent or nearly so, and carried out in the midst of our daily activities. We train our children so.

Prayer has nothing to do with whether you stand, sit, kneel, walk, lie down, or are swimming. It has to do with Someone with whom you are communicating all the time. Groups of our young people do sometimes gather together, usually just before school starts, for a quick prayer group session. They are rather quiet. (And if several of us work in one location, we pray together on occasion) But, whenever the issue arises, our attitude (stated by parents; we don't burden kids with adult burdens) is, "There is exactly one way to stop me or my child from praying at any time, in any place. Kill us. If you are unwilling to go to such lengths, you'd do best to ignore us."

Some other time I'll get around to how one can "pray at every time in spirit."