Most Favor More Freedom for Students’ Faith
By Joseph C. DeCaro, Worthy News U.S. Correspondent
WASHINGTON, D.C. (Worthy News)– A majority of Americans say public school students should have more freedom to express their religious faith in school.
That was the conclusion from the latest State of the First Amendment poll by the First Amendment Center, a national survey conducted between July 28 and Aug. 6. It revealed that 75 percent of those polled said students should be able to address their faith at public school events and that 80 percent think student speakers should be allowed to offer prayer during those events.
About two-thirds of respondents agreed that the First Amendment required a separation of church and state, even though that phrase is not found in the Bill of Rights, or anywhere in the entire U.S. Constitution.
Seventy-six percent support a National Day of Prayer, which was especially popular among Protestants and Catholics; 53 percent said the Constitution establishes a Christian nation, and 60 percent of Protestants said a candidate’s affiliation was important, as compared to 44 percent of Catholics.
“Clearly most Americans want to keep government out of religion, said Ken Paulson, president of the First Amendment Center, “but they don’t see an expression of faith by a student at a public school event as a violation of the separation of church and state. Public school students actually enjoy quite a bit of religious freedom on school grounds, but high-profile battles over commencement ceremonies and other school wide events have left the opposite impression.”
The survey revealed that 61 percent of respondents said the freedom to worship “applies to all religious groups regardless of how extreme their views are,” while 28 percent said that freedom never was intended to apply to groups “most people would consider fringe or extreme.”
“Americans clearly defend individual expression of religious views,” said Gene Policinski, vice president of the First Amendment Center, “but fewer are willing to extend the First Amendment’s protection to faiths that they see as far removed from their own. I’m troubled that nearly three in 10 people in a nation founded in part by ancestors who fled countries where their faiths at the time were viewed as ‘fringe or extreme’ are not willing to defend religious liberty for other faiths in similar circumstances today.”
The nationwide telephone survey of (only) 1,003 adults by the national polling firm, The Pert Group, ran from July 28 to Aug. 6.
The First Amendment Center supports the First Amendment and builds understanding of its core freedoms through education, information and entertainment; the Center serves as a forum for the study and exploration of free-expression issues, including freedom of speech, of the press and of religion, and the rights to assemble and to petition the government.
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