Studying Religion in Schools: An American Controversy Renewed in Trump's Time

US President Donald Trump adds the issue of school prayer to the list of contentious issues he raises with the approach of the 2020 elections, after he announced in a rally in early January this idea of ​​"protecting the rights of the first constitutional amendment for students and teachers to pray in our schools."

The White House schedule later this week included a plan to issue "new guidelines on constitutional prayer in schools."

This comes after a year that officials in six states, including Florida, have considered bills that allow Bible study in the classroom, and the president tweeted in January last year expressing his support for these laws.

Supporters of the proposed legislation insist that the Bible will be treated as a historical and literary source rather than a means of religious guidance, and critics of the idea oppose them for fear that their real goal is to teach Christianity by compulsion. At a time when Bible advocates believe it will help develop morals.

Efforts to return religion to public schools threaten to reignite one of the oldest debates about the separation of church and state, according to David Myslyn, associate professor of intellectual heritage studies at Temple University.

Ethical education
Dr. Myseline - As a historian who studied how American Protestants were involved in culture in general - the issue of religion in education was among the first social issues that divided Protestants into liberal and conservative conservative camps.

The moral development of children in the early 19th century - where many states created public school systems - was seen as a critical component of education, and public school advocates came from the background of some established Protestant denominations, according to the Myceline article of the Conversion website.

Since public school supporters had various religious beliefs, they agreed that educational institutions should not teach specific religious doctrines, yet they believed that schools should cultivate ethics based on what they believed to be general Christian principles.

The opposition came from the Roman Catholics, a growing segment of the population at the time, because of immigration. Many schools used the King James Protestant version of the Bible, which differed from the familiar translation of Catholicism. Moreover, reading the Bible directly without studying the teachings of the Church was a distinct Protestant practice, but even the Protestant agreement to read the Bible in public schools was short-lived.

The Protestants split
The decision of the Cincinnati School of Ohio in 1869 to end reading the Bible in the classroom as a factor exacerbated the division.

After long objecting to the study of the Bible in city schools, Catholics established their own schools, and by 1869 more than 12,000 children were enrolled out of Protestant religious influence.

Cincinnati officials - through the decision to end the reading of the Bible - expressed their hope that a large number of the Catholic population would return to public schools.

On the other hand, the Council’s decision angered conservative Protestants who protested the decision, saying it “threatens the moral and intellectual education of young people,” as researcher Stephen K. points out. Green detailed in his book on the Church State.

However, not all Protestants agreed to oppose the decision, it was supported by the liberals, and Birdsey Northrop, Connecticut's Secretary of Education who denounced what he called narrow-mindedness and intolerance "under the guise of sincerity in reading the Bible." He believed that studying the Bible in schools only strengthened the religious divide.

The prevailing view among liberal Protestants was that religious study should be voluntary, and that Bible reading should not be a mandatory part of public education. While liberal Protestants were ready to accept the idea of ​​ending religious education in the hope that education in general would not turn into a sectarian endeavor.

This liberal Protestant support helped ensure that the policy of the Cincinnati School Board remains valid despite conservative objections.

Conservative liberal division
Liberal Protestants, in the wake of what became known as the "Cincinnati Bible War", became more wary of studying the Bible in public schools, but nevertheless it continued to be read in some schools until the Supreme Court intervened and declared in 1963 that this practice was unconstitutional.

The reactions to this decision and the issue of school prayer raised a new division, and in 1964 a constitutional amendment was introduced to restore these practices, and liberal Protestant groups - such as the National Council of Churches - led opposition to this amendment.

As American historian Neil J. showed. Young, Conservative Protestants differ over the amendment of the constitution, however prominent conservative voices have urged the return of the practice of "reading the Bible to public schools."

New legislation
"Evangelical Literacy Laws" were enacted in more than half of the states since 2000, and Trump tweeted at the start of last year that "it is great to find many states offering Evangelical Literacy lessons to give students an option to study the Bible."

Yet Trump appears to be preparing to bring the controversial issue of "prayer in schools" back into the debate, according to the Website.

Given that this issue was among the first to cause division between liberals and religious conservatives in the United States, it is not surprising that it is brought to light in the moment when cultural tensions increase.