My usual year-in-review piece is a countdown of the top stories of the year in religious liberty. And to be sure, 2010 had its share of good ones, including the most recent news that President Barack Obama finally issued an executive order implementing many of the constitutional safeguards recommended by the Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
And there were other important developments:
The State Board of Education in Texas overhauled the Social Studies curriculum in a move that could impact history textbooks nationwide. The new guidelines elevate the role of Christianity in the story of America’s founding and suggest to students that “the separation of church and state” might be in contrast with the religious liberty protections provided by the First Amendment.
In separate 5-4 rulings, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a public university’s policy requiring all student groups to accept all students regardless of religious beliefs and ruled that the government did not act improperly when it transferred federal land containing a memorial cross to private owners.
Meanwhile, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unconstitutional the Utah Highway Patrol’s practice of memorializing fallen troopers with large roadside crosses bearing the UHP insignia.
The U.S. Senate confirmed as the newest Supreme Court Justice former Solicitor General Elena Kagan, who in her confirmation hearings attested to the difficulty of church-state questions. Unsuccessful candidates for the U.S. Senate in Nevada and Delaware went a different direction, arguing that the separation of church and state is nowhere guaranteed in the Constitution.
But one story dominated the religious liberty landscape this year in a way few have in recent memory. Public outcry over a proposed Islamic community center in New York City topped the headlines for weeks after detractors argued that its proximity to Ground Zero somehow made the proposal an offensive project that should not be allowed. Religious liberty concerns were front and center in the national conversation as Americans — who, according to polls, were largely against what came to be known as the “Ground Zero mosque” — debated the issue all across the country, leading to the airing of some truly disturbing, even outrageous sentiments. Sarah Palin referred to the proposal as a “provocation.” Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich argued that no more mosques should be built anywhere in America until churches and synagogues were allowed in Saudi Arabia.
Pervading the entire discussion was the mostly unspoken suggestion that the atrocities of September 11 were perpetrated by Islam itself rather than by a band of violent extremists who killed Americans of many faiths on that day.
Tags: Baptist Joint Committee, ground zero mosque, religious freedom, religious liberty
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