ive months after the terrorist plane attacks in New York and Washington, efforts to promote a revival of faith by posting sectarian slogans and promoting other religious symbols continue in state legislatures throughout the country.

   September 11 precipitated a temporary surge in church attendance as well as appeals by political leaders and clergy for the nation to invoke religion as a symbol of national unity. President Bush rallied Americans to prayer. And throughout the country, especially at the state and local level, a slew of new bills were introduced mandating everything from posting the religionized national motto, "In God We Trust," to prominently displaying the Ten Commandments and other sectarian symbols on public property. Other issues have cropped up as well, including Bible history classes in public schools to the teaching of creationism as an "alternative" to scientific evolution.

   ¶    The Mississippi-based American Family Association has launched an aggressive campaign to have "In God We Trust" posted in classrooms and public buildings. Bills are now in over a dozen state legislatures, including Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Oklahoma.

   Last week, Indiana moved a step closer to mandating display of the motto. The state Senate passed Bill 89 which requires that the slogan be posted in every public schools classroom. Micah Clark of the Indiana AFA said that children are already familiar with the phrase since it appears on money, and cited the terrorist attacks as a rationale for the legislation.

   "I think it's important because a time of national tragedy which we just experienced (September 11), it's good to remind kids that there is an entity out there bigger than themselves..."

   Despite the calls from religious leaders that the nation undergo a revival, Clark cagily denied that SB 89 had anything to do with sectarianism or belief. "It's not necessarily a religious statement, as the opponents .. and civil libertarians say. There have been numerous court cases which have found that the national motto serves a secular purpose. They believe it's patriotic, it gives people hope for the future, and it's a sentiment of our religious heritage in America which can't be denied."

   The AFA's campaign to have the motto displayed in classrooms and public venues was launched in May, 2001. Mississippi immediately passed a compliant law sponsored by state Sen. Allen Nunnelee. In hopes of skirting constitutional issues, a private printer from Pearl, Mississippi produced posters of the "In God We Trust" motto for the state's 32,000 public school classrooms, auditoriums and cafeterias. A suit was filed when a county treasurer displayed the broadside in her office, but U.S. District Judge Sam A. Crow dismissed the complaint, charging that it was "patently frivolous without any basis in law."

   ¶    In Utah, American Atheists State Director Mike Rivers, joined by the Salt Lake Valley Atheists, has been battling H.B. 79, the "School Display of Motto of the United States" bill. The local AFA affiliate is pushing the legislation, introduced by Rep. Richard Siddoway (R-Bountiful). The measure would require display of the motto in all classrooms, auditoriums and cafeterias in each of Utah's 803 public schools.

   Ironically, polls conducted by the Ogden Standard-Examiner and the Provo Daily Herald show that Utahans are not supporting the legislation in huge numbers. The Ogden poll reflected that 57.8% "strongly disagree" with Siddoway's bill, with only 25.5% supporting it. The survey conducted by the Herald asked: "Should "In God We Trust" be posted in classrooms. Over sixty percent responded, "No, just the alphabet," with 6.84% supporting local option and 32.5% agreeing, "Yes. It's the national motto."

   "Siddoway and the American Family Association only wish to force their particular deity by legislation into the school system," said Mr. Rivers. "The matter of one's personal religious belief is a private one and should remain so. Whether a person believes in any particular deity or no deity at all has no impact on the patriotism shared by that person."

   The measure has cleared the Utah House and is now in the state senate. The Education Standing Committee has not scheduled public hearings on the legislation.

   ¶    In Florida, the state House has passed a measure permitting organized student prayer at graduations and non-required student assemblies. Sponsored by Rep. Wilbert "Tee" Holloway, the bill would permit invocations, benedictions or other "inspirational messages" delivered by a student, usually chosen by election.

   The 88-28 vote was intended to skirt at least part of a June, 2000 U.S. Supreme Court case which declared student led prayer at high school athletic events to be unconstitutional. The justices did not rule on a related contentious issue involving similar practices at events like assemblies and graduation ceremonies. In previous decisions, the high court has struck down school prayer when led by teachers and administrators, along with clergy led invocations at graduation ceremonies.

   Incredibly, the Holloway bill (HB 667) is defended by its author as "not intended to advance or endorse any religious belief." A similar measure, SB 572 is now in the Florida State Senate.

   ¶    In Arizona, American Atheists and other civil liberties groups have been fighting bills that would expand the role of religion in the public schools. HB 2311 has been defeated; it would have permitted wider display of several types of religious materials, including the religionized national motto. Another measure, HB 2493, uses boilerplate language and requires posting of a 14" x 11" poster declaring "In God We Trust" in all public school classrooms, hallways and cafeterias.

   AA State Director Monty Gaither and Arizona Atheist Newsletter Editor Bart Meltzer have both spoken out against the legislation.

   Yesterday, the State House Education Committee defeated HB 2311 in a 5-5 deadlock vote. That could affect any decision to bring up HB 2493 (which requires the posting of "In God We Trust"), although ACLU State Executive Director Eleanor Eisenberg notes that the Arizona legislature has a "history of taking bad bills that die in committee."

   ¶    In Virginia, the House of Delegates has approved a measure that would permit public schools to display copies of the Ten Commandments.

   The bill requires the state Board of Education to write "guidelines" for Decalogue display, including the requirement that they be presented along with text from three secular documents -- the First Amendment, the Declaration of Independence and the Virginia Constitution.

   Delegate L. Scott Lingamfelter told reporters that he went to considerable length to craft legislation that would pass judicial scrutiny. Indeed, the original bill called for only display of the Commandments, and subsequent amendment added other historical texts.

   Even so, delegate William K. Barlow said that the measure violates the constitutional separation of church and state. "The basic idea is that we as a government will not promote any particular religion," he said. "This bill promotes a specific belief."

   ¶    In Ohio, the battles over displaying religious texts in schools have been overshadowed by the old chestnut of evolution. Opponents of Darwin are hoping to introduce so-called "intelligent design" into school curriculums, and will make their case next month during a hearing in front of the Ohio Board of Education.

   Supporters of intelligent design or "ID" appropriate the language of science, and may even acknowledge that the universe is billions of years old, not thousands as previous opponents of evolution believe. They dispute the notion, though, that life arose as the result of natural process; along they way, a deity intervened to impose order.

   Ohio ID supporters hope to amend state education guidelines and have intelligent design presented in public schools along with Darwinian evolution.

   "It's a shrouded way of bringing religion into the schools," state education board member Martha W. Wise told the New York Times. "Personally, I'm a creationist: I believe in God the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth... (but) I think intelligent design is a theology, and it belongs in another curriculum."

   Scientists, teachers and other opponents of the Ohio ID movement fear that if the board allows intelligent design to be taught as an "alternative" in the public schools, their state will become a national laughingstock like Kansas did in 1999. There, creationists and ID supporters took succeeded in deleting evolution from state teaching guidelines.

   "There would be a major revolt in Ohio if that (ID) were accepted," warned Lynn E. Elfner, chief executive of the Ohio Academy of Science. He added that intelligent design was a political movement using scientific vocabulary and "the old seductive argument" of presenting both sides of an issue.

   "But it doesn't play well in science if the other side is not a science," he warned.

   According to the Columbus Dispatch newspaper, Gov. Bob Taft is working hard to sidestep the evolution-ID controversy. University of Akron political scientist John Green said the governor's position was "a classic political problem of a very vocal minority.

   "Taft probably cannot come out against this issue because one element of the Republican Party is for this... The first thing you try to do is try and avoid the issue and put it off until after the election.

   "If you can't do that," added Green, "you try and take some moderate position, but if push comes to shove, you have to take a position."

   ¶    Creationism has also surfaced as an issue in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania. Last month, the West Green School Board allowed a creation science advocate to address students during a school assembly. According to the Observer-Reporter newspaper, the board approved the voluntary gathering "after several students and a local minister spoke in favor of it ..."

   Voluntary attendance was not a good reason to allow the assembly, though, said Vic Walczak, executive director of the Pittsburgh chapter of the ACLU.

   "By sponsoring and presenting this religious presentation, the school is sending the message that those who agree (to participate) are part of the favored religion and those who don't are outsiders."

   Walczak compared the situation with the assembly with "voluntary" prayer -- that only those who want to pray will have to pray.

   ¶    In Tennessee, a judge has ended a 51-year tradition of Bible class instruction in Rhea County public schools. The 30-minute sessions were held every week for nearly 800 youngsters in kindergarten through fifth grade.

   "Parental consent was not required and students were allowed to participate in alternative activities if they objected to the classes," noted an Associated Press dispatch. School administrators defended the practice as a form of "character education."

   U.S. District Judge Allan Edgar ruled that the government "may not teach, or allow the teaching of a distinct religious viewpoint."

[text only]