Posted by A drafting committee consisting of 28 members has issued a document that describes the way the current law views religious expression in the United States. This committee included Richard Land, who is the Southern Baptist church-state leader. According to Melissa Rogers, director of the Wake Forest University Divinity School’s Center for Religion and Public Affairs, this document is the first to discuss the subject of religion in American public life to this degree. It is considered to be the most thorough statement regarding the law’s status when it comes to American church-state issues that has ever been produced.
This document contains 32 pages and was released on January 12, 2010. The drafters addressed such subjects as holding religious meetings on government property, displaying religious symbols on government property, the extent of the involvement of religious organizations in public policy and politics, and the issues of practicing religion in the workplace.
In this document, the drafters interpret the term “private speech” to mean that everyone has the right to practice and promote their beliefs at home, in places of worship, and in public places such as street corners, open meetings, parks, airwaves, and other places depending on certain limits. These limits are the same ones that govern other types of speech.
While there was representation of the Protestants, Jewish, and Catholics on this committee, among the several that were not included are Americans United for Separation of Church and States, the American Civil Liberties Union, and People for the American Way.
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Thank you for your story on this publication. It can be found here: http://divinity.wfu.edu/rpa/index.html
One correction: As the publication notes, members of the drafting committee include former staff of the ACLU (Jeremy Gunn) and People for the American Way (Judith Schaeffer). Gunn and Schaeffer were employed by the ACLU and PFAW when the project began. By the time we finished our work (we worked on the project for several years), they had accepted other jobs.
And, although this was not noted in the publication, another drafter, Professor Steven Green of Willamette Law School, previously worked for Americans United for Separation of Church and State. I would not expect you to know that, but I thought it worth mentioning now given the comments in your story.
As the publication says, the titles and organizational affiliations of all of the drafters were listed for identification purposes only.
I would like to ask you to correct your story to note that former staff of the ACLU and PFAW are listed as members of the drafting committee in the publication.
Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions. Thanks again for your interest in our work.
Sincerely,
Melissa Rogers
Director, Center for Religion and Public Affairs, Wake Forest University Divinity School