Answer & Explanation:Compose an essay of at least 2000 words but no
more than 3000 words (not including your references list) in which you discuss
in depth the following topic, making sure to offer your critical thinking
opinions (opinions plus reasons and evidence) of relevant ideas from the Weeks
1-4 readings wherever possible:
Since its 1947 decision in Everson v. Board of Education (with an
opinion written by Justice Hugo Black), the Supreme Court has further
considered and limited the active role that religion or religious institutions
can play in the public sphere—that is, on government property. In your essay,
present an argument for one of the two following positions:
(a) Faith groups and institutions should be allowed to form
political parties and they should attempt to gain influence in the workings of
government for their views and values by entering the realm of political
discourse and attempting to elect their own politicians.
(b) Faith groups and institutions should not be allowed to
form political parties and they should not attempt to gain influence in the
workings of government for their views and values by entering the realm of
political discourse and attempting to elect their own politicians
.
Note: In answering these questions, you will specifically want to
reference and critique, wherever possible, relevant ideas from the Week 1 readings
on values; Plato, Aristotle, Locke, Jefferson, from Week 2; the Week 3 readings
on interpretation of the Constitution, and the Week 4 readings listed above.
You may also bring in up to two additional sources that you have found
in your own research of the topic.
Week 4 Required
Readings
The Rise and Fall of Puritanism: The Attempt to Create an American
Theocracy:
John Winthrop: Selections from “A Model of Christian Charity” (1630)
Jonathan Edwards: The Great Awakening: “Sinners in the Hands of
an Angry God” (1741)
Benjamin Franklin: “A Witch Trial at Mount Holly” (1730; note:
this is a work of satire—fiction—not of journalism)
Separation
of Church and State:
Michael Novak: “Faith and the American Founding”
Marci Hamilton:
“The Ten Commandments and American Law: Why Some Christians’ Claims to Legal
Hegemony Are Not Consistent with the Historical Record” (Sept. 11, 2003)
Thomas Jefferson: Letter to the Danbury Baptists, Jan. 1, 1802
Daniel Dreisbach: “The Mythical ‘Wall of Separation’”
Christopher Clausen: “America’s Design for Tolerance” (2007)