During his recent visit to TV preacher Pat Robertson’s Regent University, Rudy Giuliani also sat down with Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network to discuss some of the issues on the minds of Christian conservatives.
CBN: How do you feel about some of these previous Supreme Court rulings, way back in the day, about school prayer in public schools and the fact that the Supreme Court ruled that unconstitutional?
GIULIANI: I thought some of them went too far in the direction of over-emphasizing separation of church and state, and underemphasizing the free exercise of religion.
I suppose that’s about what we should expect from a GOP candidate trying desperately to appeal to a far-right base with which he agrees on very little. Pandering can be an ugly game.
But in this case, it’s the kind of response that deserves a little follow-up — in Giuliani’s opinion, which Supreme Court rulings on school prayer went too far?
CBN, in asking the question, referred to school prayer cases from “way back in the day.” There are two seminal cases on the issue: Engel v. Vitale in 1962 and Abington v. Schempp in 1963. In Engel, the Court said it was unconstitutional for a public school district to write its own official prayer for use in classrooms. Students could still pray on their own, but the state had to stay out of it.
In Abington, the Court said it was unconstitutional for a public school to mandate school-sponsored Bible readings in classrooms. Students could still read scripture on their own, but the state couldn’t interfere.
Giuliani, an accomplished attorney, told Pat Robertson’s television network that “some” of these rulings went “too far.” Maybe some enterprising political reporter could ask the former mayor a simple question: which one?
And if there’s time for a follow-up, maybe the reporter might ask which of the two he might like to see overturned — the one about state-sponsored prayer for children in diverse public schools, or the one about state-mandated Bible reading?
Giuliani was a little vague with CBN. I’m sure he’d welcome a chance to clarify his position.