| Abstract: | In the United States, payment of public tax money to religious institutions— including religious educational institutions—has traditionally been subject to rigorous restraints. Interpreting the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, the Supreme Court has long held that state-mandated financial support of religious institutions tends to corrupt both religion and government, and is a violation of conscience for those who must fund religions with which they may bitterly disagree. Recently, advocates of state aid for religious education have attacked these principles, arguing that they fail to recognise the religious tolerance that American society has achieved. This article defends the traditional restraints. It argues that Americans in fact embrace a limited form of religious diversity, one that tends to be tolerant of familiar, mainstream religious groups, but is distinctly intolerant of others. Indeed, recent polls indicate that the equal funding of all religious groups—as the Constitution's principle of equality would demand—is highly controversial and supported by few Americans. It is argued that traditional restraints on public funding of religious institutions in the USA are rooted in a fundamental truth: that religious differences in pluralistic societies are often deep, divisive, and volatile, and that the financial enmeshment of religion and government serves neither religion, government, nor the atmosphere of tolerance upon which diverse societies depend. |
