Release date: Feb. 18, 2005

Emory's Witte Explores Myths of Church-State Separation

Contact:
Elaine Justice: 404-727-0643, elaine.justice@emory.edu
April Bogle: 404-712-8713, abogle@law.emory.edu

Legal historian John Witte Jr. will address the current debate over the separation of church and state in a lecture titled "Facts and Fictions of Separation of Church and State: There is No Wall" at noon Wednesday, March 2 at Emory Law School's Tull Auditorium, 1301 Clifton Road, Atlanta. For information, call 404-712-8710, or go to www.law.emory.edu/cisr.

Witte advocates what he calls "an integrative theory of the First Amendment" that balances separation of church and state with the freedom of both private and public expressions of religion. In his lecture, Witte will outline five distinct understandings of church-state separation taught by the American founders, and will offer his views of how contemporary officials and judges are both adhering to or rejecting these original understandings, for better or worse.

"In the past decade, a veritable cottage industry of important new books, articles and briefs has emerged devoted to the history of church-state separation. This new history is beginning to create its own distortions of historical record," says Witte, who serves as Jonas Robitscher Professor of Law and Ethics, director of the Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Religion (CISR) and director of the Law and Religion program at Emory.

"Separation of church and state must be viewed as a shield, not a sword, in the great struggle to achieve religious liberty for all," he says. "And concerns for separation must always be balanced with concerns for equally vital principles like freedom of conscience and exercise, religious equality and pluralism."

The lecture, part of the CISR's Family Forum Series, is the center's first McDonald Lecture, made possible by a $500,000 grant from the Alonzo L. McDonald Family Agape Foundation for a new five-year project on Christian jurisprudence. McDonald is a trustee emeritus of Emory. The project aims to create a series of new publications and public forums on fundamental issues at the intersection of law, religion and society.

The CISR, one of The Pew Charitable Trusts' Centers of Excellence, brings together diverse academic perspectives to explore the influence of religious traditions on law, politics, society and culture.

Emory University is known for its demanding academics, outstanding undergraduate college of arts and sciences, highly ranked professional schools and state-of-the-art research facilities. For more than a decade Emory has been named one of the country's top 25 national universities by U.S. News & World Report. In addition to its nine schools, the university encompasses The Carter Center, Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Emory Healthcare, a comprehensive metropolitan health care system.

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