Judge Kavanaugh, the wall of separation is worth defending
Jennifer Hawks, a native of Germantown, Tennessee, is the associate general counsel at the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty. Rev. Hawks preached at First on Sunday, July 19.
She has written the following letter to Supreme Court nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh.
September 4, 2018
Dear Judge Kavanaugh:
As a fellow attorney who – like you – takes my faith seriously and is actively engaged in my congregation, I am sure we have much in common. However, we seem to disagree about the robust way that the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, alongside the Free Exercise Clause, has protected religious liberty in our country and permitted religious dissenting groups – including Baptists and Catholics – to thrive.
The institutional separation of religion and government is a foundational aspect of our democracy, one deeply rooted in our shared history and experience.
In reviewing your record, I was disappointed to learn that you think the metaphor of a wall of separation is “wrong as a matter of law and history.” Admittedly, all metaphors are imperfect; yet, good metaphors are one of the best ways to conceptualize an abstract idea. As a religious liberty advocate, constitutional attorney and ordained Baptist minister, I urge you to reconsider the metaphor you’ve disparaged.
The wall metaphor was first articulated by Roger Williams, founder of Rhode Island and the First Baptist Church in America. He said that a wall was needed to protect the “garden of the Church” from the “wilderness of the world.”
