Considering Religious Discourse and Debates Concerning American Public Education

Abstract

On another level, this dissertation is a case study of the groups themselves, and the specifics of contemporary debates over religion and public education in this country. That there are generalizations which can be made about this discourse cannot negate the very real difficulties that we face in the manifestations of religiously-motivated concerns over public education. This dissertation focuses on three of the many issues that are of contemporary importance in the educational discourse of these two groups and the country generally: privatization and vouchers; the confusion over the phrase "the separation of church and state"; and the status of our "civil religion" in terms of Christianity, forms of secular humanism, and our societal ideals. While I find no solutions to these difficult debates, this study makes apparent that both conservative Christians and left-liberals make reasonable arguments, even if the arguments are, at times, obscured by politically-motivated rhetoric.