Church and State in England: the Price of Establishment

Abstract

N THE DEBATE on Church and State relations in the United States, arguments are sometimes advanced that ignore or misinterpret the experience of other countries. If it is assumed that the American situation is totally unique, then no harm can come from disregarding the variety of ways in which Church-State problems have been resolved by other political systems. But when American solutions are advanced and are buttressed by propositions making a claim of universal validity, then the student of comparative politics has an obligation to examine that claim. A proposition that asserts such a general truth appears in the recent opinion of the U.S. Supreme Court, Engel v. Vitale. In delivering the opinion of the Court, Justice Black argues as follows: When the power, prestige and financial support of government is placed behind a particular religious belief, the indirect coercive pressure upon religious minorities to conform to the prevailing officially approved religion is plain.' And a little further on: Another purpose of the Establishment Clause rested upon an awareness of the historical fact that governmentally established religions and religious persecutions go hand in hand. 2 The invocation of historic fact is hardly enough to convince us that governmental support for one religion plainly leads to indirect coercive pressure on other religions. To the full history of persecutions on the part of established religions must be added the experience of today's constitutional democracies. Some of these democracies possess established religions and seemingly neither persecute nor coerce religious minorities. If what seems to be true can be demonstrated and the object of this paper is to do so in the case of England then Justice Black's fears cannot be justified on the grounds of results that stem inexorably from any and all systems of church establishment.