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10 J. Legal Aspects Sport 129 (2000)
From the Gridiron to the United States Supreme Court: Defining the Boundaries of the First Amendment's Establishment Clause

handle is hein.journals/jlas10 and id is 137 raw text is: JLAS,10(3), 2000, 129-1 37 @2000 The Society for the Study of the Legal Aspects of Sport and Physical Activity From the Gridiron to the United States Supreme Court: Defining the boundaries of the First Amendment's Establishment Clause by F. King Alexander, Ph. D. Assistant Professor of Higher Education and Program Coordinator Department of Educational Organization and Leadership University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Ruth H. Alexander, Ed. D. Distinguished Professor of Exercise and Sport Sciences Department of Exercise and Sport Sciences University of Florida PO Box 118205 Gainesville, FL 32611-8205 (352) 392-0584 Fax (352) 392-5262 John Locke (1689) wrote that it is a funda- mental responsibility of democratic government to distinguish exactly the business of civil gov- ernment from that of religion, and to settle the just bounds that lie between one and the other(pg. 27). Though simplistic in prescription, Locke's revolutionary advice has proven to be one of the most difficult challenges facing both emerging and established democratic societies. Unfortunately, few governments have successful- ly distinguished the boundaries between civil and church authority. Conflict over religion and the role of religion in government remains at the forefront of policy concerns throughout the world. In Europe, the British government has recurrently attempted to hold together a fragile peace agreement between Catholics and Protestants over the fate of Northern Ireland, where political and religious violence between Christians has plagued the nation for nearly a century. In Yugoslavia, religious differences between Orthodox Christian Serbs and ethnic Albanian Muslims has been at the core of a vio- lent government effort to eradicate Muslim influ- ence and control over the Yugoslav province of Kosovo (Loeb & Smith, 1999). In Asia, religious leaders in India are attempting to legislate pro- Hindu state policies in a nation that has tradition- ally kept civil and religious authority separated (Dugger, 2000). In other nations such as Algeria, Egypt, Iran, and Indonesia, secular governments are struggling to prevent Muslim extremists from taking control and imposing strict Muslim law. Throughout the world, the reassertion of reli- gious authority and the rise of sectarianism have been the source of domestic violence and turmoil as religious groups wage war against each other hoping to influence governmental and societal affairs. Even in the United States, popular concerns regarding a perceived moral decline of its citi- zens has fueled a resurgence of the religious right who is threatening to tear down the wall of sep- arationi between church and state. It is desired by these religious advocates that a twenty-first century government will help bring Christianity Volume 10 e Number3 - Fall 2000 129

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