The conscience clause was an important term in education in England throughout much of the 19th century. In this context, it referred to permitting parents of schoolchildren to withdraw them from Church of England worship services or other school activities that violated the parents' religious principles.
The conscience clause is part of the Elementary Education Act 1870 (33 & 34 Vict. c. 75), which established the neutrality and indifference of the state regarding religious instruction. [1] It was introduced and applied to all State-aided schools to protect the religious liberties of minorities, who were viewed as religious dissidents. [2] The law, which was not applicable to Scotland and Ireland stated that "no religious catechism or religious formularity which is distinctive of any particular denomination shall be taught in the school." [3] The conscience clause did not exempt students from Saturday classes or any other day when their religious creed require attendance. [4] d and that it is composed of diverse interests and influences so it is not bound by the principles of the Church. [5]
Objections to the introduction of the "conscience clause" included those made by the Church of Missionary Society, a section of the Church of England, arguing that this rule will force them to close their schools. [6] Critics refer to it as a "secular intrusion", claiming that it turns education into mere instruction. [5]
In Scotland, a similar law was passed in 1872. [3] The inclusion of the conscientious clause was a result of a series of public discussions that resulted in the adoption of Bible instruction in primary education while respecting the conscientious objections of parents and guardians. [7]
Similar policy was adopted in some British colonies such as the Leeward Islands, which introduced its own Education Act in 1890. This law reinforced governmental participation in governance of schools that receive public funding but also allowed learners invoking the conscience clause without suffering discrimination in their lessons. [8]
In India, the term became the subject of debate in 1882 after it was raised by a Commission led by K.T. Telang, which recommended that private schools that receive grants from the government adopt it. [9] It was only on 1904 when the conscientious clause was first applied in Travancore. [9]
A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of conscience or religion. The term has also been extended to objecting to working for the military–industrial complex due to a crisis of conscience. In some countries, conscientious objectors are assigned to an alternative civilian service as a substitute for conscription or military service.
Nonconformists were Protestant Christians who did not "conform" to the governance and usages of the state church in England, and in Wales until 1914, the Church of England.
The separation of church and state is a philosophical and jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the state. Conceptually, the term refers to the creation of a secular state and to disestablishment, the changing of an existing, formal relationship between the church and the state. Although the concept is older, the exact phrase "separation of church and state" is derived from "wall of separation between church and state", a term coined by Thomas Jefferson. The concept was promoted by Enlightenment philosophers such as John Locke.
Conscience is a cognitive process that elicits emotion and rational associations based on an individual's moral philosophy or value system. Conscience stands in contrast to elicited emotion or thought due to associations based on immediate sensory perceptions and reflexive responses, as in sympathetic central nervous system responses. In common terms, conscience is often described as leading to feelings of remorse when a person commits an act that conflicts with their moral values. The extent to which conscience informs moral judgment before an action and whether such moral judgments are or should be based on reason has occasioned debate through much of modern history between theories of basics in ethic of human life in juxtaposition to the theories of romanticism and other reactionary movements after the end of the Middle Ages.
John Frederick Denison Maurice was an English Anglican theologian, a prolific author, and one of the founders of Christian socialism. Since the Second World War, interest in Maurice has expanded.
William George Ward was an English theologian and mathematician. A Roman Catholic convert, his career illustrates the development of religious opinion at a time of crisis in the history of English religious thought.
School prayer, in the context of religious liberty, is state-sanctioned or mandatory prayer by students in public schools. Depending on the country and the type of school, state-sponsored prayer may be required, permitted, or prohibited. The United Kingdom also requires daily worship by law, but does not enforce it. Countries which prohibit or limit school prayer often differ in their reasons for doing so. In the United States, school prayer cannot be required of students in accordance with the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. This is generally rigorously applied in public schools; the Establishment Clause does not prevent prayer in private schools that have no public funding. In Canada, school-sponsored prayer is disallowed under the concept of freedom of conscience as outlined in the Canadian Charter on Rights & Fundamental Freedoms. School-sponsored prayer is disallowed in France as a byproduct of its status as a secular nation.
The National Secular Society (NSS) is a British campaigning organisation that promotes secularism and the separation of church and state. It holds that no one should gain advantage or disadvantage because of their religion or lack of it. It was founded by Charles Bradlaugh in 1866.
Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421 (1962), was a landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court ruled that it is unconstitutional for state officials to compose an official school prayer and encourage its recitation in public schools, due to violation of the First Amendment. The ruling has been the subject of intense debate.
Freedom of conscience is the freedom of an individual to act upon their moral beliefs. In particular, it often refers to the freedom to not do something one is normally obliged, ordered or expected to do. An individual exercising this freedom may be called a conscientious objector.
"Separation of church and state" is a metaphor paraphrased from Thomas Jefferson and used by others in discussions regarding the Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution which reads: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."
A Christian school is a religious school run on Christian principles or by a Christian organization.
Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S. 1 (1947), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that applied the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to state law. Before this decision, the clause, which states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion", imposed limits only on the federal government, while many states continued to grant certain religious denominations legislative or effective privileges.
Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390 (1923), was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that held that the "Siman Act", a 1919 Nebraska law prohibiting the use of minority languages as the medium of instruction in the schools, violated the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Siman Act had been passed during World War I, as part of the English only movement and during a time of pervasive anti-German sentiment, atrocity propaganda, and spy scare paranoia promoted by the news media in the United States. The Supreme Court invalidated the Siman Act and stated that that the liberties granted by the Fourteenth Amendment apply just as much to minority language speakers.
In United States law, the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, together with that Amendment's Free Exercise Clause, form the constitutional right of freedom of religion. The relevant constitutional text is:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion...
Conscience clauses are legal clauses attached to laws in some parts of the United States and other countries which permit pharmacists, physicians, and/or other providers of health care not to provide certain medical services for reasons of religion or conscience. It can also involve parents withholding consenting for particular treatments for their children.
The Elementary Education Act 1870, commonly known as Forster's Education Act, set the framework for schooling of all children between the ages of 5 and 12 in England and Wales. It established local education authorities with defined powers, authorized public money to improve existing schools, and tried to frame conditions attached to this aid so as to earn the goodwill of managers. It has long been seen as a milestone in educational development, but recent commentators have stressed that it brought neither free nor compulsory education, and its importance has thus tended to be diminished rather than increased.
John Gellibrand Hubbard, 1st Baron Addington PC, was a City of London financier and a Conservative Party politician.
A Christian state is a country that recognizes a form of Christianity as its official religion and often has a state church, which is a Christian denomination that supports the government and is supported by the government.
Accommodationism in the United States is a judicial interpretation of accommodationism which espouses that "the government may support or endorse religious establishments as long as it treats all religions equally and does not show preferential treatment." Accommodationists espouse the view that "religious individuals, and/or religious entities may be accommodated by government in regard to such things as free exercise rights, access to government programs and facilities, and religious expression."
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