Calvin to Host Constitution Day Event

September 13, 2005 == MEDIA ADVISORY

Calvin College will host a Constitution Day event on Monday, September 19 at
3:30 pm in the Forum in its DeVos Communications Center.

Calvin will be one of thousands of colleges and universities across the
country marking Constitution Day as a result of a recent federal law that
requires colleges to present educational programs about the U.S. Constitution
every September 17 (when September 17 falls on a weekend, as it does this year,
institutions may hold events during the preceding or following weeks, according
to guidelines issued in May by the U.S. Education Department).

Stephen Monsma of the Paul B Henry Institute for the Study of Christianity and
Politics and Matthew Roberts of the college's political science department will
speak. Calvin political scientist William Stevenson will serve as moderator.
The event is free and open to all.

The topic of the conversation will be the religion clauses of the First
Amendment.

Monsma and Roberts plan to address, among other things, what the authors of
the First Amendment religion clauses originally meant by them, how they came to
be interpreted by the Supreme Court in the 1950s to the 1970s and how more
recent interpretations are moving them closer to what the authors intended by
them.

Says Monsma: "We could better think of the religions clauses creating a
fence of separation between church and state, not a wall of separation."

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education the requirement, designating
the anniversary of the signing of the Constitution as Constitution Day and
Citizenship Day, was inserted into a spending bill last fall by Sen. Robert C.
Byrd, a Democrat of West Virginia. It covers all educational institutions that
receive federal funds.

The new law does not provide federal funds to defray the cost of colleges'
programs and the Education Department does not plan to monitor compliance.

Corwin Smidt, director of the Henry Institute at Calvin, thinks the day has
merit, especially if schools see it as more than a rote exercise.

"For us," he says, "it's an opportunity to take a closer look at a particular
part of the Constitution and that's the religion clauses. As a Christian
college with an institute devoted to matters of Christianity and politics it's
certainly appropriate that we take this federally mandated event and shape it
to who we are and what we're all about. If schools take the opportunity
seriously it could have a nice ripple effect."

-end-
Received on Tue Sep 13 10:31:22 2005