La laïcité aux Etats-Unis

Secularism in the United States

        Hello everyone, I am going to speak about secularism in the United States. To begin, I would like to quote John F. Keennedy who said before his election « I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute (…). I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish (...) where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all ».

        Let's start with a definition of secularism. Then we will study the secularism in American official texts. And we will conclude with the American common set of values.

I –Definition of secularism 

it is the belief that religion should not be involved with the ordinary social and political life. It consists in 3 points :

• firstly, the separation of religion from state
• secondly, the protection of both believers and non believers
• and consequently, the protection of freedom of speech : believers and non believers people have the right to express their ideas publicly.

BUT American secularism is different from the French « laïcité » atheism : Atheism is a lack of belief in gods. Secularism simply ensures equality for beleivers and non believers in the society.

II – Secularism in American official texts

Separation of Church and state is one of the basic principles in the US.

To illustrate that, I will quote several fundamental texts and laws :

• in the US Constitution (written in 1787) the Founding Fathers clearly excluded any references to 'God'. The only reference to religion is a negative one : the Article VI « no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the US » 
• in the Bill of Rights (1791), « Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the exercise thereof ». Therefore, United States promote religious pluralism.

=> secular tradition. Nevertheless we can observe a common set of values that we could qualify as 'civil religion'.

III – Common set of values

For instance, the Pledge of Allegiance every morning in schools  contains the mention « under God ». But it does not refer to a precise God or religion...

I pledge allegiance to the Flag

of the United States of America,

and to the Republic for which it stands,

one Nation under God,

indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

An other example of this form of religion is that after being elected, the President of the US swears on the Bible.

And since 1956 « in God we trust » is the moto of the United States (first used during the Civil War in 1861>part of history).

Conclusion

To sum up, I would like to quote Ronald Reagan « Christmas can be celebrated in the school room with pine trees, tinsel and reindeers, but there must be no mention of the man whose birthday is being celebrated. One wonders how a teacher would answer if a student asked why it was called Christmas »

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