Curriculum
Religious Liberty: An American Experiment
Essential Question
What is the importance of religious liberty in America? How does the Constitution protect it and what is the reason it is significant today? Examine these questions with students so they can see the model religious liberty in America has become for other nations and is an ongoing experiment.
Curriculum resources
What role did John Winthrop and Roger Williams play in American history? Compare and contrast competing models of religious liberty in the Massachusetts Bay and Rhode Island colonies and assess the significance of each model to the American experiment in religious liberty.
How did leading Founders and religious dissenters contribute to religious liberty in America? Analyze primary source documents concerning the relationship between church and state, assess arguments for and against an established religion and a public role for religion in civic life and gain an appreciation for the philosophical and political process of the American experiment in religious liberty.
What did religious liberty mean from the colonial period to the Founding era? Assess legal and historical documents of toleration and/or liberty, analyze George Washington's 1790 Letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island, and gain an appreciation of Washington's letter as an example of the shift from religious toleration to religious liberty.
How has the Supreme Court's interpretation of the First Amendment changed in light of the Fourteenth Amendment? Analyze Thomas Jefferson's Letter to the Danbury Baptist Association, evaluate the Supreme Court's application of Jefferson's metaphor about the wall of separation between church and state, and assess how much weight should be given to Jefferson's letter in determining the constitutionality of state action with respect to religion.
How did the doctrine of incorporation broaden the application of the First Amendment? Examine facts of landmark Establishment Clause Supreme Court cases, evaluate arguments about the scope of the Establishment Clause, and assess the Supreme Court's interpretations of the First Amendment with respect to religion in public schools.
What were the Founders views of the relationship between Church and State? Examine quotes from the Founders and analyze excerpts from primary source documents regarding it.
How did religious toleration evolve to religious liberty in the United States? Examine the difference between the two, analyze documents concerning both, and evaluate the significance of this change.
What were the arguments made during the Supreme Court Case Burwell v. Hobby Lobby (2014)? Examine the facts of the case and analyze the arguments made on both sides through primary source documents and preceding cases. Assess the majority and minority decisions for the case.