Mere Creatures of the State?: Education, Religion and the Courts

by William B. Bay and William Bentley Ball

Book Overview

This is a fascinating, behind-the scenes account by a great lawyer who has devoted his life to the defense of religious freedom. Ball contends that the U.S. Supreme Court has ordered vast social... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1883357993
• ISBN13: 9781883357993
• Release Date: December 1994
• Publisher: Dumb Ox Books
• Length: 142 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Are We Men and Women with Fundamental Rights or Are We Whatever the Government Wants to be Regardles

The late William Bentley Ball's book titled MERE CREATURES OF THE STATE?is a thouhgtful book on what is meant by teaching, learning, ecucation, and what is fundamentally important. Ball examined court cases, including some that reach the US Supreme Court where many of these questions were fought in the legal system. The issues of some these cases involved parents' rights vs. the power of the state. These questions ultimately dealt with the question of who are actually the parents-the mother and father or school bureaucrats. Mr. Ball began this book with the legal rule that the state can only interfere with parental rights when there is cruelty, criminal activity, etc. Yet the cases that Mr. Ball examines dealt with were areas of parents' rights which had nothing to do with criminal activity, abuse, or anything that had a "compelling state interest." Mr. Ball began this study with a case which originated in Pennsylvania involving state assistance to Catholic schools for secular purposes and "the common good." The Pennsylvania law confomred to previous court decisions. Yet, when challenged, the US Supreme Court Justices showed inconsistency and a veiled prejudice against the Catholic Church. For example, in the 1972 Supreme Court case, Hugo Black constantly referred to Catholic nuns as the only teachers in Catholic schools ignoring the fact that many Catholic school teachers are not nuns and are laity. The suggestion that Catholic teachers would use the Rosary to teach counting was speculated upon without a shred of evidence. As an aside, this reviewer went to a Catholic university for graduate school, taught as a lay volunteer for a Catholic teaching order, and associated with dedicated Catholic teachers. Never was the Catholic Rosary ever used to teach counting. The Pennsylvania law was overturned by what is known as the Lemon Case. However this legal standard was mitagated later when a blind student at a Bible college was granted public funds for the handicapped, and another student who was deaf was permitted to have a state teacher to help him in a Catholic school. The Yoder Case (1972)involved Amish who kept their children "on the farm." This case involved the state authorities whose testimony, whether intentional or not, supported the case of Mr. Yoder and his family. The state education "experts," whom Mr Ball repeatedly called the Guardains, tried to make a case that if Amish children did not attend public school, they would become social and legal problems. Yet, the Green County, Wisconsin social welfare authorities testified that the Amish were not involved in drugs, alchohol, pre-maritial sex, abortion, etc. The police authorities also stated under oath that the Amish hardly ever appeared on arrest reports and that the Amish were lawful people who bothered no one. Mr. Ball got to a very important point in this case. The state authorities tried to argue that Amish people are unfit for a technilogical society. Yet as Mr. Ball stated