A "Judeo-Christian" Myth of Disestablishment: The Legacy of McGowan v. Maryland

Authors

  • Heather Miller Rubens

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11157/rsrr2-2-509

Keywords:

Judeo-Christian, Judaeo-Christian, McGowan v. Maryland, establishment, Sunday closing law

Abstract

While "Judeo-Christian" has been used to describe various aspects of American religion, there is scant discussion on how the term has affected the legal definition of religion in the United States. After briefly mapping the various ways the term has been used in Supreme Court opinions, I focus on the Court's very first use of the term in McGowan v. Maryland, unpacking the working definition of "Judeo-Christian" that is suggested, and tracing how "Judeo-Christian" has influenced the Court's understanding of religious establishment infringement. I argue that in the McGowan line of Court opinions, the term "Judeo-Christian," while intended to gesture towards religious inclusivity, works instead to support de facto Christian establishment.

Author Biography

Heather Miller Rubens

is a research scholar at the Institute for Christian & Jewish Studies in Baltimore, Maryland

Downloads

Published

2012-09-14

How to Cite

Rubens, H. M. (2012). A "Judeo-Christian" Myth of Disestablishment: The Legacy of McGowan v. Maryland. Relegere: Studies in Religion and Reception, 2(2), 305–18. https://doi.org/10.11157/rsrr2-2-509

Issue

Vol. 2 No. 2 (2012): Special Issue: Revisiting the "Judeo-Christian" Tradition

Section

Articles

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

    1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. The work may not be used for commercial purposes. The work may not be altered, transformed, or built upon.

    1. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

  1. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).