Source: Los Angeles Times

On July 3, 2002, the Los Angeles Times reported that last week's two U.S. court rulings concerning religion in the public square demonstrate the strong "disagreements over the relationship between God and public life in America... First, a federal appeals court ruled that religion could not be part of a daily ritual of public school life... The next day, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that religious schools could receive public school dollars... The Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, executive director of the Washington-based Interfaith Alliance... said many Christians who were once strong supporters of the separation of church and state have increasingly called for exceptions as religious diversity has grown in America... The nation's religious landscape has been reshaped by new waves of Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and other minority groups. Some conservative Christian leaders have denounced the growing diversity from the pulpit and called for a new reassertion of the nation's 'Judeo-Christian heritage' in public life."