An article from the Fall 2007 symposium issue of the West Virginia Law Review, Volume 110, on “The Religion Clauses in the 21st Century.” The symposium was convened by the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy and the West Virginia University College of Law on October April 12 and 13, 2007.

Steven D. Smith, Warren Distinguished Professor of Law, University of San Diego, wrote on “`Sectarianizing’ Civil Religion? A Comment on Gedicks and Hendrix.” His paper, as reveal by the title, is a response to arguments made by other symposium authors in the panel on “Government Religious Expression.” “According to Smith, it does not follow as a conceptual matter that the inclusive character of civil religion is illusory simply because some people may attach specific, sectarian meaning to public religious symbols like Ten Commandments monuments. This, Smith says, is just one more illustration of the truth that people often agree about generalities and disagree about specifics. Where this is so, usually both the agreement and the disagreement are real and should be acknowledged as such. Smith also sees little evidence that as an empirical matter people actually understand public religious symbols as coded endorsement of conservative Christian values. The real question, Smith says, is whether we want to undermine the legitimating and unifying force that public religious symbols may still possess when it is unclear what can replace their role as sources of political community.” - From Introduction by William P. Marshall, Vivian E. Hamilton and John E. Taylor.