According to a recent Salt Lake Tribune Poll, 79% of Utahns want to maintain the tradition of graduation prayer in school. And most people are under the impression that the majority opinion should rule. But should the majority rule? James Madison, author of our Constitution, was considered a strict separationist who respected both religious liberty and civil government equally. He had the following thoughts on majority rule and the appropriate relationship between church and state.

There is no maxim, in my opinion, which is more liable to be misapplied, and which therefore needs more education than the current one, that the interest of the majority is the political standard of right and wrong...it only reestablishes force as the measure of right

The civil government possesses the requisite stability and performs its functions with complete success by total separation of the church and state.

It is not a shadow of right in the general government to intermeddle with religion. Its least interference with it would be a most flagrant usurpation.

In some parts of our country there remains a strong bias toward an old error -- that without some sort of alliance or coalition between government and religion, neither can be duly supported ... Where there is a tendency to such a coalition, corruption influences both government and religion, and the danger cannot be too guarded against.

We are teaching the world the great truth, that governments do better without Kings and Nobles than with them. The merit will be doubled by the other lesson--that religion flourishes in greater purity without rather than with the aid of government.

Or religious sentiments are based on depositions and inclinations of the human mind and spirit. To apply state power and sanction in support of these kinds experiences is absurd.

Madison also spoke of "the tyranny of the majority" and felt they were to be feared. He also objected to those people who were enslaved by religious dogma.

Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unites it for every noble enterprise and every expanded prospect.

Religion is not infallible. It may become a motive to oppression as well as a restraint from injustice.

Even in its coolest state, religion has been more often a motive to oppression than a restraint from it. A majority, when united by interest or passion cannot be restrained from oppressing the minority.

Madison believed that in a democracy religious views should not be forced upon any citizen by the minority. And his remedy to prevent the majority from dominating was to make government responsible for protecting all groups.

How do you cure the "mischiefs of factions" in society? First you openly recognize and accept the existence of human diversity. Second, you control conflict by making government protect each interest or faction. Government can best do so by preventing any one group or party from invading the rights of any other. Government itself must remain neutral.

It is essential that government be derived from the great body of society, not from a favored class of it. The only remedy is to enlarge the sphere of varieties of people so the majority will not be likely to impose their common interest on the minority, and unite in pursuit of it.

The author of our Constitution saw a need for a large number of divided and balancing interests which would result in just decision-making. Madison was endowed with an innate and acquired sense of justice and he continually sought balance and harmony in his quest for good government. The Constitution reflects his sense of equilibrium for it gives the Federal government most of the power, but at the same time protects minority interests and individual freedoms in the Bill of Rights.

--Nancy Moore