No denying the undeniable

On vouchers, the Supreme Court also took a step toward common sense | Joel Belz

If you think the Supreme Court's big decision on school vouchers last month was mostly about money for education, then think again.

A far more important issue even than the just distribution of educational dollars was at stake in the Cleveland voucher case. The principle the high court affirmed might be thought of this way: No American should be deprived of benefits other Americans get just because he or she thinks of those benefits in "religious" terms.

Some of us think of everything in life in "religious" terms. We remember the simple but profound instruction from the Apostle Paul: "So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." But for half a century and more, the direction of American society—and certainly the direction of the highest courts of the land—has been to say that in virtually every facet of life, public dollars could legitimately be spent to promote a doctrine of secularism, but never could be spent to promote the Apostle Paul's style of thinking.