ction is to advance or endorse religion; and (3) whether the government's policy or practice fosters an excessive entanglement between government and religion. In 1992 the case of Lee v. Weisman, 503 U.S. 577, came up with another test, the Coercion Test, to determine if any pressure is applied to force or coerce individuals to participate in religious practices. The Court has defined that unconstitutional coercion occurs when the government directs a formal religious exercise in such a way as to force the participation of individuals who object to the exercise. Finally, in the Endorsement test, drawing from the 1989 case of Allegheny County v. ACLU, 492 U.S. 573, a government action is examined to see if it unconstitutionally endorses religion by conveying a message that a religion is favored, preferred, or promoted over other beliefs. This wall of separation between Church and State is not quite as effective as it perhaps should be.One of the most widely publicized instances of the separation between Church and State controversy is prayer in public schools. As recently as 200 years ago, "education on all levels in Europe and the Americas was almost entirely church controlled." For around the first 50 years of its existence, public school was able to engage in moral indoctrination simply because the many different religious and moral characteristics of immigrants, that would come to shape America, were not yet an issue. After the surge of immigrants into America in the latter half of the 19th century, the public schools underwent many changes. Various religious denominations were unable to compromise on certain issues. For example, Christians and Jews debated how they could communicate their common ethical heritage, without betraying their profound disagreements on Jesus Christ.In 1884, 1890, 1898, 1904, and 1904 again, the Supreme Court's of Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Kansas, and Kentucky respectively held that Bible reading,...
