St. Isidore of Seville is hardly a household name, but it is a name that will be widely associated with the separation of church and state, and quite possibly the dissolution thereof to the detriment of both. That it should be Isidore, considered the last scholar of the ancient world by one 19th century historian, is both telling and deeply disturbing.
Isidore served as the archbishop of Seville during the height of the Visigoth reign on the Iberian Peninsula. He is primarily known for his attempt to sum up all modern knowledge in a single work, the Etymologiae, consisting of 20 volumes and used as scholarly textbooks for nearly 900 years.
Isidore’s greatest relevance today is his considerable contribution to the promotion of antisemitism as a fundamental doctrine of both church and state. Writing for the Jewish Quarterly Review in 1990, Bat-Sheva Albert notes that Isidore is obsessed with Judaism in his writings, always speaking of the Hebrew faith in a derogatory manner, accusing Jews of deicide (the killing of Christ) at least 19 times and associating them with the Antichrist. Isidore stoops so low as to claim that Jewish stupidity “is best represented by Abraham’s ass.”
Insults of an entire religious tradition is bad enough, but much worse are the laws that Isidore implemented through the Fourth Council of Toledo against people of Jewish faith that would be replicated many times over in the following centuries across the European continent. In several cases these laws became the basis for the infamous Nuremberg Laws of the Nazi regime leading to the Holocaust. These include the removal of Jewish children from their parents so that they could be raised in Christian homes, a ban on Jews holding public office and the requirement that any Jew who was coerced into converting to Christianity under the threat of death could not be allowed to revert to their Jewish faith. Isidore sought no less than to make Spain “Juden-frei,” as Hitler would attempt 1,300 years later in Germany.
Why is this ancient history relevant to separation of church and state in the U.S. today? A Catholic school in Oklahoma sought to become the first charter school funded by taxpayers to the tune of $2.7 million. The Supreme Court of Oklahoma ruled 6-2 against the school, stating “the state will be directly funding a religious school and encouraging students to attend it” in violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The school appealed the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court and lost in a split decision, 4-4, meaning the decision of the Oklahoma court stands. The name of the school? St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School.
The irony that St. Isidore, with his connections to the long tradition of antisemitic laws of the West, should now be associated with the possible deconstruction of Thomas Jefferson’s so-named “wall of separation” does not bode well for the future of religious freedom in this country. The loss of that wall, should it fall, will not be good for church or state. Antisemitism, we must never forget, is rooted in religious belief, and especially that of my tradition. Hence Christians have the greatest responsibility to never forget. How long, if that wall comes down, before Isidore’s laws become U.S. law?
Without separation of church and state, it is more than a possibility; history suggests that it is inevitable.
What is frightening about the SCOTUS split decision is that Justice Amy Coney Barrett, widely believed to be supportive of dismantling the wall of separation, recused herself. Odds are good that it is just a matter of time before a similar case comes to the court when she will not feel the need to do so again and religious schools will then become eligible to receive direct support from the state.
So here is the problem — once the spigot of tax dollars to fund religious schools is turned on, where does it stop? Who decides which religious beliefs and traditions are taught with our tax dollars? How will taxpayers feel about funding schools that teach faith healing, speaking in tongues, polytheism, polygamy, shamanism or Shari’a Law? And will the good teachers at St. Isidore teach their students that the Jews killed Jesus as their namesake taught?
God forbid, or better, may the Supreme Court do so, at least with taxpayer dollars.