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CSUN Lecture to Examine Separation of Church and State in U.S.

(NORTHRIDGE, Calif., May 7, 2007) — Attorney Edward Tabash, chair of the national legal committee for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, will discuss the growing influence of religion in American government on Thursday, May 24, at Cal State Northridge.

Tabash’s presentation, "The True Meaning of the Separation of Church and State," is part of the university’s new Richard W. Smith Lecture Series. It is scheduled to take place at 7 p.m. in the Whitsett Room of Sierra Hall on the west side of the campus at 18111 Nordhoff St. in Northridge.

The series is named for psychology professor Richard W. Smith, who retired in 2003. Smith, a two-time Distinguished Faulty Award winner and CSUN’s 1991-92 Professor of the Year, established the Richard W. Smith Endowment for Cultural Studies, which includes the lecture series, in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences last year as a way of encouraging students to think like cultural psychologists "from the perspectives of other people, other cultures."

Tabash is a constitutional lawyer based in Beverly Hills. He currently chairs the national legal committee for Americans United for Separation of Church and State and also chairs the First Amendment Task Force for the Center for Inquiry.

He has filed numerous briefs with the United State Supreme Court and the California Supreme Court, arguing for the separation of church and state. His position is that the founders of the United States intended a nation in which government cannot favor believers over non believers and in which no branch of government can treat anyone differently because of their religious beliefs or lack there of.

His talk will examine the true meaning of "separation of church and state" and give an overview of the founding of the First Amendment and current religious threats to modern freedoms in the United States.

For more information about the lecture, call the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at (818) 677-3317.