The Case of Antigone – Laws of the State vs. the Laws of Religion

Susan Sullivan – Truman High School

 

Antigone with her Father Oedipus

[Painting by E. Teschendorff, 1823-?]

 

 

Introduction

You are a member of the Athenian State Commission of Religious vs. State Laws.  Your mission is to study the issues presented by the case of Antigone as it relates to the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.  If Creon had brought Antigone to trial in the US in 2001, how would the First Amendment apply?  You will be using a Web Quest to uncover important information to guide the Athenian State in deciding how they might address similar cases in the future.  (Please note that the word “state” as used in the web quest refers to any governmental body, i.e. Federal Government, State Government, or Local Government.)

 

The Acropolis in Ancient Athens

[Hellenic Ministry of Culture]

 

Task

This will be a two-part web quest:

 

Part 1.          Explore several web sites to gather information on the conflict between religious laws and state laws and how these conflicts have been resolved.

Part 2.        Write a recommendation to the Athenian State Government on how it should have handled the trial of Antigone and cases similar to it in the future.

 

 

Process

The First Amendment to the US Constitution covers many basic freedoms related to the peoples’ right to free expression, including the freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of religion.  By visiting several web sites, you will explore some of the complexities of how this ‘freedom of religion’ has been interpreted by the courts.

 

PART 1 – Web Quest Research

 

By researching some of the pivotal Supreme Court cases, you should be able to develop some convincing arguments for your recommendations to the Athenian State Government on how it should have handled the trial of Antigone.

 

For each of the steps below, you should read the questions, visit the web site, take notes in order to answer the questions (I will be reviewing your answers to these questions), and record all information you feel will help you to develop your recommendations.

 

Step A.

In order to understand the importance of religious freedom in the world today, you should look at how our current views have changed over the years.  There is a great deal of historical information in this web site, but you should focus primarily on the trends and changes that have taken place in the last 50 to 60 years.

 

¨      What world event moved the world to proclaim human and religious rights as universal?

 

¨      What has been the recent trend regarding religious freedom?

 

http://www.csmonitor.com/cgi-bin/getasciiarchive?script/1999/12/16/p11s1.txt

 

Step B.

This site gives you an overview of “religious liberty as defined by U.S. Supreme Court cases.”  The most important section for you is the discussion of the “Free Exercise Claus” which you will find about half way into the site.

 

¨      In what ways has the Supreme Court been consistent or inconsistent in allowing people to carry out actions in the name of their religion when these actions may, in fact, conflict with governmental regulations or laws?

 

¨      What do you feel the Supreme Court’s rulings say about how the Athenian State Government handled the trial of Antigone?

 

http://w3.trib.com/FACT/1st.religion.html

 

Step C. 

One clear example where the US Supreme Court upheld the separation of religious practice from Government (state) regulation is the case of Wisconsin v. Yoder.  This case gives you the opportunity to examine in depth and develop arguments on one or both sides of the case.  Please complete as much of the material as you can.  Of greatest relevance to your Antigone web quest (the sections you must review) are The Facts of the Case, the Arguments, the Precedents, and the Decision. 

 

Important: When you go to the website through the link below, click on the CompuLEGAL link to review the case material.

 

Here are some things to consider with regard to this case:

¨      How does the central religious freedom issue in this case (education) compare to the central issue (place of burial) in Antigone?

 

¨      What element of the Decision in the Yoder case will be most useful to you as you frame your recommendations for the Athenian State government?

 

http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/rel/rel5.html

 

Step D. 

Though the First Amendment to the US Constitution is very clear about barring governmental (state) regulation of religious beliefs, there are related issues in which the Supreme Court has been inconsistent. 

 

Again, this is an extensive site.  You can, however, find most of what you need under the first two sections titled “Free Exercise of Religion” and “The Belief-Conduct Distinction.”

                                                                                                       

¨      With regard to what issues (related to the peoples’ right of free religious expression) has the Supreme Court given inconsistent rulings?

 

¨      How does this inconsistency relate to the issue presented in Antigone?

 

http://members.tripod.com/~candst/crs1sta5.htm#20

 

PART 2 – Recommendations to the Athenian State government

 

Now you need to collect the ideas that you have uncovered in your research and develop your recommendations.  Your recommendations should include:

 

1.       An opening statement explaining your position (you either agree or disagree with the way the Trial of Antigone was handled.)  Explain briefly why you feel as you do.

2.     A list of 3 to 5 recommendations that describe how you feel the Athenian State Government should handle cases of religious freedom in the future.  (Refer to cases or quotes from your research.)

3.     A conclusion of how your recommendations will affect the lives of the Athenian people.

 

Evaluation

 

I will evaluate your web quest in two ways:

 

¨      First, I will grade your answers to the questions that I asked about the three web sites in Part 1.  I will evaluate you on how well you explored each web site, and how well you stated your findings and opinions.

¨      Second, I will grade your one-page recommendation.  I will evaluate it based on how well you used the information gathered in your research, how convincing you were in the way you stated your recommendations, and the extent that your writing is well organized, grammatically correct, and written in proper standard English.

 

 

Conclusion

This web quest was designed to help you explore and understand one of the major themes of Antigone, the conflict between personal religious beliefs and the laws of the State.  At the same time, I hope that you have gained an appreciation of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the complexity of interpreting the ideal of Religious Freedom.

 

Antigone from a Greek Vase

[Beazley Archive Pottery Database]

The Bill of Rights (first 10 Amendments to the US Constitution)

[National Archive & Records Administration]

 

Standards

By competing this web quest, students will have met the following ELA Standards:

STANDARD 1:  Language for Information and Understanding

STANDARD 3: Language for Critical Analysis and Evaluation

STANDARD E1 & 2:  Reading  (Read public and functional documents)

                                Writing  (Report of information)

STANDARD E6:  Public Documents (Critique public documents with an eye to strategies common in public discourse.)

 

Students will also have met the following Social Studies Standard:

STANDARD SS5:  Civics, Citizenship and Government:  use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the necessity for establishing governments; the governmental system of the U.S. and other nations; the U.S. Constitution; the basic civic values of American constitutional democracy; and the roles, rights, and responsibilities of citizenship, including avenues of participation.