An effort to require states to help pay for religious studies if they offer scholarships for other types of learning -- now part of a case before the U.S. Supreme Court -- is clearly a move by fundamentalist Christians to impose their views on the rest of the country, says a Duke University expert on the separation of church and state.

"Locke v. Davey is a subtle attempt by fundamentalist Christians to establish their version of Christianity in America and to force everyone else to pay for it," says Curtis W. Freeman, a Divinity School research professor of theology. Freeman, who is director of Duke's Baptist House of Studies, specializes in Baptist church history and the separation of church and state.

Washington state resident Joshua Davey sued and won after he was denied a scholarship to study theology. The Supreme Court heard the state's appeal this week.

Freeman views the current arguments in favor of requiring scholarships for religious training as contrary to the First Amendment.

"The Bill of Rights wisely rejected any possibility of compelling the public to support with their taxes the ministry of churches they have not consented to," he says. "Now Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell want us to repudiate the wisdom of the last 200 years by forcing us to subsidize the education of clergy for churches to which we do not belong. It was a bad idea then and a worse one now."

Freeman can be reached for further comment at (919) 660-3401; (919) 401-9428 or by e-mail at cfreeman@div.duke.edu