PACIFIC WORLD - The Institute of Buddhist Studies

Levering: Frendship Bonshø Bells 173The Court Case Revisited: Is It a Buddhist Bell?The District court concluded that the Friendship Bell display wasconstitutional under the test laid out by the Supreme Court in Lemon v.Kurtzman (1971), and under Tennessee law. But as a threshold matter priorto applying the Lemon test, the court first considered whether the FriendshipBell is a religious symbol at all. “If the bell is not actually associatedwith Buddhism, its display cannot convey the message that the governmentendorses Buddhism,” the Court wrote. 26 The Court cited an affidavitfor the Plaintiff by scholar Steven Heine, and did its own research into thewritten works of a number of scholars. Based on these, the court concludedthat the Oak Ridge Friendship Bell is a Buddhist bell, and that the bells inquestion “are clearly tied to the Buddhist religion as ritual implementsinvested with symbolic significance.” 27Under the test laid out in Lemon v. Kurtzman, a public display of areligious object must meet several requirements:(1) a statute or governmental practice must have a secular purpose;(2) its primary effect must be neither to advance nor to inhibitreligion;(3) it must not foster excessive governmental entanglement withreligion.When evaluating (2), the effects prong, the Court applied the “endorsementtest.” Under this test, the Court considered whether a reasonableobserver would conclude that the government endorses religion by allowingthe practice in question. The endorsement test is particularly concernedwith whether governmental practices create a “symbolic union” of churchand state.Clearly the City of Oak Ridge had accepted the bell and allowed it tobe erected on public property for a secular purpose, as outlined in theplaque inscription and in a number of other places. It was to be a FriendshipBell. Its primary effect was to express the desire for friendship. And therewere no organized groups of “Buddhists” in Oak Ridge with whom theCity could become entangled. Shigeko Uppuluri, who did not in any casethink of herself as a Buddhist, had never talked with reporters or with theBell Committee of the Oak Ridge Community Foundation about anyBuddhist meanings the bell might carry for Japanese people. She hadtalked early on about Japanese customs and the bell, about the bell andJapaneseness, but never about Buddhist meanings. She never spoke of thebell as a Jødo shø, a Pure Land bell, never mentioned how for Buddhists thesound carries the ringer’s intention or vow. 28 It was fine with her that the