A timely reminder from Eleanor Roosevelt.

Eleanor Roosevelt is one of the unsung heroines of separation of church and state. On June 23, 1949, she reminded Americans of the importance of church-state separation in her widely syndicated and very popular news paper column.

"The separation of church and state is extremely important to any of us who holds to the original traditions of our nation...," she wrote. "If we look at situations which have arisen in the past in Europe and other world areas, I think we will see the reasons why it is wise to hold to our early traditions."

But Mrs. Roosevelt didn't stop there. She went on to criticize proposals to fund private religious schools with tax dollars, noting that when she decided to send her own children to private schools she "never thought about asking the government to pay their tuition."

Mrs. Roosevelt took a lot of heat for that column. An enraged Cardinal Francis Spellman of New York had the temerity to call this revered figure "an unworthy American mother." Spellman later appeared, unannounced, at Mrs. Roosevelt's home in Hyde Park, N.Y., to request a meeting. After Mrs. Roosevelt had smoothed the cardinal's feathers with her personal charm, the two issued a conciliatory statement, and the country soon forgot about the unpleasant incident.

But Mrs. Roosevelt remembered. When the furor had died down, she had occasion to visit with Dr. Glenn Archer, the first executive director of Americans United. During their time together she told Archer, "The battle for church-state separation may have to be fought all over again."

I have been thinking about Mrs. Roosevelt's prescient words quite a lot these days, as Americans United embarks on its 50th year. The battle, as she realized all the way back in 1949, has indeed been fought over and over again.

As Americans United prepares to mark this milestone, I have been looking over some historical documents related to AU's founding in 1947 and yellowed issues of Church & State from the 1950s. It was called Church And State Newsletter back then and it didn't look much like the magazine you hold right now, but I am struck by how many of the headlines seem familiar.

"Parochial School Aid Question Debated In California," "Controversial Book Pulled From Shelves," "Bible Reading Cases Heard," scream headlines from more than 40 years ago. They could have been written last week.

In light of this, it's fair to ask, "Have we made any progress? Are we doomed to fight the same issues over and over again?"

The answers are not so simple. Of course there has been progress, but just as assuredly, we know we must remain vigilant. To cite one issue, in looking over those old magazines I saw a lot of articles about attempts by Roman Catholic officials to have laws passed banning birth control -- not just for Catholic couples but for all Americans.

The Supreme Court ruled in 1965's Griswold case that government may not ban the use of contraceptives by adults -- an obvious defeat for the church. But even today, in a more subtle and nuanced way, the issue remains with us. As hospitals around the country merge, Americans United is receiving more and more complaints about public hospitals that are bought out by health care concerns run by the Catholic Church. When that happens, birth control and abortion services are the first things to go. Doctors are even "gagged" about discussing them.

In the 1950s, AU called on elected officials to dismantle government-nm "censorship boards." The boards are gone, but censorship is alive and well -- much of it instigated by the Religious Right. One Pennsylvania public school district recently banned the song "YMCA" because it supposedly promotes the "gay life-style," and not long ago some fundamentalist ministers asked that "The Lion King" be banned because, they claimed, the word "SEX" appeared subliminally in a cloud.

In 1962 and '63, the Supreme Court struck down mandatory prayer and Bible reading in public schools -- a clear victory for church-state separation. But 35 years later we still receive occasional reports that the ruling is being ignored or violated in some parts of the country, and a whole host of religion-in-public-school issues, from creationism and graduation prayer to how to teach values and recognize Christmas, still plague our schools.

I'm proud that Americans United has been here for 50 years fighting these battles. I'm proud of our impressive string of victories. But I also know we have to be ready for plenty of re-matches, even over issues we thought we had won. They never really go away; they just take on new, more subtle forms.

Back in 1990, the Rev. James Dunn, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs and an Americans United trustee, colorfully echoed Mrs. Roosevelt's comment. Defending separation of church and state, Dunn said, "is like washing your socks. It has to be done over and over. Eternal vigilance is indeed the price that we pay."

This year we plan to celebrate AU's 50th anniversary in many ways. But through it all we'll remember that our job is never done, that our issues only change and don't go away. In short, we'll rededicate ourselves to keep on "washing our socks" for another 50 years.

Barry W. Lynn is executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.