This whole prayer in schools is just a little beyond me. As I stated many times, except for two years in high school, I went to Catholic schools. Depending on the teacher and time of day, we said the Lord's Prayer, Hail Mary and The Apostle's Creed (I distinctly remember saying this one in 3rd grade every day at the end of the day). In college, I had an Econ professor who had us recite the Lord's Prayer before every class (he seemed rather fixated on the yarmulke wearing Jewish guy in the class each time too). But, what if they had "school prayer" when I went to public school those two years? The school had a large population of Jews. Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah were school holidays. Would Christian parents be happy with all students being required to recite some
prayer in Hebrew?
If a school district was predominately Catholic, would all people be happy with students being required to say the Hail Mary? Who is going to lead the prayer? Aside from the other religions, there are many denominations and despite this lovefest (temporary, I'm sure) between
devout Catholics and Evangelicals, there are some real biases amongst the groups and if they got a prayer law passed, those old differences would be right back at the forefront.
"Supreme Court nominee John Roberts showed sympathy for the idea of permitting prayer in public schools in 1985, according to a memo released on Monday, writing that a ruling to the contrary 'seems indefensible' under the Constitution.
As a young lawyer working in the Reagan administration, Roberts wrote he would have no objection if the Justice Department wanted to express support for a constitutional amendment permitting prayer.
Referring to a Supreme Court ruling issued earlier that year that struck down an Alabama school prayer law, he added, 'The conclusion ... that the Constitution prohibits such a moment of silent reflection - or even silent 'prayer' - seems indefensible.'"
I've been in this debate online with many people. Some say they would just be satisfied with a moment of silence. For what, I ask? The kids who come from prayer based homes, should have already prayed. Those who don't will be staring at the other folks with bowed heads or throwing spitballs. I think this entire debate is silly and is just another wedge issue. I don't need some person (who may not even be a faithful person) leading my children in prayer. That is my job. If these people are so pious, surely, they would have had family prayers at the family breakfast table.
I know a teacher who said the issue came up in her district (in a red state, mind you) and as it stands, there are more people of other faiths than of Christianity. As soon as it was stated that "others" made up the majority so they would have to indulge them accordingly, it became a non-issue. Let's get clear here! In fact and indeed, this is a Christian prayer movement. If a child wanted to chant "om" for 60 seconds, they'd probably be told to shut up or frowned upon. If it were really about God in school, everyone's faith would be acceptable and everyone would tell their children to take their own quiet moments during the day to pray if they so desired.
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