Why I am against prayer in schools

[pnggrad79]

I got an email today asking me to sign a petition to reinstate prayer in schools. I deleted it for some simple reasons:

1. Prayer is a highly personal encounter with God. I would rather keep silent than have a prayer written by some bureaucrat who had to meet a deadline, and who had to write some ambiguous piece of crap that alludes to God and is so ethereal it doesn't make any sense.

2. This nation is full of people from all different faiths, creeds, and ideologies. To force a Christian prayer down their throats is nothing short of denigrating other forms of belief and hailing one religion over another. Hmm, doesn't the First Amendment mean anything anymore?

3. I refuse to pray or recite something that is meaningless to me much less to God. Prayer is an outpouring of the heart to God, not a reading, and not a poem. It is impromptu and not to be read from a script.

4. It reduces prayer to a mindless, ambiguous recitation that if they were to try to include all faiths into it, it would be nothing but a bunch of ramblings that meant nothing to anyone.

5. The government has no right to force me to pray if I don't want to.

6. The government never said one couldn't pray in schools; it said the state couldn't force someone to pray in schools. Let's keep it that way.

I do not align myself with Madalyn Murray O'Hair, but I agree with her in principle. I am a Christian, and a teacher, and I refuse to make my Muslim students or my Jewish students or my Buddhist students pray a prayer that addresses someone they may not believe in. I would not appreciate it if I was in Iraq and they forced me to pray 5 times a day facing east. That is not my belief.

Fundamentalist Christians need to put the shoe on the other foot. They would have a hairy fit if they were to live in Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, etc, and were forced by law to pray to Allah. They would scream and pitch a fit. It would be the same as forcing a Muslim, a Jew, a Buddhist, or a Hindu to pray a Christian prayer in this country. America is NOT Iran, Iraq, or Saudi. We do not have state sanctioned religion, and I will be the first to shout the First Amendment if that ever happens. No one has the right to force their beliefs down my throat. I will keep my prayers to myself, thank you.

[nmwolfboy]

Originally Posted by pnggrad79

6. The government never said one couldn't pray in schools; it said the state couldn't force someone to pray in schools. Let's keep it that way.

This is a point that always seems to get lost in the vitriolic rhetoric of the neo-con / radical religious right.

i agree with you completely. Thanks for posting!

-scott

[Zerbie]

I've always thought it was obvious that what we object to is being forced to pray a sectarian prayer by the schools, and obvious that individual students are of course permitted to pray while in school if they wish. Obvious obvious. But as I somewhat recently learned, it isn't.

I receive messages from conservative political groups (well, supposedly they are religious groups, but anyway) claiming that it is about taking away a student's right to pray - so thousands if not millions of people have been told that the debate is something entirely other than what it is. They have been outright lied to.

[superhippy7890]

Could you rephrase that? I couldn't understand.

[tpdncr4christ]

I completley agree with 5 of your 6 remarks. I disagree, slightly so, with your first point:

Originally Posted by pnggrad79

1. Prayer is a highly personal encounter with God. I would rather keep silent than have a prayer written by some bureaucrat who had to meet a deadline, and who had to write some ambiguous piece of crap that alludes to God and is so ethereal it doesn't make any sense.

Prayer can be a highly personal encounter with God. But it shouldn't be defined as such... There are many kinds of prayer, from a sort of silent meditation to a recited peice of poetry or scripture. Prayer is dialogue with God. I know some people who insist that they live their life as a prayer, waking up in the morning with a "Dear Lord," and going to bed each night with an "Amen." It isn't right to administer rules of prayer to other people just because it is your preference.

I see what you mean when you deny this petition. And though it may not be the right thing at this time, the people who have initiated the e-mail most likely had good intentions. The seperation of Church and State was intended to keep an oppressive church out of the ruling government, to keep the choice of leadership in the arms of the people not one of devine providence. It wasn't intended to eliminate God from the people, just religion from the government. I agree, this petition won't solve any problems (it will most likely cause more than it will solve), but its purpose and reason is whole hearted. Maybe instead of just deleting the message you could make a suggestion to the author's of the email. Maybe instead of making prayer mandatory, perhaps if they begin a petition to allow an outlet for prayer, such as an elective religion class, or a "non-religious" or "pan-religious" prayer club (rather than focusing on one form of prayer to one God). Does that make sense?

[dsdrane]

I completely agree that there should be no organized prayer in public schools. Further, I don't agree with those who say the separation of church and state and the "freedom of religion" is not a "freedom from religion". It absolutely is "freedom from religion", if one so chooses. To my knowledge, there is not one thing in the Constitution that separates out aetheists or other non-believers as second-class citizens not worthy of full rights and protection under the law.

Moreover, we have parochial schools.

That said, I feel that there would be nothing wrong with time set aside for a moment of silence -- for prayer, for quiet meditation, or for just an excuse to put your head down. Students could do as they liked as long as it didn't infringe upon their fellow students quietude.

Remember nap time in Kindergarten? I'm not suggesting we get mats and curl up on the floor, but how nice would a 5-10 minute break be...if only for the teacher!

David

[fm1119]

I really have to agree with you on this. Prayer in school always sounds like a good idea, until you are being made to pray to a god you don't believe in.

I have never really understood the fuss, since I prayed in school a lot, and nobody ever knew about it. Im guessing that, especially before pop quizes, I wasn't the only one...

[ladyinred]

pnggrad, some very outstanding points made, we must remember that though a majority here consider themselves Christian, we are not a Christian nation. While there is freedom of religion, we must respect the rights of others with differing religions or even those who don't consider themselves religious. We are still a nation founded on diversity.And you are right, no one has the right to push any religion or their beliefs down our throats.