Religion cannot escape controversy can it? If it isn't Catholic Priests playing hide and go seek with little alter boys, it's a Gay Bishop fighting to hold his position. Christianity is just getting a lot of bad media. But one of the original issues that no one can seem to get over is the removal of prayer in the classroom.

Now we all know how it went down. I believe the story was, an atheist family (or family who practiced a different religion other than Christianity) sued a public school system because they didn't want child to be involved in such practices. They felt that there should be a separation between Church and State. They went on to win this case and this is why prayer does not occurred in class.

But it seems like this still effects people. When I listen to many religious people, this is a concern that they share. They often blame the troubles that youths cause or face on the lack of prayer in the classroom. They also see it as a step back from where our world should be spiritually, as if the government is trying to block religion more and more.

Religion, in my opinion does not belong in any public place, especially one of learning. Why? The first problem are our differences. Within Christianity, we all have different practices. When some may believe this, another will believe that and many times when the two come together, arguments ensue. I cannot tell you how many times I have gotten into religious debates with people who feel so strongly about what they believe. We all remember the incident which took place when I first got to OSU. The two girls crying because I didn't see things their way. Here we are, three adults and yet the result is a very child like response. Imagine this if we were younger.

Aside from that, whether people want to admit it or not, prayer in the classroom would mean praying to God in the sense of Christianity. Lets face it, the vast majority of our country is Christian and our classrooms will be represented in the same light. So what happens to those who are Muslim or Buddhist? I bet you have a simple solution to that, just have them pray in their own group, right? Well, the problem with this is that we have to remember that kids are kids. Remember what it was like when you were in school. You had the fat kid who everyone picked one because he was larger than everyone. The dark kid everyone picked on because he was darker than everyone. Religion will be no different. Adults can barely accept other people's religions so what makes people think that kids can? What if only one Muslim exists within this school? Not only would he or she be praying alone, but they would also be going against the others alone, sort to speak.

But we have left one very important group out. The Atheists. These are people who have no thought of a higher power. At least with the other groups, if you said, "Pray to God starting...now!" they would have some sense of what you were talking about and be able to execute this action. A child who is atheist would be left by themselves. The ultimate outcast of the group. Questions like, "Why don't you believe in God" and statements like, "You are going to hell!" would present themselves. I personally don't think that is the best thing for a child.

Prayer is not always something that has to be focused in a group setting. One thing that Christianity preaches is that prayer is something between yourself and God. The entire school does not have to do it together. An the legal thing is, one person can pray at school if they want, they just cannot make it a group activity.

If folks want to blame the blight of the world on lack of pray, fine. But keep in mind that kids are only in school for 7 hours of the day. What happens the other 17 hours? Religion to me, unless it is being learned about, should stay in the Church, Masque or Synagogue. School is for learning about the world around us, Bible study is the place to learn about God. They should be separated out of respect to people who are different in religion or for those who aren't religious at all.