Outline

Prayer In Public Schools

Thesis:  The ban of school sponsored prayer is an important guarantee of individual freedom and must be maintained.

I.                    Introduction

A.     The First Amendment

B.      The Two Sides

1.      Liberals

2.      Conservatives

II.                 School Prayer

A.     Law and Supreme Court Rulings

1.      Treaty of Tripoli (1797)

2.      Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptists

3.      Abington Township v. Schempp

4.      Engle v. Vitale

B.     Argument In Favor of School Prayer

1.      Majority of America is Christian

2.      Problems in America today

3.      Danbury Baptists letter not authoritative

4.      Chaplains in Congress

C.     Argument Against School Prayer

1.      Makes other religions/secularists feel uncomfortable

2.      Teachers of other religions/denominations would impose their ideals

3.      Diversity in America

4.      Majority rule with Minority Rights

5.      Opens door to student discrimination and harassment

6.      Matthew 6: 5-6 KJV

III.               Conclusion

A.     Religion is sacred

B.     Religion should be left up to the individual

Brent Hardy

Ms. Cole

English 12

28 November 2001

Prayer In Public Schools

            Prayer in schools has been a much talked about debate in America over the past half-century.  Conservatives, trying to regulate the religious freedoms of Americans, have tried numerous times to pass amendments that allow private, student-led prayer in the classrooms

(p. 243 Baik).  Liberals, realizing that private prayer is and has always been legal, try to keep the balance between church-state separation as it is.  This has kept the political issue of religion at a boil and confused many people on the actual issue of coercive school prayer.  The ban of school sponsored prayer is an important guarantee of freedom and must be maintained.

            The United States has long been divided on the issue of prayer in school.  From the very beginning our Founding Fathers wanted to keep religion out of governmental affairs, and vice-versa.  In 1797, George Washington signed the Treaty of Tripoli with the Barbary Nations.  It states, “The Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion…” There was no outcry in the Senate over this article, and so John Adams, then the President of the Senate, signed it making it law.  It remained worded thus until it was nullified, eight years later (Early America).  Thomas Jefferson also spoke out about the government’s intrusion into religion.  In a letter to the Danbury Baptists of Connecticut, after their asking for government aid, he stated:

...I contemplate with solemn reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between Church and State. (ReligiousTolerance)

While this was not necessarily law, it does establish what our first three Presidents thought about the separation of church and state.  Other important revolutionary figures such as Thomas Paine and James Madison had similar thoughts about religion and government intermixing.

In later years, there were massive uprisings against the practice of teaching the Bible and mandatory prayer in some schools.  Catholics and Protestants argued over which translation of the Bible to use, while Jews objected to any reading other than the Old Testament and to prayers to Jesus, as he is not seen as the messiah to them.  These disagreements even erupted into riots, called “the Bible Wars,” in Cincinnati, Ohio and Edgerton, Ohio.(p. 385 Schriver, Leonard).

Troubles like these prompted the United States Supreme Court to rule in a series of cases against any religious teachings or prayers in schools.  In Abington Township v. Schempp, the Court ruled that there could be no teacher-led mandatory prayer in a public classroom.  Later, in Engle v. Vitale, it expanded its ruling to include devotionary Bible readings.  It encouraged Bible readings, however, in comparative religion classes, and the study of how the Bible has affected history and literature in each of these classes.  State Supreme Courts have made a few rulings on the constitutionality of student-led prayer at voluntary school events such as ballgames and graduation ceremonies, but there has been no national outline on what practices are legal and are illegal. Also, moments of silence are currently under debate, with the court ruling usually hinging on whether or not the moment is implemented to encourage prayer (ACLU).

            There are many practical reasons why people argue for the integration of prayer into the curriculum of public schools.  The most commonly cited reason for this is that children need the moral and ethical guidance that religion taught in the classroom will provide them.  While almost everyone agrees that religious indoctrination is the responsibility of the parents, since many parents are seen as neglecting the duty to sufficiently teach their children, Christianity must be taught in public schools.  This is justified by the fact that, since most people claim Christianity as their religion, Christianity is seen as the predominant religion of America (Christian churches and organizations claim membership even though one doesn’t attend meetings and may not even claim to be a Christian themselves).  Since the majority rules, Christianity would be the choice for indoctrination in the classroom.  People argue that this country is indeed a Christian nation, intended to be so from the very beginning.  The original English settlers in the Americas were indeed Christian, and set up theocratic governments to oversee the colonies (p. 158-59 Cozic).  The rights of other religions or even denominations were seen as trivial, as theirs was the only “true” religion. 

            There are also many legal reasons why people think that removing government from the religious lives of Americans, especially students in public schools, was not what was originally intended for this country.  The letter by Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptists is seen to be a simple explanation to the church after it requested governmental aid by many people.  Even though the Supreme Court ruled in 1879 in the case Reynolds v. U.S. that the letter should be held authoritative on the issue of church-state separation, many still argue that the only restriction given to the government in the First Amendment was that it could not create a state religion or prohibit anyone from exercising his or her own religion, that the government can play favorites all it wants.  Also, the United States Congress and many state assemblies utilize a chaplain before they meet.  This goes back to Benjamin Franklin urging the Founding Fathers to pray before each meeting of the Constitutional Convention.  The motion was never discussed due to adjournment.

            There are just as many reasons, both legal and practical, for the removal of prayer from public schools.  The primary reason is that if a student were to genuinely feel compelled to pray they would, and would be entirely within their rights to do so.  Students have the right to pray before tests, meals, in the hallway, and any other time that they feel led to.  However, a teacher should not, and legally cannot, coerce a student to pray, read the bible, or promote or deny any set of beliefs, religious or secular.  The reason behind this is that they are employees of the state, receiving government funding to teach in public schools.  They should not be allowed to push their religious beliefs on students, because religious indoctrination is strictly the responsibility of the parents.  Promoting religion in public schools would be mainly Christian in most areas, but in Hawaii, where the population is mostly Buddhist, would it be right to promote Buddhist ideals on Christian students at the school (Hawaii Data Book).  It would be just as wrong to promote a religion because a majority subscribes to it, as it would be to promote racism because the majority of students are of one ethnic group.    Most researchers even agree that the promotion of religious ideals would serve to isolate groups of religious minorities, thus causing even more violence and strife in our schools.  Finally, for Christians to push prayer onto others is not only unethical, it is also against the teachings of Jesus.  The only time Jesus prayed out loud in public was when he blessed the loaves and fishes before feeding the multitudes, and when giving the Lord’s Prayer as a model.  He even spoke out against praying “in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men,” in Matthew 6: 5-6 (p. 1412 KJV).  He said that “when thou prayest, enter into they closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father in secret.”  These verses refute the practice of praying in public, and praise the secret attempt to pray to God because it is not self-seeking.

            Religion is a very private, sacred thing.  For the government, who should normally try to give Americans more rights, to try to regulate something as private as prayer is almost unthinkable.  The acceptance of prayer in the public classroom is a serious breach in the issue of separation of church and state and must not be tolerated by the people of America.  This country was built on diversity, and to drive a wedge between the people, by allowing prayer in public schools, could tear apart the delicate balance we call America.

 

 

Works Cited

 

Baik, Howard M.  “Chandler v. James: A Student’s Right of Prayer in Public Schools.”

BYU Journal of Public Law 2001 Vol 15 Issue 2 p 243

State of Hawaii Data Book.  Table 1.47.  On-Line <http://www.hawaii.gov/dbedt/>

Cozic, Charles P.  Civil Liberties: Opposing Viewpoints.  Greenhaven: San Diego 1994

pages 158-159

Shriver, George H., and Bill J. Leonard.  Encyclopedia of Religious Controversies in the

United States. Greenwood: Westport, London 1997 page 385

American Civil Liberties Union Website. May 3, 2001.  <http://www.aclu.org>

King James Version Holy Bible.  Matthew 6: 5-6.  page 1412

Religious Tolerance.  “Introduction to the Principle of Separation of Church and State.”

            <http://www.religioustolerance.org/scs_intr.htm>

Early American Review.  “Little Known U.S. Documents.”  Summer 1997

<http://www.earlyamerica.com/review/summer97/secular.html>