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IMPORTANCE OF PRAYERS AT SCHOOL.
The issue of school prayer
IMPORTANCE OF PRAYERS AT SCHOOL.
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Prayer in Public School
There are many different philosophies regarding prayer in public school. It seems to be a difficult issue to decide upon. The opinions are wide-ranging and convoluted. This paper will attempt to highlight the many ideas and opinions as to whether prayers in public school should be allowed and to what extent. It will further show how our founders' idea of a separate church and state has been taken out of context and why prayer in school should be allowed, but not required.
The first opinion to evaluate is that there should be absolutely no prayer of any kind in public schools. Bob Croddy has been teaching for almost 30 years and he wrote an article for the NEA Today opposing any type of prayer in school, including a moment of silence (NEA). In his article he first cites the Constitution's First Amendment; "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Mr. Croddy goes on to say that a moment of silence is really just the beginning of the erosion of this First Amendment right (Croddy 45). He also says, "If we give the agents of government the right to require any religious practice of the citizenry - no matter how small--then we are well on our way to eliminating religious freedom" (Croddy 45). In his article he makes his opinion very clear that there is no need to institute a specific time for a moment of silence or prayer. He suggests that there is plenty of time throughout the school day to meditate or pray if one chooses to.
Katha Pollitt wrote a very sarcastic and biting essay in The Nation in 1994. She says go ahead and institute prayer in school. Pollitt says, "Right now religion has the romantic aura of the forbid...
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...make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Prayer in school is not mandatory, but according to our Bill of Rights, it is a guaranteed right!
Work Cited
Comeaux, Connie and Bob Croddy. " Should School Begin with a Moment of Silence?" NEA Today. September 15, 1995: 45.
Hart and Teeter Research Company. "Public Opinion On-Line." June 30, 1999. http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/c1484cbce6cf77777a9b537&taggedDocs=
Koppel, Nathan."New Reading on School Prayer."Texas Lawyer. September 20, 1999: 1.
Pollitt, Katha. " Subject to Debate." The Nation. December 26, 1994: 788.
Taylor, Stuart. "School Prayer a Issue a Judicial Minefield." The Connecticut Law Tribune. September 27, 1999: Sec. News.
In 1971 in Mobile County Alabama the School Board created a state statute that set aside time at the beginning of each day for silent ’meditation’ (statute 6-1-20), and in 1981 they added another statute 16-1-20.1 which set aside a minute for ‘silent prayer’ as well. In addition to these, in 1982 the Mobile County School Board enacted statute 16-1-20.2, which specified a prayer that teachers could lead ‘willing’ students in “From henceforth, any teacher or professor in any public educational institution within the State of Alabama, recognizing that the Lord God is one, at the beginning of any homeroom or any class, may pray, may lead willing students in prayer, or may lead the willing students in the following prayer to God… “ (Jaffree By and Through Jaffree v. James). Ishmael Jaffree was the father of three students, Jamael Aakki Jaffree, Makeba Green, and Chioke Saleem Jaffree, who attended a school in Mobile County Alabama. Jaffree complained that his children had been pressured into participating in religious activities by their teachers and their peers, and that he had requested that these activities stopped. When the school did nothing about Jaffree’s complaints he filed an official complaint with the Mobile County School Board through the United States District Courts. The original complaint never mentioned the three state statutes that involved school prayer. However, on June 4, 1982 Jaffree changed his complaint. He now wanted to challenge the constitutionality of statutes 16-1-20, 16-1-20.1 and 16-1-20.2, and motioned for a preliminary injunction. The argument against these state laws was that they were an infringement of the Establishment Clause within the First Amendment of the Constitution, which states that Congr...
This paper was written for my Writing 209 class. For the assignment ,Donna Marsh, asked us to find an article in a periodical that dealt with an issue in our American culture. We were then told to express our opinion on the topic discussed in the article and to analyze the argument presented in the article. I chose the topic of school prayer because I believe strongly in the separation of church and state that exists in our country. This is a controversial issue that is worthy of discussion, and hopefully my essay will provoke you in some manner whether you agree with my premise or feel that the views I express are totally invalid.
Chapter three of Civil Liberties: Opposing Viewpoints inspired me to research today’s issues of school prayer. To understand how we got to where we are today, I first delved into our countries history of court cases pertaining to rulings on prayer in schools. Lastly, to update my audience on how our lives are being affected today, I directed my efforts toward finding current situations. By analyzing these situations, I gained knowledge for a better understanding of why society needs to be aware of these controversies. I don’t think there should be any form of organized prayer in today’s public schools.
The removal of prayer from public schools is a very controversial and misunderstood debate. This paper will address the history of the debate, common myths and misunderstandings, and the current trends.
An issue that has been constantly debated for years is whether voluntary prayer in public schools should be permitted. A student should be allowed to pray voluntarily at the beginning of each school day based on many reasons. Prayer based on moral beliefs reinforce good citizenship as defined by our forefathers. A daily reminder of a need for the belief of good over evil is a necessary part of this society. Daily voluntary school prayer should be re-instated in public schools due to three reasons, the historical basis of the beginning of the United States government, the serious moral decline since prayer has been outlawed, and the government infringement on the constitutional guarantee of individual freedom of personal beliefs.
The pros of prayer in school are that prayer would fit the needs of the whole person. Schools must do more than train student’s minds with academics they should also care for their spiritual needs and boost the values taught at home and in their community. School prayer would allow religious students an opportunity to observe their religious beliefs during school (Pros and Cons of Prayer).Public schools should have religious groups before or after school so they can still keep in touch with their spiritual side. Taking prayer out of schools is taking the students’ rights of religious freedom away from them. If p...
It is argued that there isn’t a way for every religion to be recognized within the public schools to accommodate everyone without offending anyone. It just isn’t a possibility to incorporate a sense of a “prayer service” that meets everyone’s needs without completely throwing off the school day’s curriculum and without making a form of an offense.
School prayer is a very controversial issue in today’s society. The issue of school prayer is about whether the public school systems should let the students pray, at the start of the school day, as a class. The issue of school prayer began in the late sixteenth century when people in England did not approve of the way one religion was forced upon them, so the Puritans, known as the Pilgrims decided to come to the colonies. Even in the colonies the Pilgrims had problems with religion they had to sometimes resort to highly creative strategies in order to pray. When people were caught having a secret service they would have to face the consequences that the law enforced, whether it was going to the gaol, being kicked around, or being killed. In 1688 these situations were so awful that something had to be done, so the Toleration Act of 1689 was established. It was an incomplete solution and it had a lot of loopholes but it was a step in the right direction. Students today have to sometimes resort to highly creative strategies in order to pray in a public school, so as not to offend anyone.
"God help, I'm so lost!" If you listen carefully, this is a common thought that is heard throughout many schools in the nation. Is this thought appropriate? The following statement clearly shows that the law allows students and adults to practice religion, but at the same time be respective of others and their beliefs even if they do believe or if they don't. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, or to petition the government for a redress of grievances." (First Amendment, The Constitution of the United States). Prayer is not normally permitted as a scheduled part of classroom activities, because it would result in the violation of the principle of church-state separation, which has been defined by court interpretations of the 1st Amendment to the U.S, Constitution. The separation principle is extended to Public school as an arm of the government, with an exception which can be permitted if, during the school year, a mixture of prayers, statements, etc are delivered, using material derived from a number of different religions and secular sources. So far, this has never been tried in a school or ruled upon by a court (Religion in Public).
Throughout the twentieth century, the United States Supreme Court has protected students’ rights to practice their religious beliefs, so long as they are not “disruptive, discriminatory, or coercive to peers who may not share those same beliefs” (Education Weekly, 2003, para. 3). In 1943, the Supreme Court ruling in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette stated that students could not be “forced to salute the flag or say the pledge of allegiance if it violates the individual’s conscience” (First Amendment Cyber Tribune, 2002). The 1963 decision in Engel v. Vitale made school prayer unconstitutional, and similarly found school prayer at graduation ceremonies in its 1992 Lee v. Weisman decision (First Amendment Cyber Tribune, 2002). Student-led prayer at public school football games was found unconstitutional in 2000 with the Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe (First Amendment C...
This paper deals with the stance of our schools and government on prayer in school. In this paper I will show how our government is hypocritical in its dealings of the prayer in school issue and how some of us as citizens are hypocritical as well. I will discuss the freedom of religion rights and how its interpretation affects prayer in school. Also, I will address the popular phrase, “separation of church and state”, that is often used to argue against prayer in school.
Boston, Rob. "How Five New York Families Ended Coercive Prayer In America's Public Schools." Church & State 65.6 (2012): 12-15.Academic Search Premier. Web. 24 Nov. 2013.
This paper discusses how the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the United States government interact to allow each individual in a public school freedom to pray while not endorsing any religion.
The first case about prayer in school that ever went all the way to the Supreme Court was Engel V. Vitale in 1962 when non- Christian students felt obligated to say a Christian prayer in school. In 1936, two other supreme court cases (Abington Saheel Distinct V. Schrempp and Murray V. Curlett decided that reading the Bible and saying the Lord’s Prayer as a whole could not be allowed at school. The latest cases happened in the 1990s when people started speaking out against religious prayer at school event like sports games or graduations or other ceremonies where it was ruled that prayer is not allowed. The following two cases came the Court’s decision in Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971), a ruling that established the Lemon test for religious activities within schools. The while students do continue to in public schools, even in organized groups such as “See you at the pole”, the lawsuit disallowed school from including prayer as compulsory activity required of every
To have prayer in the public school system is against the idea of separation of church and state. The state should not institute school prayer because the public schools are for education, not a place where religion should be taught (Gaylor, 1995, p. 1). The state should not force every child to say a prayer in the classroom because not everyone believes...