Prayer in Schools

Prayer in Schools

The danger of school prayer becoming reinstated into the United States' public schools is ever more increasing. Representative Ernest Istook and more than 100 House members have introduced the "Religious Freedom Amendment" to the U.S. Constitution. The proposed constitutional amendment would permit school prayer and other religious expression on school property. The article "10 Reasons for Voluntary School Prayer" by Norman L. Geisler argues to support this unconstitutional act of bringing religion within our public schools. Although Norman L. Geisler gives ten reasons for voluntary school prayer, for the purpose of the length required for this paper, I will only discuss three.

Geisler's reason number six for voluntary school prayer is not sound. When

diagramming this argument (1), but this is not valid because the fact that school prayer

was practiced for 200 years in this country does not make it valid by precedent. Slavery

was also practiced in the Untied States for 200 years although it was an unconstitutional

act. Just as slavery, prayer in public schools was found unconstitutional by the Supreme

Court when it was proven as such to the members of the Supreme Court. Just because a

practice is followed for so many years does not deem it as correct or valid. Therefore (1).

In Geisler's seventh argument he states that the court's outlaw of prayer has a direct correlation with moral decline. Geisler's argument can be proven invalid by examining it through the use of the method of difference. o,d,p,s,c,v,a -* M. Geisler does not show that these factors are a direct correlation to moral decline. He does not discuss what the cultural indexes were when prayer was in...

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...yest enter into thy closet, and when thou has shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret."

If parents want their children to be reminded of God throughout the day parents can always send their children to privately run religious schools.

Geisler even goes as far, in reason number ten, to basically say that the opinion of the minority population does not count. The Untied States laws advocate religious freedom for all, not for the majority only. To impose the majority's beliefs on the minority, solely on the basis that they are a majority is unfair. Contrary to Geisler, separating religion from education does not impose the minority's belief on the majority. It does not promote atheism or human secularism is simply leaves the job of saving children's soul to the parents and churches and the job of saving children's minds to the education system.