The School Prayer Web

The purpose of the School Prayer Web is to educate the public on the issues. In light of the Colorado shooting, there has been a recent resurgence of effort to insert Christian prayer back into our public school system. The unfortunate shooting incident at Columbine high school has been blamed, without evidence, on the contradictory (and mutually exclusive) claims that the shooters were both atheists and satanists. The fearful public has had enough of school shootings, and because of this, conservative extremists have a real chance to put sectarian prayers back into our diverse public school system. It is possible that the public and politicians will be willing to set aside the constitution in order to have some feeling of accomplishment in the fight against school violence. Those who support religious freedom should not sit still and let them gain ground!

What do the polls reveal?
A recent Gallup poll (http://www.gallup.org/) shows that of high school students polled, 40% stated that peer relations/peer pressure is responsible for school violence, with the rest of the students citing issues like gun control, and movie and TV violence as causes. None of them raised the issue of religion. What do the parents think? The same Gallup poll revealed that a mere 8% of adults believe that a lack of religion is responsible for school shootings.

According to the National School Safety Center, despite the large number of threats, actual school-related deaths nationwide dropped from 55 in the 1992 to 1993 school year, to 24 in the 1997-1998 school year, according to the Justice Policy Institute. The overall crime rate from 1993 to 1996 dropped from 164 school related crimes per 1,000 students in 1993 to about 128 per 1,000 students in 1996, according to a 1998 report on school safety by the Education and Justice Departments.

There are well over 360,000 houses of worship in this country... access to prayer and religion has not been diminished or hampered. It has in fact increased. Our country is one of the most religious in the world. One could therefore, with equal weight, make the argument that school violence is linked with the increase of churches in this country. The point is that there are many other important social factors that can be attributed to youth violence. Increased violence in front of our children's eyes is probably the largest factor. Before a child is 10 years old, it is estimated that he will have seen 100,000 acts of violence. The lack of strong male role models is another factor that I think plays heavily on the issue. Kids who exhibit this kind of violent behavior also show no hope for the future-- no plans for career, family, home. Therein lies the solution.

The argument can also be made that school violence is not unique or out of character with human nature. When has our society been without extreme violence? In the 18th and 19th centuries, it was directed at Native Americans. In the 19th century, it was directed at either the North or South, and in the Old West, it was directed at everyone. Jesse James killed over 20 people by the time he was 18 years old; his case was certainly not unique in his day. In the early part of this century, America was gripped by mobster violence, with such spectacular instances of carnage as the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. In the middle of this century, our propensity for violence was occupied by the Second World War, then the Korean and Vietnam wars. In the sixties and seventies, the senses of Americans were shocked with the images of racial violence. In the eighties and nineties, we have seen the meteoric rise of violence in our youth-- gang violence and school violence. To claim that school violence is a wholly new phenomena having as its source the removal of religious indoctrination from public schools some 25 years prior, is totally ludicrous.

Peer-pressure and student conflict will only increase with prayer in school. For example, whose prayer will be said? Catholic or Protestant? Will the prayer include the name Jesus, thereby offending Jewish, Muslim and all other religions? What about those who do not want to have their children exposed to any religious indoctrination at all? One little-known case from American history illustrates the dangers of having ANY religious exercise mandated in our public schools. This is a piece of American history which school prayer advocates do not choose to mention. This concerns the infamous "Bible Wars" which erupted in Philadelphia.

In 1844, at the urging of the local bishop, the Philadelphia school board permitted Roman Catholic children in the public schools to read from their own version of the Bible, the Douay Version. The American Protestant Association was outraged. Mass meetings were held, two Roman Catholic churches were burned, and the rioting was stopped only when the bishop ordered all his churches closed. At the church of St. Philip Neri several people were killed. The church was broken open and only the presence of the militia, the mayor and the governor prevented its being burned to the ground.

Numerous other confrontations followed this incident, as competing religious sects fought over the content of school prayers or other religious instruction in public schools. In 1854, for instance, a mob attacked a Roman Catholic priest in Maine after he urged his followers to seek legal remedies against mandatory Protestant verse in the state's public schools. Fifteen years later there were similar confrontations in Cincinnati when Roman Catholic parents went to court in order to remove their children from religious exercises in the city's school system. Some people today even credit our now non-religious schools to the fact that the Roman Catholic Church fought so vigorously for the removal of all the religious content that might be considered adverse to Catholicism. During the nineteenth century, both the Protestants and the Roman Catholics feared the theological supremacy of the other more than they feared the influence of secular education on the faith and morals of the young people.

Could we expect a repeat of the "Bible Wars"? Jews, Muslims and other religious minorities in the United States are already clamoring for "equal access" in regard to displays and religious events in the public square. New age cults, voodooists, Satanists, spiritualists-- all will insist on having their prayers, holy books and ceremonies incorporated into the activities of our public schools. This is the mayhem that would follow the reintroduction of prayers into public schools.

A modern day version of the "Bible War" can only divide communities, and fragment parents, teachers, school boards and ultimately the students. Rather than teach values and morals, school prayer would result in confrontations over who and what is considered "holy". It would split students into competing religious factions, and isolate the students who have no religious beliefs. Religious faith (or the lack of it) should be a private affair. Public schools should not be forums on behalf of religious indoctrination of any kind. Rather than risk a twentieth century version of the "Bible Wars", communities should instead promote genuine tolerance, and ensure that schools remain educational institutions, not bully pulpits.

It is clear that the tragic, frightening incident of the Colorado shooting is being manipulated and used by conservative Fundamentalists as a vehicle to further their agenda. They wish to assure the dominance of Christianity in our public schools, to the exclusion of other religions and non-religion.

The religious conservatives would like you to believe that it is against the law for children to pray in school, and indeed that is the way they present the situation. But that is not the truth. It is a LIE.

Children can pray to themselves whenever and wherever they wish. They can form prayer and bible study groups which can meet on campus during non-instructional time. They can carry their bibles with them at all times. They may wear crosses and other religious symbols and clothing. They may speak freely to other students about religion. They can pray during lunch breaks, walking or being transported to and from the school, and of course, during their free time. The religious freedoms of students are not curtailed in any way. The First Amendment protects them. School prayer advocates know this, but are quiet on that issue... because the real purpose of the prayer-in-school movement is to either coerce everyone into joining in prayer and religious ritual, or have official government sanction of religion. That is clearly wrong; a violation of the separation of government and religion.

The government is not a private citizen, and has no right of religious freedom. Public schools, being an arm of the government, cannot advance one religion over another, or religion over non-religion. According to the First Amendment (and a common respect for diversity) the only position of the government on the subject of religion is absolute neutrality. The Constitution is not for protecting the majority from the minority. It is for protecting the minority against the majority. The majority, by virtue of being the majority, do not need government intervention to protect their religious rights. Like an eaglet under the great wing of its mother, the minority needs to be protected under the wing of the government against the oppression of the majority, should they be allowed free reign.

What is constitutionally prohibited is "captive audience praying"-- forced prayer, whether it is teacher initiated or student initiated.

Why is it important to abstain from captive audience praying? To begin, it is unconstitutional and a clear violation of our First Amendment. That amendment contains the "Establishment Clause", which prohibits the government from "establishing" religion. Simply put, secular institutions like the public schools should NOT be a forum for religious ritual or indoctrination. But even if the overwhelming majority thought that mandatory prayer was, somehow, a "good idea", that does not make the practice ethically just or legally constitutional. School prayer is obviously a form of religious indoctrination.

When school authorities, including teachers, organize prayer or bible recitation as part of the activities of the school day, there is clearly an element of coercion involved for students who might not, for whatever reason, wish to pray. The public schools are for everyone. Having a prayer divides children into the group that prays, and the often smaller group consisting of those who do not. Experience has shown that kids who do not participate are often victims of ostracism, threats and other exclusionary practices. There have been instances of violence against children who have not participated in "voluntary" praying. There is no way to guarantee that this will not be commonplace if prayer is returned to public school.

Do you really think that different religious sects will tolerate the use of each other's prayers? Look at how pluralistic American culture has become; there are hundreds, even thousands of diverse religious beliefs. Many would clamor for "equal time" in this prayer lottery. How would Catholics react to having to recite Jewish Orthodox prayers? What happens if a Scientologist, or Seventh-Day Adventist, or Satanist demands that prayers from those sects be used? Communities, schools, and ultimately students would become divided against each other in a religious free-for-all.

What About Student-Initiated Prayer? Which students do the initiating? Catholics? Protestants? Jews? Secular Humanists? Scientologists? Wiccans? Satanists? Student populations reflect the diversity of the culture. Some students may wish to pray in class or at official school ceremonies like graduation exercises or sporting events, but are they being fair to other students who may not wish to pray? Our society is has over 26 million individuals who consider themselves to be Atheists or non-religious in some way. Atheists comprise between 8-12% of the population. And consider the believers. They are fragmented into thousands of sects, denominations and different persuasions. They cannot agree on which holy book to use, which god to worship or which prayer to use. Should this problem be inflicted on the public school system? What good can possibly come from such a practice?

We CAN do something about problems in schools, but forced prayer which violates the rights of students is not the answer. Prayer is being promoted as a "feel good" quick-fix to complex problems. Society has changed, and schools must change as well. The answer to problems might well involve doing other things -- emphasize science and math to prepare kids for the next century, smaller class sizes, perhaps even better pay for over-worked teachers. Often, these programs cost money and take time. They are not the "instant solution" which the prayer-in-school boosters offer, but they are more substantive.

There are problems with violence in our society, particularly with our youth. Sometimes these problems are exaggerated by people who wish to take advantage of the situation. For instance, violent crime in the country has actually remained fairly steady over the years, at least as long as records have been maintained. The country is changing, and so is the make-up of our economy, our population, and our social institutions. We don't need to be deceived into believing that we have some "state of emergency" that requires us to ignore our First Amendment and allow some theocracy to develop. Theocracy, or "one nation under god", has clear examples in our world-- Iran and Iraq, for example.

Thomas Jefferson spoke of the need for a "wall of separation" between the state and the churches, and stated that the government's influence should only extend to the actions, and not the opinions, of its citizens. In the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, he insisted that no American "shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever..." Numerous Supreme Court cases have upheld that notion, often against the fierce opposition of religious interests.

Matthew 6:5-6 reports Jesus taking a stand against school prayer twenty centuries ago: "...Thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men....But thou, when thou prayest, enter into the closet, and when thou has shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret..."

Surely these prohibitions against murder, lying and stealing should be offered to our young people. Certainly there is nothing wrong with promoting these basic concepts. But shall we post in our public, government-run schools: "Thou shalt have no other god before me", and "Thou shalt make no graven images", and "Thou shalt keep the Sabbath day holy", and "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain"? How do these Commandments equate to the First Amendment to the Constitution: "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, nor prohibiting the free exercise thereof"? There can be no reconciliation between the First Amendment and the First Commandment. The government cannot tell us what to think or believe, and has no authority or right to post a particular religion's creeds in our public schools. No way.

There are more than 360,000 houses of worship in this country-- far more churches than schools, in fact. We do not need to supplement churches with our pluralistic public school system.

Americans United - Barry Lynn's Statement

Sense and Nonsense from Colorado

American Atheist's Ron Barrier

Proselytizing at Columbine Services

ACLU's Religious Liberty Page

Tom Flynn's statement on 10 Commandments

Congress Votes for 10 Commandments

Pat Robertson Spreads Panic

Prayers in Tennesee Schools return?

Prayers disrupt a Maryland Graduation

Church/State Issues from Americans United

Real-life Consequences of Religion in School

Council for Secular Humanism Responses

The 10 Commandments from Internet Infidels