Prevent Coercive Prayer In Public Schools

Prevent Coercive Prayer in Public Schools


     The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America

reads: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or

prohibiting the free exercise thereof."  This amendment, commonly called the

Establishment Clause, forms the foundation of the right of every American to

practice their chosen religion freely and without the interference of the

government.  In 1947, the Supreme Court issued a statement emphasizing the

separation of school and state based on this amendment.  Students are entitled

to the right to express their religious beliefs in school, but it is

unconstitutional for the administration to endorse or discriminate against any

religion.  Due to this interpretation, the practice of coercive prayer is

unconstitutional, and should be kept forever separated from this nation's

schools.

     The purpose of public schools is to educate, not indoctrinate.

Schoolchildren are a captive audience.  How could a second-, fourth-, or even

sixth-grader view the routine recital of prayers during the school day as a

voluntary action?  This invasive practice would create unnecessary divisions

among children by making them unduly aware of their religious differences.

Public schools are for everyone, whether they are Buddhist, Catholic, Muslim, or

Taoist.  The practice of organized prayer in schools invades the student's right

to an education free of the discrimination which organized prayer would

encourage.

     Many people mistake the religious indifference of public schools for

hostility.  Public schools must to be very careful to neither discriminate for

nor against any single religion, and people often incorrectly perceive the

schools' attitudes toward religion.  The non-discrimination requirement may seem

wrong to many, but when religion has a home in public schools, it singles out

the students who disagree with the theology being taught.  Prior to the Supreme

Court's decisions against school prayer, it was standard practice to put the

students who didn't agree with the theology being taught in places of detention

during Bible readings and prayers.

     One argument in favor of the practice of school-organized prayer draws

its basis from the belief that students must be taught morals in school, and

that morals cannot be taught in the proper manner without the use of religion.

Proponents of this viewpoint believe that an ethical code cannot exist without

some higher power dictating it to mankind, because humans have not the self-

control to follow such a code unless there is a deity to distribute rewards to

the faithful and mete out punishments to the transgressors.

     There are several obvious fallacies in this argument.  The first is the

assumption that morals must be taught in public schools.  Many people hold the

belief that it is the duty of the students' parents, and not the responsibility

of the school system, to teach the students matters of ethics.  Another mistake

is to assume that a moral law cannot be taught without the use of religion.

There are many logical, non-religious reasons for following a moral code that is

acceptable to this society.  If one does not agree to follow the morals of the

rest of the citizens of the U. S., one will quickly be incarcerated.  The

American people are already under the power of an entity which wields immense

power and has the capacity to punish those who do not conform to society's

ideals: the federal government.

     Often, debaters in favor of coercive prayer in school feel themselves

compelled to quote statistics and percentages, a practice which is not usually

useful to the debate in general because there is rarely any proof to link the

rampant rise of "sin" with the practice of school-endorsed prayer. "Since the

court outlawed prayerŠdivorce doubled, teenage pregnancy went up 200%, and teen

suicide went up 300%Š abortion increased 1000%. There is a strong correlation

between the expulsion of prayer from our schools and the decline in mora
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