Wayne
Manning We’ve been hearing recently
about House Joint Resolution 81, regarding a possible constitutional
amendment concerning prayer on public property, including schools. It came
up on our County Supervisors’ agenda for their endorsement as it begins
to make the rounds of the various state legislatures. As I write this, the
supervisors have postponed further discussion after discovering a clear
division of opinion among themselves. Here is the proposed amendment:
“To secure the people's right to acknowledge God according to the
dictates of conscience: Neither the United States nor any State shall
establish any official religion, but the people's right to pray and to
recognize their religious beliefs, heritage, and traditions on public
property, including schools, shall not be infringed. The United States and
the States shall not compose school prayers, nor require any person to
join in prayer or other religious activity.” It sounds fairly innocuous at
first reading. What’s the harm? But the more I read it, and think about
it, the more troubled I am. This proposed amendment bothers me in several
ways. First, our “right to acknowledge God according to the dictates of
conscience” is already secured by the very Constitution this article
seeks to amend. Clearly this is not the real reason for the proposal. I am troubled secondly, and more
than a little mystified, that it seems to be “common knowledge” that
prayer is banned in schools. Not so. Any one, in any school, can pray at
any time. And most students do, especially around finals. Many teachers
do, a little every day. The only requirement is that classes are not to be
disturbed. What is prohibited is school sponsored, verbalized prayer,
that, once spoken, falls on all ears and minds alike. So “prayer in
school” is not the real issue either, in the broad sense. The real agenda in this proposed
amendment is the people’s right “to recognize their religious beliefs,
heritage, and traditions” on public property, especially schools. This
is the third and most challenging difficulty I see here. The courts have
found, and the Constitution, in my view, supports, that if any single
religion in a given public school has its beliefs, heritage, and
traditions observed, then every religion represented there must be given
equal treatment. The ramifications are enormous and endless. Will every
faith require an expert on the faculty to insure that its beliefs,
heritage, and traditions are adequately represented? Will complex
mathematical formulas be needed to prorate allotted time among the
represented faiths according to the number of adherents? Will sufficient
counseling expertise be available to help impressionable students who
become confused by the paradoxes among the various belief systems, and
even more confused when they take their confusion home to parents who
aren’t generally equipped to discuss religious practices other than
their own? It takes little imagination to see
how unworkable this would be. This is simply bad law and has no place in
our public schools, attended by practitioners of all faiths and supported
by all the people. We mislead ourselves when we think that America is
solely a Christian nation. That very notion is what the framers of the
Constitution wanted to avoid. Many of the principles on which our country
was founded do indeed occur in Christianity, but they are found in other
belief systems as well. Let us not forget that the dictum in Amendment 1
that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion” is not designed to protect religion from the government, but
to protect government, including our public schools, from religion,
particularly religion with a strong component of evangelism, which is a
fundamental premise in much of Christianity. What we can do is pray FOR our
schools. All of us can do that, whatever our faith stance. Since the
beginning of this year our prayer teams at Unity of Auburn have been
praying for all the public schools in Placer County from K through 12,
plus a handful of associated adult schools. Each week we hold five of our
more than 90 public schools in prayer during our Sunday worship
celebrations, our midday prayer time during the week, and individually
whenever we choose. We write to the principal or chief administrator of
each school several weeks in advance and tell them what we are doing. We
encourage them to share our letter with their learning communities in
whatever ways they deem appropriate. Our prayer for the administration,
faculty, staff, and students is simply this: May
the spirit of love, understanding, and peace reign in our schools.
May all who enter them be in harmony with each other and seek the joy of
learning. Such a prayer reflects not a religion, but the spirit of all religion. May the spirit of love, understanding, and peace reign in all our minds and hearts as this debate continues.
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