“Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”
Article 1 of the Bill of Rights
Religious freedom is a treasured heritage and one of our most important constitutional guarantees!
Curiously, adherence to, and rebellion against 16th and 17th century European religious fervor provided a major impetus for the exploration and settlement of the New World. While some of the settlers drawn westward across the Atlantic institutionalized their own autocratic theocracies, others provided refuges of religious tolerance protecting, perhaps grudging, the rights of those who held different faiths.
In their wisdom, the founding fathers, not a particularly religious lot, understood if governmental institutions obtained the power to regulate religion, it then secured an ability to promote specific beliefs and, concurrently, to suppress others. They were determined to create a state where Christians and non-Christians, deists and atheists were all free to hold and practice their religious beliefs without fear of interference or persecution.
Since then, religion’s influence on American life has ebbed and flowed. On balance, however, our nation has moved slowly toward what Jefferson called, “a wall of separation between church and state”.
Today, many Americans believe this partition between secular and religious realms is singularly responsible for the evils they see plaguing our society … from promiscuity to homosexuality and from drugs to the breakdown of the family. While proposed remedies vary from person to person and sect to sect, a return of prayer in school is a commonly prescribed prescription … particularly from the “religious right”.
Just last week, Senator Helms threatened to filibuster a major education bill if an amendment was not added to mandate prayer in federally funded (meaning all public and many private) schools.
Having attended public schools from 1947 to 1960, I am a product of a generation for whom Bible reading and the Lord’s Prayer were a mandatory at the start of each school day. Meanwhile, the beliefs and traditions of non-Christians were effectively ignored.
While parents might have believed otherwise, few students paid much attention to these compulsory morning exercises. Rather, with the teacher’s attention diverted, paper clips, erasers and whispers floated across the classroom, last minute cramming for first period tests was completed and notes of affection were silently passed back-and-forth between adolescent sweethearts.
Pious words recited daily, devoid of thoughtful discussion or serious contemplation become as meaningless as most commercials messages. Eventually, audiences mentally mute them out as surely as they use a remote to silence inane and bothersome television ads.
Parents who believe prayer is an important aspect of their faith, can and should see that it, together other cherished rites, be taught and encouraged in the home; in the church, mosque or synagogue; and, perhaps most appropriately, in the hearts and minds for their children.
Nothing in the Supreme Court’s 1962 and 1963 rulings banning officially sponsored prayer in public schools prevents any child from pausing to quietly pray, meditate or simply sit and contemplate their very existence while traveling to and from school, during study periods, before eating lunch, or any other time they choose.
Ours is a nation of religious diversity, growing more so in recent years as patterns of immigration have changed. Unfortunately, few of our citizens have an appreciation or knowledge of any of the vast array of our nation’s religious traditions beyond their own.
Americans must be permitted to exercise their constitutional right to worship when and as they please … so long as their practices neither break the law nor trample on the rights of others. As such, while polls have consistently demonstrated a majority of Americans favor the return of prayer to the public schools … we must heed the words of
federal Judge Albert Bryan, “the notion that a person’s constitutional rights may be subject to a majority vote is itself an anathema.”
Rather than continuing the endless battle over prayer in schools, energies could be better spent providing electives in comparative religions. These courses could offer students an in-depth knowledge of the many religious traditions which are interwoven through our American social tapestry.
By opting for education over mandate, emphasis could be focused on the many similarities of alternative faiths rather than fostering the rhetoric of self-righteousness and separation … thereby possibly forging positive moral values and engendering greater human tolerance.
