Prayer In School, are you against or for prayer in school Options

[chelle]

ok. so i'm doing an english project for school on the oh so controversial topic of prayer in school. and since we LOVE to debate ( ) i was wondering what everyone's stand in this is.

Pro School Prayer Positions:
1)Our Government is based on Religious Principles
2)The Free Exercise Clause Protects School Prayer
3)Banning School Prayer Leads to Moral Decline
4)Majority Should Rule

Anti School Prayer Positions:
1)State-Sponsored School Prayer is Unconstitutional
2)Prayer in School is Already Legal
3)State-Sponsored Prayer Will Lead to Religious Intolerance
4)Moral Decline and School Prayer are Unrelated
TO SEE THESE ARGUMENTS IN DEPTH GO HERE


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i am against school prayer. big surprise. lol. public schools exist to educate, not to proselytize. children in public schools are a captive audience. making prayer an official part of the school day is coercive and invasive. what 5, 8, or 10-year-old could view prayers recited as part of class routine as "voluntary"? religion is private, and schools are public, so it is appropriate that the two should not mix. our schools are for all children, whether catholic, baptist, quaker, atheist, buddhist, wiccan, jewish, agnostic. the schools are supported by all taxpayers, and therefore should be free of religious observances and coercion. when religion has invaded our public school system, it has singled out the lone jewish student, the children in the minority. families who protest state/church violations in our public schools invariably experience persecution. it was common prior to the court decision against school prayer to put non-religious or nonorthodox children in places of detention during bible-reading or prayer recitation. the children of supreme court plaintiffs against religion in schools were beaten up on the way to and from school, their families subjected to community harassment and death threats for speaking out in defense of a constitutional right. we know from history how harmful and destructive religion is in our public schools. individual, silent, personal prayer never has and never could be outlawed in public schools. it is coercive for schools to schedule worship as an official part of the schoo day, school sports or activities, or to use prayer to formalize graduation ceremonies. such prayers are more "mandatory" than "voluntary." the radical school prayer amendment would negate the first amendment's guarantee against government establishment of religion. most distressing, it would be at the expense of the civil rights of children, america's most vulnerable class. it would attack the heart of the bill of rights, which safeguards the rights of the individual from the tyranny of the majority. those in the minority would be compelled to conform to a religion or ritual n which they disbelieve, to suffer the humiliation and imposition of submitting to a daily religious exercise against their will, or be singled out by orthodox classmates and teachers as "heretics" or "sinners" for not participating. should the government become "prayer police"? the school prayer debate seems calculated to deflect attention away from the more pressing economic questions facing our nation. some politicians like to blame everything bad in america upon the absence of school prayer. it is a quick fix. it is irrational to charge that the complicated sociological problems facing our everchanging population stem from lack of prayer in schools. our political system is a democratic republic in which we use majority vote to elect certain officials or pass laws. but, we do not use majority vote to decide what religion, if any, our neighbors must follow. imposing prayer-by-majority-vote is flagrant and insensitive abuse of school authority. such schools should be teaching students about the purpose of the bill of rights, instead of teaching them to be religious bullies.

[illyria]

of course since do not beleive in prayer, you wouldnt understand fully . Jesus is referring this to the hypocrites who try to look all good and holy by fake praying and trying to pray loudly so that people will realize how "holy" they are. THIS DOES NOT APPLY TO THE SCHOOL PRAYERS HOWEVER because school prayers are for students who would like to pray at school for school and to be closer with God. not to show off and be hypocritical. and JESUS definetly was NOT against praying in school. did he ever SAY THAT?! no. and besides. desperate times call for desperate measures. like it could almost be the end of the world because it is so chaotic. christians need to pray and ask God for help daily and whenever they possibly can.

sorry if i offended you, but this really ticked me off. if you do not understand the bible, dont repeat what it says and interpret it in such a way that it might confuse fellow christians. To me, this is very insulting. 
and also:


these do not oppose prayer in schools. believe me. all the churches i went to in my life were presbyterian, untied methodiest, or chirsitan church. and believe me, i've been to MANY churches in my lifetime. also, if they opposed prayer in school, why would some of the presbyterian churches encourage prayer at schools by teaching students to do so via bible study? same with christian churches. as a matter of fact, i go to a christian church that is also a christian school. and all of them pray at school, and the church itself proposed a required bible study program for students in high school and junior high to learn how to pray for people and how to pray, period. My church is a HUGE korean christian church, known throughtout korea and many other hucrches look up to our pastor and how much our church has done for other churches, etc. Our church is also one of the largest korean churches and one of the leading in missionary funding and direct missionary sending, church building in other foreign countries, etc. within the lessons, they taought us that even if people discriminate you for praying, you should still pray. true, they said that being hypocritical is wrong and praying just for the sake of fame is being wrong, but if you truly were praying for the sake of praying, you should at school, at home, at church, everywhere and anywhere when you need God's support or you want to thank him, etc.


sorry if im being rela b!tchy and all, but this is how i feel about it

this is chelle it's just a different name. anyways, i do believe in prayer. just not prayer in public schools. in my religion, wicca, i pray. and i was copying something that i had found off the internet because i thought it was rather interesting. actually, here are the links for you: Faith groups that support the First Ammendment and oppose government-sponored prayer in public schools. it's saying the presbyterian churches as a whole support the first amm and oppose school prayer. Bible Excerpt. i copied "jesus was against school prayer" word for word off that site. i wasn't actually saying i believed that. my bad on that specific thing. i completely agree with you when you say even if people discriminate against you for praying then you should still do it. but, by praying you are not realizing that you are discriminating against the people who do not wish to pray. you are singling them out and subjecting them to an activity that they don't believe in. praying is a 24-7 thing. it can be done whenever, wherever and by whomever. the type of school prayer that i am talking about, and the kind that many are trying to get back in the schools is where the principal comes over the announcements and prays with the students and maybe reads a bible scripture. now pro-school prayer people say that kids who do not wish to pray could go out of the room or whatever but that would single them out. that's discrimination. why even go through all of that when right now, anyone can pray by themselves. at my school currently we have a minute of silence. KEYWORD: silence. there's no verbalization of religious beliefs so that i'm okay with. people can pray within themselves. that's what i believe the bible excerpt was saying...