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.

[chelle]

I have a question for you.  Does prayer offend you?  I've gotten the impression that public school does have prayer because it might offend people, so I was just curious if you are offended or even affected when people pray around you.

prayer does offend me personally. if i wanted to see and hear people pray then i would go to church. like i stated before. religion is private, school is public. the two should not mix. now if you go to a private school and don't like the fact that there's prayer then there's really nothing you can do about it because you choose to go there and it's a PRIVATE school. it has it's own set of "special" rules. now, if people pray around me and do it silently then i don't care. it's the same thing as me meditating and chanting to the bountiful goddess. it would offend you. the only way i'm against prayer in school is if they do it how they did "back in the day" (that sounds so funny ) and the principal comes over the intercom and reads a scripture from the bible and a prayer. it is impossible to compose a prayer that will reflect the religious beliefs of all students. even non-sectarian prayer infringes upon students who follow no religion. at my school we have the moment of silence and it doesn't bother me AT ALL. and it's funny because just today i was looking at all the people in my english class who said they want prayer in school and during this moment they were talking or doing classwork.

But I think it's stupid how they tried to take out " under God " from the Pledge of Allegiance. I think that's just stupid.

"i pledge allegiance to the flage of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
the "godless" pledge of allegiance, as it was recited by generations of school children before congress inserted a religious phrase, "under god," in 1954. 1954?!?! the congress had no right to do that. separation of church and state! so i think it should be taken out. i don't think it'll happen though...

I SAY YES. WE NEED PRAYER AT SCHOOLS.
this country was made on the principles of christianity and we should always have stuck my them. sometimes i wish i could go back in time to the Constitutional COnvention of 1787 and make the founding fathers be more specific cause i hate it that people say the constitution says its wrong. "separation of church and state" haha. dumb people who use that as an excuse. the people who made the constituion were christians in one denomination or another...they would have been okay with that fact that there are different types of christianity HOWEVER they would not have been okay with other religions especially taking PRAYER out of SCHOOLS. they might have let the other religions be free to worship on their own but i hardly doubt that they would have wanted prayer out of schools. this country needs to go back to its christian roots.. im tired of people who try to do otherwise
ALSO WHEN they wrote separation of church and state they meant it in the point that the government couldn't stop a form of the Christian denomination. they probably would want them to stop the weird religions that has come into this country.
I mean seriously. if they truly truly wanted separation of church and state and took that literally as some dumb puck holes do now why did they still allow school prayers to go on

OH MY GODDESS!do you hear yourself when you speak. i have never heard such ridiculous or ignorant arguments. ah, this shall be fun. first of all, you can not interpret what our forefathers meant and what they did not mean. it says "separation of church and state" there are no loopholes. 2ndly, i hope you understand a little about government because i'm going to explain it to you. the establishment clause proscribes the establishment of religion IN GENERAL-including religious practices. since prayer is a religious exercise, state-supported prayer amounts to the establishment of a religious practice and therefore is unconstitutional! you basically are saying what are forefathers would have allowed and would not have liked. how can you possibly know any of that? that's right... you can't. you're naive and letting your belief clog your mind and ears and all you can see is your opinion and no one else's. lol.

However I believe it is TOTTALLY UNFAIR that my parents taxes go to funding public schools and the government does not fund Private/catholic/christian/jewish/muslim schools out there.
And its a big $7000 tuition every year for me. I believe its unfair that the public school system does not give options to religious studies in school and are basically restricting people optional education to their faith. Notice i said optional.
Also, prayers said effectivly well will only take a minute of class time. In fact thats how it is here in my school it only takes 1 minute to make a short prayer. The prayers are generic that they would fit under all religions. The students would not be obliged to say prayers but just listen silently or choose to ignore if they are athiest. But Its not fair when a majority of our nation is of some form of religous faith to be stripped of the oppertunity to encorporate their faith in their daily lives which they spend most of the time in school because of the rather few non religous persons.

your school chose to separate itself from the government and become a private school. it is a PRIVATE school. therefore it is in no way unfair that the goverment doesn't fund it. taxes are already high enuff as it is. if we were to fund the rich kids' schools as well then it would be financially draining...
i agree with you on the religious studies though. i wish they offered religious classes in high school.
prayers WILL NOT fit under all religions. what about atheists??? to subject someone to listen to prayers that they don't believe in is so selfish to even suggest. you have 16+ hours outside of school to pray. so there goes your "i spend most of the time in school" argument...

i found something today that was very interesting...
even jesus was against school prayer
"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 thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret." - Matt. 6:5-6

here are faith groups that oppose government-sponsored prayer in public schools:
national council of churches; american baptist churches, usa; christian church (disciples of christ); the episcopal church; evangelical luteran church in america; friends committee on national legislation; mennonite central committee usa; presbyterian church (usa); general conference of seventh day adventists; united church of christ; united methodist church; unitarian universalist association; american jewish congress; anti-defamation league; central conference of american rabbis; national council of jewish women; north american council of muslim women; soka gakkai international--usa.