Christians who want prayer in school, if it would mean that you could have school led prayer........?

Question

would you be willing to sit through and respect prayers from other religions to be equally led in the schools? For instance, would drums and inscense offend you? Would a prayer to Allah? Would you sit respectfully through a prayer to a goddess? If not, why and why should others have to do so for Christian lead prayers if you will not do so for theirs?

Yes, I understand anyone can pray at any time silently. Most of the Christians I know, however, when they say "the nation went bad when we took prayer out of schools" mean school LED prayer, not the moment of silence and not the "anyone can silently pray any time" type of prayer.

And, it's a hypathetical question. I'm not proposing that an all day prayer fest be held for every religion to have their moment. However, even hypathetically, it wouldn't be too difficult to represent a different religion's way of prayer on different days. One prayer, one day, different prayer the next and so on.

For those of you who wish to use the "this nation was founded on Christianity" it doesn't fly with me. There was a foundation in this nation before you arived and we had our OWN religion.

Answer 1

First of all, the term "separation of church and state" is NO WHERE in the Constitution. This phrase was taken from a PERSONAL letter of Thomas Jefferson about keeping the government from infringing on the rights of the church, not the other way around. Secondly, even though "school-led" prayer was taken out of teh schools back in the early 60's, students have the right to pray and practice their faith at school just about however they want according to the law. As long as it is not creating a major disruption of the education process, Christian students (even other religions) can pray, read, sing, worship whatever theywant to do, especially during free time. There is a lot of confusion on this issue with teachers and principals and there are a lot of students who have gotten in trouble for doing things that they had the right to do. But to answer your question, I don't think school-led prayer is the answer because there are thousands of religions out there and no where near enough time to recognize each individual one represented by the students. The only problem i have is that after 1963 the judicial system, government and school system did a very poor job and communicating what had actually been taken out of school. Many people took this court case to mean that God, the bible and all references to Christianity in the school house was illegal and many people still believe this unfortunately.School is a place for learning, learning about a lot of things you'll experience in life. religion and faith is one of those things. So in short, I don't necessarily think the school itself should be the one responsible for LEADING prayer, but students of faith should feel absoluetly free to express themselves however their faith asks them to without fear of punishment. I believe Christian teachers should feel free to talk about their personal beliefs as long as they are not pushing it on their students
feel free to email me.

Answer 2

Of course they wouldn't and that's the problem isn't it? They aren't as tolerant as they should be. This is the reason why prayer, church and religion have been taken out of public school and that's the way it should be.

I've answered questions about this, posted by christians, on here before. Talking about diverse religious backgrounds and that if you allow prayer for christians you must allow it for all. Of course they believe that the reason there is so much violence, bullying and problems exist in school is because there is no prayer allowed which is ridiculous. Inevitable they always choose the best answer that agrees that it should be brought back.

Prayer, religion should not be allowed in the class room during class time. I would have no problem if students of like mind wanted to gather and create a prayer circle or bible study group, whether christian, muslim or other religious background, but it would have to be conducted as a extra curricular activity and the people involved would not be allowed to try and tell everyone how right they are and everyone is so wrong.

Religion breeds intolerance to often, not just christianity but others as well. I believe that everyone should be allowed to believe in what they like as long as they try to enforce it on all.

Answer 3

Sorry for breaching protocol but I'm not actually a Christian.

I would not assume that all Christians would insist on only Christian prayers being led by schools (though I'm sure you'll have no trouble finding a handful of those). Funny, but I think in a lot of ways Christians tend to get stereotyped as being judgmental, hypocritical, and closed-minded. But that is only a minority of them in my observation (though a lot of them do tend to get defensive and even irrational about religious issues).

In principal I wouldn't have a problem with schools leading prayers from multiple religions, but it would be difficult to administer this in a way that wouldn't open a political Pandora's Box. For example, how would you ensure that each student's religion is adequately represented in the prayer sessions? Or, what if one religion considers it blasphemy to participate in a prayer of another religion (not that THAT would ever happen or anything) - you would basically be creating an atmosphere that puts pressure on students to do things that their religion considers to be immoral.

I think even if the courts allowed it, schools would be hesitant to do something like this because they'd be constantly walking on eggshells.

Answer 4

Personally I don't care about prayer in schools. But like it or not this country was based upon Judeo-Christian principles by our forefathers. There is nothing in the Constitution about public prayer. It says there will be no state sponsored religion. That is a little different than the so called "separation of church and state".

Answer 5

Ah but to those who believe in Allah, he is thier one god and yours is offensive to them. There is no reason for religion to be in school, it belong is church or in the home or whatever. To have it in school would only be for propaganda to try and convert people. You can pray before school, after school, and even in school if you wanted to, however there shouldnt be a formally led prayer. Besides, if god knows all, he knows if you are praying in your thoughts right? why do you need to do it out loud?


I really dont understand this organized relgion thing....

And please stop with the christian country argument. That is pure BS. The founding fathers were dietists. Meaning they believed someone created life and then left. They were trying to prevent what happened in england and the religous persecuations of the protestent church of england. They did not want religon and politics mixed, they had seen only suffering come from it.

Answer 6

What a great question! I just get sick of how the likes of Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell try to rewrite history so they can break down the separation of church and state! You can be sure that the Christian fundamentalist nutcases wouldn't be willing to respectfully sit through a prayer to another deity!

Answer 7

Of course they would not. Soon as prayers to Allah start being broadcast over the PA system at public schools every christian child would be whiped out of the public schools faster than you can say amen.
Keep religion out of school (outside of personal expression of course) so no one is excluded.

Answer 8

I personally don't care if children have a set prayer time in school. What I want is what most thinking believers of ANY faith want. FREEDOM OF RELIGION that is NOT constrained by the state, ie, what we are guaranteed by the Constitution. By refusing ANY child of ANY faith the right to pray in or on school or school grounds, the state is restricting the free practice of religion, a restriction which is specifically prohibited by the Constitution. LOOK IT UP! FIRST AMENDMENT.

A Catholic, orthodox Jewish or Muslim child is supposed to say certain prayers at certain times of the day, including times when that child is in school. Yet schools prohibit these children from doing so. Atheist parents get all bent out of shape if the kids pray anyway. And why? Are they so weak in their OWN faith in God's NON-existence that they fear their child will be corrupted and become a believer in God's existence?

I think so. After all, it happened to Madelyn Murray O'Hair's son. EEEK! If it could happen to the world's most famous atheist's kid, it could happen to ANY atheist's kid. ACK! Oh horrors!

And so, to prevent that eventuality, they make like a squeaking wheel, get greased and all believer's children, whatever their faith, are refused their constitutional rights to practice that faith freely. SHAME ON YOU ATHEISTS!

To demand for yourselves what you refuse to allow others is a sign of evil. Your "moral" and "ethical" consciences are apparently as elastic as you claim the believers' to be. SHAME, SHAME, SHAME!

Answer 9

i think people should be allowed to pray to whoever or whatever whenever they want to. i know i certainly said silent prayers in school. i'm christian and i pray to god but pretty much everyone prays to god, religions just have different names for him. i don't believe in having any kind of organized prayers but if there were prayers it wouldn't bother me who they were too. i also think if every one on a team or in a class agrees to have a prayer they should be allowed to. it's ridiculous to abolish prayer from school. it will never be fully gone. as long as there are tests, kids will pray in school. as for the inscense...i'm thinking most schools would not allow for fire safety reasons.

Answer 10

I don't think there should be a school-led prayer but we did used to have a silent moment for prayer. That would be good.

School led prayer should only be done in schools that cater to specific religion... Like catholic school.