Prayers in school? Will it make things better?

Question

Okay I read a question yesterday about the killings in schools and do they happen because prayer has been removed from schools? I don't think so. If prayer/religion in school would make things better then why do we hear about priests and such molesting kids? Will prayer in school really work? How can it when you have "religious officials" doing unspeakable acts?

FYI, I am not bashing any type of religion. I, for one, was born, baptised & raised Catholic. However, I do not practice now(and not because of a few "bad" priests). I was just curious to see if prayer in schools will make things better.

Answer 1

The Catholic Church agrees with the U.S. Constitution as currently interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court and does not support "structured" prayer in public schools.

In the Vatican II document, DECLARATION ON RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, DIGNITATIS HUMANAE (Human Dignity), the Church states:

The human person has a right to religious freedom. This freedom means that all men are to be immune from coercion on the part of individuals or of social groups and of any human power, in such wise that no one is to be forced to act in a manner contrary to his own beliefs, whether privately or publicly, whether alone or in association with others, within due limits.

Children will continue to privately pray before tests just like they always have.

With love in Christ.

Answer 2

What a lot of people seem to be confused about is that a students right to pray in school is, and always has been allowed. If a student, or a group of students, want to pray before class or at lunch they can do just that. There is nothing that stops them from that right. All the law states is that the school itself can not organize, promote, or endorse any religious events. I think that is an excellent law. The government should not be in the business of religion. Think of it this way, if the law were to change and a government sponsored religion were to be selected (because that is exactly what would happen), which and whose religion is picked? Looking at history I think the fight for the forced religious training of our kids would cause even more violence not less.

Answer 3

Using priests to defend your argument was weak. That had nothing to do with what you were talking about.

However, I agree that prayer in school wouldn't be the answer. That would probably cause too much conflict because of different religious groups, and those who simply don't have a religion and don't think their children should be taught to pray.

I think people who believe in God should be praying for our schools though.

But your thing about priests, where did that come from when you're talking about prayer in schoools?! Yeah, we know that has happened. THose priests are obviously not real Christians, are they? Not everyone who says they believe in something actually live what they believe.

Answer 4

Prayer is only any good if you actually believe in a god. Otherwise it's just meaningless words spoken hollowly by reluctant tongues. People can also feel oppressed if they are forced to pray to a god they don't believe in. As an atheist there is no way I would ever pray, but that doesn't mean I'm a mindsless thug.
Even if I was religous I doubt that prayer would matter, people tend to forget their gods when doing unsavoury things. Look at the terrorists they say they are fighting 'a war for religion', I think not. They are killing for the sake of killing.
Prayer would not make a difference.

Answer 5

That last school shooting I heard about was at an Amish school, there was certainly prayer there.

Pray in school won't help, too many other religions with different gods. at a public school no religion should be forced upon anyone. the government pays for school, church and state are supposed to be separated. going to a public school should not in anyway be like going to church.

also look at the world news, prayer hasn't stopped the violence anywhere else.
I don't know how to stop school shootings, but prayer in schools won't do it. forcing anything on to anybody does not make them take it seriously or believe anything.

I am with the person above me on the moment of silence (aside from non-believers meditating on nothingness, they could think about what they have accomplished for the day and what they need to accomplish or something like that).

Answer 6

Not to force any religion on anyone, but the values that went with it when there was prayer in schools seem to be gone. A moment of silence or something else is fine, I'm not for forcing people to pray. But look at where our schools have gone in the last 40 years since prayer was removed...

Answer 7

We used to pray in primary school but I can't see that it did anything. There was still an 8 year old that smashed a class mate's head against a wall. There was still a large amount of bullying. There was still everything that happens in a typical primary school.

Shootings and other killings in schools are usually the result of troubled youths getting hold of weapons they aren't supposed to have. That kid in Arkansas that helped himself to his grandfather's arsenal, why the hell did his grandad have an arsenal of live weapons?

The problems are not usually in the schools themselves but in the families that don't identify (or choose to ignore) problems with their children. Religion usually doesn't have any bearing on this, unless the child's problem stems from an emotional attachment or detachment to religion.

Answer 8

I went to a christian academy when I was in kindergarten. We prayed before class started, prayed at lunch and prayed when school let out. The kids were bad as hell. The next year I went to a public, no prayer and a lot better behaved kids. So to answer you question prayer in school does not work.

Answer 9

So much of school violence centers around kids being bullied. If we add prayer to schools, we have added one more component to highlight the differences in kids. Some are Christian, some are Hindu, some are Jewish, some are religious, etc. Now, we add fuel to the fire when some don't pray, some pray differently, etc. Kids can be cruel. We should be thinking up ways to eliminate bullying, not thinking up ways to foster it.

Answer 10

So, let me get this straight. A priest molests children and suddenly all religions are bad? When they took God out of public schools, the devil moved in. You need to stop judging all Christianity because of a few Catholic priests.