Why isn't praying at home and church enough?

Question

Your child goes to school 8 hours a day. If that. Why is it that the other 16 hours a day can't go to your religion and that 8 hours people are free from religios persecution. Wanting "mandated" prayer is exactly that. It's making everyone who isn't Christian feel uncomfortable and alienated. Why isn't 16 hours a day and 40 on the weekends enough for prayer? Why can't "some" Christians comprimise? Or is it thier way or no way at all?

And you know...the whole it's against the 1st amendement thing. I'll even be generous and say even IF the amendment were based on "Christian" values, that does NOT change what the first amendement reads. Seperation of Church and state is law. It was a Supreme Court ruling. Those words exactly.

Schneb, look at the answer below you. Exactly how am I not seeing this correctly? SOME people want madated prayer. "Bring prayer back to school and stop school shooting"? That's a cop out of parents not doing thier damn job, not prayer in school. It's lazy.

When you can back up creationalism with the SAME amount, hell even HALF the evidence that evolution can I will gladly support it being taught in school.
FYI I am not atheist. I don't want MY relgion being taught at school either. So I AM being fair.

Answer 1

I cannot really speak to other people's motivations. I can only speak to how it looks to me.

Considering that public school kids can already:

* pray when not engaged in school activities or instruction, subject to the same rules designed to prevent material disruption of the educational program that are applied to other privately initiated expressive activities. Among other things, students may read their Bibles or other scriptures, say grace before meals, and pray or study religious materials with fellow students during recess, the lunch hour, or other noninstructional time to the same extent that they may engage in nonreligious activities.

* organize prayer groups, religious clubs, and "see you at the pole" gatherings before school to the same extent that students are permitted to organize other non-curricular student activities groups. Such groups must be given the same access to school facilities for assembling as is given to other non-curricular groups, without discrimination because of the religious content of their expression.

* express their beliefs about religion in homework, artwork, and other written and oral assignments free from discrimination based on the religious content of their submissions. ***

it seems a bit much to me to also insist on prayer time in class.

If a child cannot pray without all the other kids in class praying with him or her, there's a problem, and it isn't with the schools.

If a child needs the whole classroom to be silent in order to pray, there's a problem, and it isn't with the schools.

If a child cannot pray without a teacher or other school official leading him or her, there's a problem, and it isn't with the school.

If, out of all the waking hours of the day, kids need to have *instructional time at school* as their time to pray, there's a problem, and it isn't with the school.



IMO, this simply makes parents who want to mandate prayer in schools look like very ineffective parents, or slack in their religious instruction for their kids.

It shows, IMO, a lack of confidence on the part of the parents involved in their ability to raise their children to pray.

And I laugh out loud at that. I really do. And I'll continue to point a mocking finger at their ineffectual parenting as long as they try to get mandated prayer back into schools.

Answer 2

I dont think that it is so much that we want /mandated/ prayer. We want our children to have the opportunity to pray at school if they so desire.
Prayer is a choice. It doesnt mean that someone has to lead the prayer or talk about Jesus, Buddha, Muhammed, The Goddess, Whatever- Just that those who wish to have access to their daily religious doings may have a time set aside to meditate on those things.

At my high school (in bible belt texas) we had a time for prayer. There would be morning announcements, then the pledge of alliegance, then "a moment of silence for prayer and meditation" No one complained...we were not forced to pray to a specific God, nor were we prosteletyzed to. What is so wrong with that?

Answer 3

I don't claim to have all the answers, but one thing I know. The Amish kids who were murdered in their schoolhouse were being taught the Bible and prayer in school. It did not prevent evil from walking in the door with a gun.

I am a Christian and I pray all the time, often in public places, but not always out loud. No one can mandate whether or not I pray silently.

Answer 4

Christians just want the right to pray in school, not make it mandated. Christianity doesn't force prayer or our beliefs on anyone. I believe we compromise everyday on our jobs, in our schools, etc... Christian teachers aren't allowed to wear jewelry professing their faith or have ornaments on their desk doing the same because certain people in society find it "offensive" or against their rights, so I think we do compromise every day. I mean what about forcing Christians to be taught about evolution? If you want freedom and fairness then lets look at the WHOLE picture and truly be fair to everyone regardless of religious beliefs. Separation of church and state was added in the constitution because churches were wanting the state to get involved in church issues that they didn't want to handle themselves and our government decided to stay out of these issues which I agree with 100%. Nowhere in the bible do you read where the state is to get involved in church issues and that is why that was added. All you have to do is study the history behind our constitution to learn that.

Answer 5

There is an anology about this that I would share.

Say you go to the opening night of a play, the play is really hyped.
But the play is horrible. No one wants to admit that this hyped play is bad, so their lack of warning almost acts as encouragement for others to go.

They also see that it's bad, but now think that perhaps, they just didn't get it, because everyone who went thought it was good, so they also encourage others to see it.

So, if there is prayer in school, perhaps they think they can dupe others into being fooled.

religion has no place in the same building as science, much like fiction has no business sharing the same shelf in the library as fact.

Answer 6

If they made Christianity an elective at school, they should have ALL religions available as electives....Why just Christianity? And I know the Christians would throw a fit about that!!! Religion doesn't need to be mixed in with school...... Takes away the whole Freedom of Religion thing.

Answer 7

It is enough.. in fact it's probably to much.

You failed to make note of all the other times God is given mention in public, like at public meetings and graduations that are traditionally begun with an invocation prayer; like the pledge of allegiance that includes the words "under God" and like the printed message "In God We Trust" on all our American money.

I'm quite tired of the pushy attitude of religionists, too, and although I really don't look forward to the fight, I expect that we'll soon be facing competitive religious demands for favoritism or equality as Islam and Hinduism become more prevalent in the US.

How will the Christian majority respond to demands for spreading little carpets and bowing to the East during Islamic prayer times in schools ? How will they respond to the burning of incense and the ringing of tiny bells when Hinduism wants it's equal time in school?

Public schools must remain absolutely secular in its practices in order to avoid all the chaos that will develop from yielding to religious ritualism if even the first concession is made in consideration of a single "sacred cow" favorite. The line must be drawn now and it must be held. Prayer in any form, (including moments for silent meditation,) is not appropriate in public our schools nor is it right for our publicly held assemblies. We must choose prudently now or pay a very dear price for our shortsightedness later on.

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Answer 8

MUSLIM FEET WASHING AND DAILY PRAYERS ON CAMPUS

Minneapolis Community and Technical College is now installing facilities to enable Muslim students to perform ritual feet washing before daily prayers at the college. Muslims are required to pray five times a day but must first wash their feet. Can you see the direction this is going? According to President Phil Davis the school is simply extending “hospitality” to their newcomers.

For colleges, universities and schools that need some help they can now turn to the Muslim Accommodations Task Force. The MATF is an organization that assists universities, colleges and schools to make them more “Muslim-friendly” and to promote the Muslim student lifestyle. When was the last time a public school was Christian-friendly or promoted the Christian lifestyle? Their goals as stated on their website are to “lobby for religious accommodations including prayer, permanent spaces (prayer rooms), counseling services, Muslim housing, holiday observance, research and to create a database of religious accommodations on campuses across North America.”

MATF also launched the Religious Accommodations Task Force (RATF) funded by the Chevron Texaco Foundation to “organize all efforts related to Muslim accommodations on campus.” Soon they will begin ranking the various colleges and universities according to their ability to accommodate the lifestyle of Muslim students. Folks, it looks like Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini’s Islamic dominion revolution agenda is being launched without restraint in our publicly funded schools. Christianity was rejected and is now being replaced by Islam.

My prayer is that every born again believer will affirm that this nation belongs to the God of the Bible. I am convinced that Jesus will build His Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail.


Also -

Remember when Christian prayer was taken out of our public school system? In 1963 the Supreme Court ruled 7 to 1 that it was unconstitutional for a public school to require students to recite prayers. Back in 1962 the State Board of Regents which supervised the New York public schools was concerned about the continual decline in morality among the student population. To combat the freefall of morals they introduced a program they called “moral and spiritual training” throughout the public schools in New York. The program introduced a prayer each morning that the Regents composed. The prayer was, “Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers and our Country.” This Christian prayer so offended the ACLU that they filed a lawsuit against the Board of Education that went all the way to the Supreme Court.

You see my friend if it's not Christians prayer in schools it will be that of the Muslims, who we as American's have to kowtow to so that we don't offend. Did you hear about the pig farmer in Texas that is fighting a Islamic Mosque that is being built next to his 300 acre family farm. A business that has been in the family for generations. Now his rights as an American are being challenged by that of the Muslim Nation. He has been asked to keep the Pigs away from his part of the property that borders along the Mosque, as not to offend the worshippers. Can you imagine that?

Answer 9

Let me ask you something, why is it that some schools today in the USA are allowing some islamic people time to pray & a college that I read a story about was going to build a mosque on their campus so Muslims will have a place to pray, using our tax paying money. Yet when Christians tries to pray, that is a no, no, When I was in school in the 1950's & 1960's We were allowed to pray & were given a new bible in grade school every year. Now you can thumbs this down, But I know exactly what I am talking about, in my school days we did not have restrictions where at recess we went outside & play cowboy's & Indians, & we had no killings whatsoever in my school, Not even drugs, None of these things we never heard of, But since they took God out of school, Satan has come in full blast & we have no one to blame but our politicans. These shootings & killings in schools today were not heard of in my school days, I wonder why.

Answer 10

They won't be happy until everybody recognizes their religious figurehead as the only religious figurehead.

They love to pray openly, on the street corners...like the hypocrites....

Wait...doesn't their own Bible tell them NOT to do that? That when they pray to do it in private and they'll be rewarded???

Hmmm..... blooming hypocricy at its finest.....

Too bad they feel their religious beliefs MUST effect those of us who don't believe....it's even more sad that our government agrees with them.

Hey Schneb....you might also want to outline exactly when discipline in the home began to erode, leading to all the Godless things you are attempting to outline....The lack of God in the school system lead to NOTHING...it's the lack of discipline in the home that has caused our problems. When parents stop caring....their children stop caring.