why most people don't believe that school prayer influence children for good?

Answer 1

prayer in school is a tricky thing because children come from different religious backgrounds. i think that it would be a good thing as long as everyone was allowed to pray in the religion that they are most comfortable with. it's wrong to try and force other people into a religion that they want no part of, and it's also useless because once most people make up their mind, it's pretty much over.

the best way to have prayer in school is to have religious equality, and that is most likely not going to happen any time soon.

Answer 2

I agree with the first answer that it doesn't have to be legalized to happen. But, if children were praying in schools, some of the things that happen at school wouldn't happen. I do believe that school prayer can influence children for good. I think all schools should pray over their lunches and then some other time throughout the day have a 5 minute silence throughout the entire school to pray about whatever may be on their minds.

Answer 3

I guess many people feel that school prayer is a way of forcing Christianity on students whose parents may very well be of another religion, agnostic or atheist. I'm not American, but I know the founding fathers of the US were extremely anxious to make freedom of religion, and not mandatory Christianity, a social tenet of the new nation, so I think opposing mandatory school prayer is in this tradition. There's nothing to stop children praying privately.

Answer 4

I am a Christian.
I am rabidly against school prayer.
Why?

First it is insulting to my God. Once a prayer in schooler told me "When I was a girl we said the Lord's prayer at school every morning at assembly. We would say the pledge to the flag, sing a little song--like Mary had a little lamb--then we would say the Lord's prayer. Nobody minded. It didn't hurt us." Just a second. Did you just put my God on the level of Mary had a Little Lamb? Forgive me, but I find that offensive.

Second, My Bible (KJV) tells me to avoid vain repetition in prayer. (Matt 6:7) What that means is don't just recite prayers. Pray your prayers. To understand, let's look at the Pledge of Allegience. Honestly, how old were you before you understood the words? I said it every day of my life in elementary school. I knew it by heart the second week of first grade, but I was in high school before it occured to me what I was saying. School prayer is the same way.

Third
Parents tend to spend less time on concepts they assume their kid is learning at school. I never will sit my kids down for a long talk about algebra (unless they are stressing over homework) because the public school teacher can teach algebra a lot better than I can.
WHEN THERE IS PRAYER IN SCHOOL THE GENERAL POPULATION BECOMES LESS RELIGIOUS. Observe Western Europe and the US. Both are Economic power houses. They are similar in culture and language. In the UK (they still have religious instruction in most schools) the cathedrals are empty or full of old women. In the US (where we are appalled by state religion) the churches are full and new churches are being built.

Fourth
My Bible (still KJV Matt 6:5,6) discourages the public school prayer. In fact, it says Don't pray in public to be seen of men.

Fifth
In a hetrogeneous culture, school prayer is devisive. I want to pray to my Christian God, Mohammad wants to pray to Allah, The Catholic wants to pray through Mary, and the Atheist doesn't think he should be praying at all. Whoever has more power/people will determin the type of prayer. The rest of us will come to resent their God. So that EVANGELISM IS HARDER IF PRAYER HAS BEEN FORCED. People have told me that they don't want any part of my God because Christians made them do this or that as children.

Most Importantly
It is a tenent of my faith that God interacts with man one to one. In other words, You are responsible for your approach to God and I am responsible for mine. Forcing people to chant the same mindless prayer is not right, and is not spiritual. I must back off and allow God to speak to you. I can not make you worship the God I think you should worship.

Answer 5

1) It is stupid..why do you need to be a diva and require a special time+place for your prayer? Have some respect for your God and pray honestly..from actual faith and humility...not a school requirement

2) Anyone can pray at any time in school privately...what the pro-prayer people want is a classroom of students forced to recite Christian prayers while teachers walk up+down the aisles whipping those that do not pray "correctly as Jesus would intend".

3) NO CHILD would benfit from praying in school if there is no further action.....prayer, religion and morals are the province of the PARENTS and why parents are being so lazy, stupid, selfish, and evil as to want the schools to do their job as parents is beyond me

Answer 6

I don't know. It's not the only way I suppose. I'm not religious. I wasn't brought up that way for one. But I see nothing wrong with prayer. It does seem beneficial to young people. When they get older, they can make up their mind as to what they believe, especially if they have their parents' guidance.

Prayer can be non-denominational. I grew up reciting the pledge of allegiance. Most kids don't really think too much about it. It's just a nice ritual that everyone can share in. It creates a sense of community. I think prayer does that as well. It does seem that our communities are not as strong as they once were and could be.

But some people are so in love with their opinions and beliefs or use faulty logic to condemn practices that they really don't know like they think do. Sometimes overthinking is really bad. I think that's what has happened here.

Wow. I'm seeing answers that I'm not talking about here. There is nothing wrong with prayer. I don't practice any religion. I grew up with a moment of silence. Some positives I noticed was that it brought everyone together. I never felt anything negative. There isn't much faith or credit given to kids. What are they mindless creatures? I never put my teachers on a pedestal nor did I with my parents. Schools teach children to think for themselves or they should. I went to college and maybe that's where I really learned to think for myself. (or so I think) I'm a graduate student now. It's even more about that.

What is prayer? It's a positive message usually. I don't see it as manipulative. It's quick. It makes people feel connected to each other. Even if they went with different religions' prayers (so as not to favor one) and asked kids what they think (god forbid they should have some say in this) maybe something could be done that could be educational and bring about a sense of connection to each other that is real. Teachers and parents could say to the children that it's up to them what they do with their life, choose religion or not.

Bush's religion is not offensive to me. His attitude is offensive because he's a slacker.

Answer 7

Allowing a child to pray in school influences a child for good. Leading a class in prayer, violates non-christian's 1st ammendment right to practice their own religion (i.e. Muslim, Jewish, Atheist, or Wiccan, etc.) In cases of very young children, it leads them to question their parents judgement and/or authority with no basis other than "teacher said so" (I know I had a few "but teacher said...." arguments with my parents back in the day). Allowing a school "prayer club" to participate on school grounds, is also a violation of said 1st ammendment rights, unless equal oppurtunity is afforded the non-christian students.

Answer 8

Look at what has happened to the schools since prayer was taken out. Now our children are having sex at 10 years old, oral sex is nothing more than a kiss, school shootings, etc. When I was in school, the worst thing that the kids did was chew gum in class and talk too much.

Answer 9

I dont know the answer to that question but I do know that if we put prayer back in the school I think there would be alot less of school shootings. I remember when I was in grade school and the pledge of allegiance was something we did every morning. Now alot of school dont even say the pledge of allegiance anymore because it has "god" in it. I dont understand. Guess I never will.

Answer 10

Mark tell me you are not seriously think of that. Tell me you are not seriously thinking about such an awful thing as that. What world would we live in where choice was chosen for us? One man almost made that world come true. You know his name, he is the one man everyone hates. It wasn't Jesus Christ. His name was, Hitler.

Though they teach us that Hitler was nothing more than an evil man, he had a vision of what perfection was. Everything we are is controversial, but I promise that if you dictate people's lives, you will be guilty of playing God and will be responsible for creating Hell on Earth.