Prayer In School - Take It Away, And You Take Away Why This Country Was Founded

Don't you think then a time should be set aside for it because if you have everyone do it; its impeeding on the rights of those who do not follow or believe in the same things you do?

Don't you think it can be done silently and to oneself in a class or school instead of involving all those there?

Let me start out by saying that I am in no way shape or form a religious person.

Prayer in school is acceptable as long as it is not lead by a teacher during class. There were always prayer services outside before school began and there was also a Fellowship of Christian students which was lead by a faculty member after school was out for the day when I was in high school. My school didn't discourage religion but it didn't promote it either, which is the way it should be.

I think that people that aren't religious fear that other kids or faculty will try to push their "voodoo" beliefs on their kids and try to brain wash them. This is, of course, ridiculous. People that are religious don't push their religous views on other people. In my experiences with friends and family that have particular beliefs, they keep them to themselves unless a discussion warrants the use of something that they have taken from their religious background. I also think that post 9/11 parents don't want their children exposed to religious like Islam because people have this conotation that Muslims are terrorists when that isn't true at all. Remember that the Christians killed countless more people during the crusades...anyway...

People need to stop overreacting about "problems" that shouldn't be problems...because after all this is "one nation under God."

if you knew anything about christianity, woodywoodbeck, you'd know that fellowship with other christians is an integral part of our faith, prayer included. we need the ability to pray with others. NOT allowing kids to pray is impeeding on THEIR rights the same way you say prayer for kids that dont believe impeeds THEIR rights. what right are you talking about anyways? if a student is not a believer they don't have to participate. but let kids that do believe have fellowship together. in today's society, its harder and harder to do

You haven't read the Constitution have you LFJ? Or you would know that "our Founding Fathers were Deists and swore off the priests having any part in matters of state, and they were right." They were exactly right! They provided protection from religion, and Protection for Religion in the Constitution. You just come on here trying to pick a fight. I wish everyone would just ignore your silly posts, they are never researched and seldom make sense.

yup, every single person that founded this country is a deist. well researched and makes sense to me!

and this is a viewpoint post. it doesnt have to be researched. it doesnt have to make sense to you. thats the beauty of opinion.

Most of them were deists and the rest knew enough to leave religion out of government and schools. The beauty of most opinion is that it isn't just for the sake of arguement and is at the very least well thought out.

As long as the prayer is optional then there should be no problem with it. If a group of students want to meet around a flagpole before school to pray, then what's the big deal?

No big deal. Meeting around the flagpole is just another God bumper sticker thing. Look at me I'm a Christian, or don't look at me I'm a Christian.

I think that it prayer in school should be allowed, but with certain restrictions. I don't want half a dozen members of my class breaking into prayer in the middle of a lecture or test. If I'm a school athlete, and the coach wants to pray before the game, I want to be able to sit out of the prayer if I'm not of that religious persuasion. I don't want students, teachers, or anyone else trying to solicit their religion to me by stopping me in the hall and saying something along the lines of, "You look troubled, let me say a prayer for you..."

There are many loopholes and tricks that can be exploited by having prayer in school, and if we can avoid those, then I'm all for it.

thats because this can be interpreted either way. abortion, on the other hand, i believe to have only one morally correct answer to and will argue the beliefs of others about as long as i need to.

I like this much better than your other posts because you are speaking about your beliefs not atacking the beliefs of others.

"prayer is a powerful thing." Funny, prayer was scientifically proven to not decrease or increase the chance of anything happening. Oh, please don't feed me that god is beyond the realm of science BS, don't you think "god" would have jumped on the opportunity for some easy press. Of course not, he doesn't exist, until god or prayer is scientifically proven, i don't want to see any religious BS ceremonies in my learning environment.

No one is telling you that you cannot pray in school. Perhaps reflecting on Matthew 6: v 5-8 will refresh your memory of what Jesus once said said about public prayer.

Matthew 6:5-8 (New International Version)
New International Version (NIV)
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society

Prayer
5"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.

6But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

7And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.

8Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Right now, we have a Presidential candidate who just said we need to change the Constitution to make it reflect what the Bible says. Since he is a Baptist, I wonder if he intends to find some common ground with Catholics and Mormons whose teachings differ with those of the Baptist denomination.

Would you be comfortable using the Catholic Bible? Probably not. Your inflexibility in demanding publiclly-led school prayer would probably extend to the selection of some Bibles used by other Christian disciplines and I doubt seriously that you would support verses from the Catholic Bible and its full complement of books that are not present in your "Christian Bible": The differences include the books of Tobias, Judith, Baruch, Ecclesiasticus, Wisdom, First and Second Maccabees; also certain additions to Esther and Daniel.

Perhaps we should re-institute dunking schools and submerge propnents of both "Bibles" until the false worshippers of whichever version was incorrect were drowned by God as he thusly "selected" the righteous for choosing their particular "correct" translation of the Bible.

Maybe we ought to throw in a few Mormons, Christian Scientists, Seventh Day Adventists and a couple of those congregations in Appalachia that use rattlesnakes to "test" the faith of those in their denomination.

The trouble with the incessant pushing by the radical evangelical fundamentalists (hereinafter called "Fundies") is that it is always seems to be "their way or the highway".

Take a chill pill. No one is saying you can't pray as long as you don't interfere with rights of others when you do so.

Prayer in schools is NOT illegal but school-sponsored and directed prayer is.

You have your rights. Now let others have theirs or be ready to allow Muslim prayer rugs, Catholic Bibles and many other trappings of religious beliefs in all faiths to have their school-sponsored times too.

May George Bush bless you and keep you and may he cause his face to shine upon you and give you peace. Amen and Amen and Shondala Hondala Fondala Rhondala

any student has the right to pray in school. it's a deeply personal thing and many students of faith enjoy praying before their lunch or before a stressful test or something like that. this shouldn't even be a debate. nobody's forcing "prayer class 101" on anybody.