Prayer and the Schools, 6-15-2010

 Why is it in the 40 plus years since the United States Supreme Court declared unconstitutional governmental enforced prayer, no one focuses on the government sanctioning prayer? The government cannot force anyone to pray or not pray. How hard is that to understand?

Do you cringe when hearing the Lord's Prayer you hear the word "debtor" instead of "trespasser", or vice versa? If you cringe, then how would you like the government enforcing the cringe-inducing version against you by a criminal penalty? (If you did not cringe, then blame that on America's lack of an Established Church.)

Another for the Christians in the crowd: during Communion does the Host symbolize Christ's flesh, or does it become Christ's flesh? Should you consider that insignificant, consider all the wars between Protestants and Roman Catholics. Specifically, look up The Thirty Years War.

One more for a tiebreaker: if this is a Christian country, then we all agree on papal infallibility, right? 

I say those who want prayer back in school 1) do not understand the Bills of Rights they live under; 2) want their religious views to overrule the religious practices of others; and/or 3) want to use religion for their own worldly, political ends.

Some will talk about federal courts when they do not know the same protections exist under their state Bills of Rights. Look at your state's Bill of Rights to find the power of the government to dictate how one prays. 

sch

[Update: I might not be clear here that the danger to religion is being tangled up in the worldliness of politics. I think I have made this point clear elsewhere, but I cannot find the specific article. Let me be clear then: government, politics, corrupts religion. Take Iran as an example. That is the future Christian Nationalists would take us. As always, my vanity reacts positively to the most respectable types making the same points as I do. Take a look at the Bulwark's Mike Gerson and Christian Politics The problem isn't too much Christianity in politics. It's too much politics in Christianity. sch 11/17/22.]