June 25, 2012 is the 50th anniversary of the Engel v. Vitale Supreme Court decision which banned prayer in public schools. Minister David Barton has accurately observed that in the years following that landmark 1962 decision, social pathologies increased amongst America’s public school students including promiscuity, pregnancy, abortion, depression, suicide and drug abuse. The daily experience of prayer to a Supreme Being offered a moment of thanks and acknowledgement for the many blessings bestowed on our great nation and reminded our children that there was something greater in the universe than mere material satisfactions.
Yet, it should be acknowledged that public schools should
not be engaging in religious prayer. This is not because prayer is unconstitutional,
which it is not in spite of the activist decision by the Supreme Court, but
because religious traditions differ in terms of methods of prayer to God and atheists
have a right not to pray. Prayer is a religious act and, as such, prayer should
not be conducted officially and regularly by secular authorities. How, then,
can we get God back into public schools?
The injection of an activist Supreme Court into what was a
state issue, from a constitutional standpoint, resulted in an authoritarian
expansion of federal power over a fundamental human right. It should be noted
that the first amendment starts out by declaring that Congress shall make no
law establishing religion. The New York State Regents prayer, which was banned
by the Supreme Court, had nothing whatsoever to do with Congress as the law was
passed by the New York State Assembly. Therefore, the first amendment was not
violated by the New York state sanctioned prayer and since no coercion was
involved, as an objecting student could be excused from reciting the prayer,
the Supreme Court and the Federal Government had no constitutional right to
interfere in a state matter.
After World War II, and after the defeat of the atheistic Nazi
socialists, Americans were concerned over the fact that the atheistic Soviet
socialists were still on the march. They sought to counter the insidious influence
of the Communists and their American sympathizers by reminding students that
rights came from the creator and were not, rather, privileges granted by an authoritarian
state, the essential idea contained within both varieties of authoritarian
socialism, both Nazi and Communist. It was during the 1950’s, the apogee of
international Communism and the murders of four times more people than were
murdered by the Nazis, that Americans turned to religious faith as containing
the fundamental principles of American freedom and democracy. In those years
the National Prayer Breakfast was established, “In God we Trust” was inscribed
on our coins, and “Under God” was added to our Pledge of Allegiance.
Yet the effect of several Supreme Court decisions banning
prayer would have the practical effect of virtually banning the Creator of the
Universe from public schools. It occurs to this author that there is a simple
way to bring God back into the public schools and this would ultimately be more
meaningful than a public school non-sectarian prayer. The solution is in the
Declaration of Independence. That foundational document states that: We are endowed by our Creator with certain
unalienable rights, among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness. By reciting this line in the Declaration of Independence in the
morning before classes begin, and with a brief discussion of why American
rights come from the Creator and not from the state, American children would
acknowledge God, in the civic sense, and the communist influence would be
check-mated. No person would dare sue a school for reciting a line from the
Declaration of Independence and no court would consider taking such a suit if
it were filed.
To keep things interesting, and to avoid turning such an exercise
into a mindless repetition, the public school should recite lines from public
speeches delivered by every American president from George Washington to Barack
Obama, speeches which appeal to the Almighty for guidance and blessing. Indeed,
every American president has beseeched God in one way or another. Prehaps the
modern American president who has appealed to the creator more than the others
in his public utterances would be Franklin Delano Roosevelt. This daily exercise
would re-introduce God to the public schools, set back the influence of the
left-wing authoritarians, and contribute to a more Godly nation and society.
After 50 years of exile, God would return to our schools.
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