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July
23, 2008
This month we celebrate the birth of our country. I have a one question quiz for you today: What are the rights/freedoms enumerated in the First Amendment? You will find the answer later in this column.
The
Another discovery of the survey is that only a little more than half the respondents believe that freedom of religion applies to all religions. The First Amendment is very broad and does not limit the freedom of religion in any way.
58% of respondents favored teacher led prayers in public schools. As a former public school teacher I have thought about prayer in school for a long time and wondered what people thought about it so I conducted a very unscientific opinion poll. Iasked this question, “If you were a teacher in a public classroom, what prayer would you use in such a situation?”
A
Muslim man wrote “If the Prayer refers to the Almighty as "GOD", I can tell you
that Muslims will be supportive of such prayers.” A Hindu woman wrote “I think prayer to a
higher force is a wonderful thing for children to learn. It teaches them that
somebody other than a human must have created nature, and the oceans, and the
beautiful creatures that share the Earth with us. It also teaches us to respect
the different ways people pray to this higher force.” Even though this is a
general comment that could seemingly be applied universally, it would not meet
the requirements of the Muslim.
A Jewish man wrote “I guess
the easiest way would be to use a completely non-denominational prayer.“ He gave an
example but then went on to say that he would have to take into account the
composition of the class, the circumstances of the prayer, and the law orpolicy that allowed or required the prayer.
An atheist wrote emphatically that prayer
is not allowed in school as it would be equivalent to establishing a religion,
contrary to the First Amendment. He did go on to say however that “A time of
silence, in which children and teacher are free to think whatever they wish, is
acceptable to me.” Interestingly enough this is exactly what they do in
Another person who has none of the above
religious affiliations suggested a humanist prayer that says, “We give thanks
for the freedom to think, and to express our thoughts.” While that phrase might be acceptable to all
of the above, the prayer also included thanks for “the freedom to reject
inspired books filled with cruelty” that I doubt would satisfy the needs of any
of the above other than perhaps the atheist.
My point in writing this is very simple.
While those of us who profess religious belief might think it is a good thing
to have prayer in the public school, very practical questions arise: whose
prayer? which prayer? whose
God? Can God be addressed as Higher Force? Creator? Trinity?
This whole discussion comes under one of
the freedoms/rights enumerated in the First Amendment which says, “Congress
shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free
exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or
of the press; or
the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition
the Government for a
redress of grievances.”
How many of these could you name? A
majority of the respondents in the survey conducted by the