Prayer In School

Back then prayer was only for the christians. To legalize prayer in school would take away the freedom of religion of others. Even though there is nothing wrong with teaching children about prayer and god, not everyone has the same religion. For example there are Jews, Catholics, Jehovah, Muslim, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and etc. which they all have different beliefs and different ways of worshiping. Proponents of so-called "voluntary" school prayer amendment (such as the one proposed in 1995) are admitting that our secular Constitution prohibits organized prayers in public schools. Otherwise, why would an amendment to our U.S. Constitution be required? The nation must ask whether politically-motivated Newt Gingrich & Co. are
wiser than James Madison, principal author of the Constitution, and the other founders who engineered the world's oldest and most successful constitution! The radical school prayer amendment would negate the First Amendment's guarantee against government establishment of religion. Most distressing, it would be at the expense of the civil rights of children, America's most vulnerable class. It would attack the heart of the Bill of Rights, which safeguards the rights of the individual from the tyranny of the majority.
Many may ask what is it about the rights of majority well, Our political system is a democratic republic in which we use majority vote to elect certain officials or pass referenda. But we do not use majority vote to decide what religion, if any, our neighbors must observe! The "majority" is free to worship at home, at tax-exempt churches, on the way to and from school, or privately in school. There are 16 school-less hours a day when children can pray, not to mention weekends.
Many in the "majority" do not support school prayers. And if the majority religion gets to choose which prayers are said in schools, that would mean a lot of Protestant kids will be reciting Catholic prayers! The Roman Catholic Church is the single largest denomination in our country. Should Protestant minorities be excused so the classroom can pray in unison to the Virgin Mary? In a few school districts, Muslims outnumber other religions. Should Christian minorities march into the hall with their ears covered while the principal prays to Allah over the intercom? When prayers are practiced in schools they practice or pray in the christianity way which would not be fair to those of other beliefs.
Now all that are against prayers in school may come across questions like "Has God been expelled from our schools?" or even "Has the bible been excluded from school curriculum?" Well no, God nor the bible has not, but of course we have a reason for our thoughts of prayers in school and why they are unnecessary. It is just the simple fact that there are so many kids that have grown up to learn that their God is different from others and that is ok. With that being said why have them learn something they are not familiar with? Why force someone to be something they are not? Practice of religion on those who do not have same religion nor have no religion at all is considered harassment. Why sit there and pray to a God the others have a different mind set of? Why have them go back to their families and let them know what they had learned today and make that situation worse for not only the school but for the children you had pray to a God that is not in their
belief? In Philadelphia, for example, full-scale riots and bloodshed erupted in the 1840s over which version of the Bible should be used in classroom devotions. In Cincinnati, a "Bible War" divided the city in the 1870s after the school board discontinued Bible instruction. Now because of the things that were going on in Philadelphia and Cincinnati, Americans practice of religion should not be forced on anybody religious or not. The U.S. Supreme Court thought the same by telling public schools Bible-reading and other religious devotions are inappropriate unless done in a religious school. Kids now have plenty of free time to worship and pray to their god. They have no right to be subjected to preaching. When bringing that to the schools they are disturbing the work space of others. They may also cause arguments with another student of another religion, then the school will end up getting upset at both or all children and giving them a punishment for something that the law intended. During a school day at Kearny High School in Kearny, New Jersey, a Junior student named Matthew LaClair grew frustrated when David Paszkiewicz, instructor of an honors history course, began veering off topic and delivering sermons.
But LaClair didn't want to complain to school officials before he had proof, so he secretly taped Paszkiewicz preaching. "If you reject his gift of salvation, then you know where you belong," Now because Matthew was recording, Paszkiewicz is heard saying on the tape. "He did everything in his power to make sure that you could go to heaven, so much so that he took your sins on his own body, suffered your pains for you, and he's saying, 'Please, accept me, believe.' If you reject that, you belong in hell." After the professor was done preaching to the class Matthew then went to the front office to show the admen how he stopped his class to preach the christianity prayer to the students knowing there are not all of the same religion. The same day the admen had went up to the teacher to let him know how his preaching had nothing to do with the subject he teaches. Even though they let it slide, it could have been brought to the court and that teacher could have gotten in trouble, because he violated the freedom of
religion.