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                                                                              Audible Classroom Prayer to Whom?
                                                                                                                  by
                                                                                                               Josprel

It would seem that no Christian believer would argue with an effort to amend our constitution to legalize classroom prayers. Many are of the opinion that such prayers would be similar to those offered in public classrooms prior to the Supreme Court's decision to ban them. There would be no difficulty for believers if such were the case and the program assured prayers suitable to Christians. However, since the Court's prohibition, pluralism has made astonishing attachments to the framework of American society. To have a chance for passage, the amendment could offer Christians no guarantees; therefore, the proposal begs the question: Audible classroom prayer to whom?

Some claim that "The Lord's Prayer," is suitable for the classroom. Terming it a, "generic prayer," and noting that it makes no reference to Jesus, they say it is offered to "the God whom we all worship." On its surface, this seems a valid argument - until we consider who authored the prayer. Will Jews, Moslems and those of other creeds agree to have their children recite a prayer ascribed to the Christian's Lord Jesus Christ? Will Hindu, Shinto, mystics, other oriental religions and secularist, permit their children to pray to "Our Father which art in heaven"? Will atheists, who initiated the ban, agree to not challenge the practice, even with a constitutional amendment that legalizes it?

Conversely, should audible classroom prayers suitable to Christians not be assured, will Christian parents condone having their children sit under the prayers and chants offered to the deities of other religions? And what of the cults; will Christians tolerate the rogations of cultists? In our pluralist society, audible school prayer definitely presents such dangers. One long-time proponent of classroom prayer changed his mind upon realizing that, if the program is mandated without guarantees protecting the Christian conscience, even prayers by Satanists (a legally recognized American religion) must be tolerated. Though the possibility seems remote, he does not want his children subjected to such a risk.

It is true that, under ideal conditions, the cosmetic effects of classroom prayer may be favorable. However, our public schools are far from ideal; religious differences will taint any form of audible school prayer. It is imperative that parents must be aware of such ramifications, for it is the children who will suffer the impact of such a program gone awry.

American public schools never will assume a partnership role in the Christian education of their students. God places this responsibility primarily on parents. It is in the home where Christian parents must structure a child's total Christian upbringing. Even the Church can only offer a supportive role in that task. The Bible directive to bring up our children in the way they should go is not addressed to the schools, or to the Church - it is addressed to parents.
                                     
                                                                                                                 -30-
                                                                                                            © Josprel
                                                                                                      Josprel@yahoo.com

                                                         Josprel welcomes comments from the readers of this article.


 

Hello Josprel,

I firmly agree that the primary responsibility of Christian education rests on the parents. That being said, there was no problem with the Holy Bible, Prayers to GOD, and teachings about JESUS CHRIST in American classrooms for over 200 years. There was no thought of Eastern and other false religions because they weren't permitted in public schools. America, plainly and simply, was a Christian nation. The Holy Bible and other Christian materials were part of the primary teaching texts.  They did the opposite of what's being done now. If a tiny minority didn't like the Christian teaching, they could pull their children out of public schools and send them to a private school. People were free to practice whatever religion they wanted to - just not in a public school.

The texts were Christ-centered, and the Holy Bible was a part of every classroom. There were no problems, and they didn't have to worry about which GOD they were praying to.

Love In Christ,
Tom

What is known as Americas Greatest Revival occurred because the majority of the children were being educated with a Godly message in public classrooms. It was when that Godly teaching was blocked from them that the revival was over and the degradation of this nation began. I must agree with your assessment as today many do not know what a Christian truly is. In todays language Christian is too widely used to mean anything but Christian. Putting Christianity back in the schools now would be opening another can of worms.

Christian parents do need to insure that their children are being taught in the ways of the Lord. However we still need to continue the fight to bring true Christianity back to not only America but the entire world.

*hides in case some throw sweet potatoes at me*

This is a passion of mine--bringing Christianity back into the school systems of America (and the Pledge of Allegiance allowed in public school again too).

I grew up where, The Pledge of Allegiance was said, followed by a moment of silence. Not everyone in our schools were Christian--many were without belief at all as I was in the inner city, with no youth outreaches during that time. Yet, we all bowed our heads at the moment of silence. For those without belief, they used the time to simply get their brain cells in order or to dream of whatever they wanted to--but the point is, no one complained. It was choice to pray. If you didn't want to pray, you didn't have to. For those of us that believed in prayer, we did so when this time came before our classes began.

We lived in a very poor and multi-ethnic part of the inner city. We had no gun violence. We had no knives brought to school. We had no gangs. We had no bomb threats or death threats amongst any of us, or our teachers/staff. We all got along during the school day and even got together afterwards at our local park to play a very-multi-racial game of basketball WITHOUT any problems.

Do I believe that, prayer in school helped? Yes, absolutely. We didn't worry about religious beliefs, but allowed others to practice without predjudice. We all stood together, in unity without any thoughts of our fellow student harming us. No one argued after the moment of silence that it didn't belong there--instead, they simply turned their heads or did their own thing during that time.

I live in a part of the country that is mostly Christian--aka The Bible Belt. Yet, even here Christianity is shunned from our public school system. My daughter had a class for world geography where an Islamic woman came in to discuss her religion. I went ballistic--not because I feared her teachings, for my daughter knows The Truth (Jesus)--but because, a Christian would not be allowed to do such a thing without legal battles (ACLU), screaming parents (ACLU) and newspapers covering articles about a lack of religious freedom and separation of church and state (ACLU).

My son came home at Christmas and said, "Happy Holidays". I said, "No, Blessed or Merry Christmas". He told me that, the school did not want them to say anything about Christmas but to just say Happy Holidays. I told him that, we were Christian and we had freedom to declare what we believed--he had every right to say Merry Christmas or God Bless if he chose to--and NO ONE had the right to tell him he couldn't say these things.

Arghhhh!

I believe our country has become prejudice to Christianity completely, but all other religions are now open without any issue (ACLU). It is time we all take a stand and have our children stand up for THEIR beliefs--and not the beliefs of those that make up these new rules (ACLU). If an Islamic woman can come in to discuss her beliefs in her religion, we should, as Christians be allowed to do the same. (And yes, I asked if I could come into the school to talk about Christianity--although he had allowed buddhism and muslim beliefs talked about, he refused to even answer me about this issue.) His point of these two religions was that, the area of the world they are studying is "muslim or buddhist". However, what he failed to recognize was that, in those parts of the world, people are being saved and, yes..Christianity is ALSO now part of that area of the world--Praise Jesus!

We need God back into our schools AND our government--not taken out.

*Now, I hide in the event someone is throwing sweet potatoes at me*

The only thing that you get thrown at you are kudos. Our children are being indoctrinated in public schools in socialism, secular ways and other religions. Our nation as a whole is being turned into an anti-semitic, anti-Christian nation and are being allowed to do so. In fact many so-called Christians are supporting it.

It is for this reason that I implore Christian parents to take action. It is the duty of parents to insure that their children are taught in the ways of the Lord. If this means taking them out of public schools and either place them in a good Christian school or homeschool them. It is currently the only way to insure that our childrens minds are not being filled with garbage. Some claim that this is just running from the problem but it is not. If enough Christians follow God's commandments on this and pull their children from public schools the message would get across very quickly that we are not going to take this idly.

I wish I could afford private Christian school, Roger. As for homeschooling, I have 3 with severe special needs--and they need specialized schooling because of autism and mild cp. HOWEVER, I refuse to go by the school rules of keeping religion out of school. My children are allowed to speak and witness about Jesus. They encourage youth groups that our church has with out students. My oldest does Children's ministry, 3 time a week and my other children absolute LOVE going to church. I so wish we had the opportunities for hearing about Jesus as a child, but churches rarely reached out, beyond Sunday services in our area in those days. I am so glad the churches have changed, for the most part where the schools are failing our children.

Trust me--if my child is EVER told to not speak of Christianity, or stopped from witnessing, this school system won't know what hit them! I am not the SILENT type about what I believe in and I will not allow Christianity to be prejudiced any longer--I will stand wherever I can be heard to ensure my children ALWAYS are witnesses to our precious Lord, Jesus Christ!

God Bless,
Kelly

I didn't mean to ignore you. I just didn't see your post earlier for some reason. Yes I do understand your concern in this area. Did you know that children with special needs such as yours do better in a homeschool situation than they do in a public school. One of the main reasons is that they do not experience the bullying and other abuse that often accompanies handicaps.

I have a special needs child of my own. The first 3 years of her schooling she was bounced back and forth between 1st and 2nd grade. This put her behind tremendously to begin with. We were told by school officials and Drs that she would never make it beyond the 6th grade level. I also have a son with other special needs differing from that of his sisters (he is mildly autistic and has Dyslexia). He was given F's in a public schools kindergarten class even though he could count to 100 and read a first grade primer proficiently. Besides this the abuse they received from both students and teachers brought us to decide to homeschool our children.

Today our daughter is 23. She has a High School diploma. She also has a daughter of her own that she is homeschooling quite successfully. Our son is 19 and also has a High School diploma. He has a set of 10 month old twins. He is working for a company that manufactures parts for Catepillar. His work production is higher than anyone else in the company and his pay is higher than most. Both are saved and are strong in their faith.

I take no credit here. It is the good Lord's doing.

The success story of these two are not isolated incidents. It is a proven fact that whether a child has special needs or not that they do exceptionally better in a home school environment. In addition they are not exposed to the teachings of the secular world (evolution, homosexuality, abortions, cults, etc that are prevalent in todays public schools).

As I remember the days when prayer was allowed, it soon became a mumbled daily ritual that no one paid attention to.

America is in the condition it is not because prayer was banned in the schools, but because America had already reached the point in spiritual decline that prayer COULD be banned in the schools.

Putting prayer back in now would probably do more harm than good, as with our present emphasis on "inclusiveness", "tolerance", and "multiculturalism" our children would either be exposed to all kinds of prayer from Wicca to the cults to Islam, or else the prayer would be so generic it would have no meaning.

Personally I believe the public schools are beyond hope and that Christians should make sure their own children are educated in a Christian environment, whether home schooled or a Christian school. I realize this is a financial challenge, and Christians should work for political change to help financing of this, but NOT having government finance it, as this leaves the door open for the government to impose a secular agenda on Christian education.

We also need to find ways to reach those children who are being "educated" in the public school system.

Hello Rhys,

It's great to hear from you.

I certainly agree about the problems you mentioned. Things really should be in reverse with the tiny minority of non-Christians looking for private schools. Public schools in America were never anything but Christian for well over 200 years. Everything was so obviously Christian that it was accepted fact, and there is overwhelming evidence to support this.

However, it's true that we might not be able to fix public schools. There has been a long infiltration of folks who are really enemies of CHRIST in our school systems, and many of them are in leadership positions. The gay, lesbian, and trans-gender folks would only be one sickening example. The final responsibility does rest on Christian parents, and it's probably far past time for Christians to abandon public schools.

Love In Christ,
Tom

Ephesians 3:14-19 NASB  For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

The public schools have become a worship place for all that is non-Christian, evolution, humanism, and more. The worship of God is no longer there. What place do Christians have in worshiping such things or being amongst those that do?

2Co 6:15  And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
2Co 6:16  And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
2Co 6:17  Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
2Co 6:18  And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

It is so much more important that our children, who are so easily influenced by those that are supposedly in authority over them, will learn to worship such things also.

Would you send your child to a coven, a mosque, or a lecture on how to become an atheist? That is precisely what we are doing when we send our children to most present day public schools.

Pastor Roger,

Brother, there is really an ever growing list of things that are anti-Christ and anti-Christian in just about anything public, certainly including our public schools. It really does almost amount to sending our children through the fire to send them to public schools. Realistically, they are beyond repair.

There isn't much left of what our founding fathers fought for. If they were to see what became of their dreams, they would be ready to fight again. I really can't imagine what they would think about some things, but I have no doubt about what GOD thinks. This is a time of evil, and that evil is growing rapidly. I just had a sickening thought about our holocaust of abortion. The number is now well over 40 million and might have even exceeded the total losses for World War II.

Love In Christ,
Tom

Psalms 139:13-14 NASB  For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb.  I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.

The only hope for our public schools is in the hands of the Lord. It will take something very major from Him to make a turn around in them. A major awakening in the people of this world to what they have done and are doing.

Brother that is a sickening thought but a very realistic situation. It clearly shows the direction that this world has gone and who is being allowed to lead.