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Whenever I make my stance on this issue known, it seems to rouse all sorts of responses. Yes, I'm a devout Christian. I lead Bible studies, teach Sunday School, practice daily devotions (at least most of the time!), and have well-thought out theological views. I attend church regularly and have a wide circle of Christian friends. I enjoyed reading The Purpose-Driven Life. I'm a dyed-in-the-wool Christian and proud of it.

And yes, I'm raising my children in the Christian faith. I believe strongly that children need guidance to find their place in the world. They need to be brought up believing in a higher power, and the higher power that I choose to lead them to is God and Christ. That's my right and my responsibility as a parent.

But I get very worried and nervous whenever my more fundamentalist or evangelical friends bring up the topic of prayer in public schools. I disagree completely with the usual stance that many of my fellow Christians espouse. I most emphatically DO NOT want the public schools to allow formal, school-sponsored prayers. There are a lot of reasons.

First of all, I am concerned that school prayer would send an incomplete message to my children. Paul tells us that the goal should be to "pray ceaselessly." To me, that means that it is risky to confine prayer to one or two times a day during "prayer time." I've worked very hard to teach my girls that prayer, like worship, is a state of mind that is part and parcel with putting God first in our lives. I have long feared that if there were a prayer to start the school day, say, some children might get the idea that that "takes care of it," as if prayer were an obligation rather than a privilege. I want them to feel free to pray at any and all times during their day, for whatever reason so moves them. I also feel that, while ritualistic and formulaic prayers have their place, it is usually best to go directly to God and to pour out our hearts before Him. Rote prayers serve a purpose, but the best prayers are spontaneous and personal. It's difficult for a teacher or administrator to convey that in public prayer.

Secondly, it's my job as a parent to teach my children about the religion that I think is best for them. I emphatically do not want them to be exposed to some of the other denominations of Christianity that I disagree with. Our community is made up of many denominations of Christians, and I would have no way of ensuring that my children's prayers would be taught in the way that would be compatible with the other things that I am teaching them. I have nothing personal against persons who are a part of those other denominations; I just disagree with some of the details of their practices. Some are very good friends, in fact, and I respect their beliefs. But I want to teach my children what I believe is right and proper in this regard.

Finally, religious tolerance is one of the founding ideals of the United States. I realize that our Founding Fathers were, for the most part, Christian, but I do not believe that they would sanction discrimination against persons of other faiths like Judaism or Islam. Again, I wholeheartedly respect the rights of these individuals to practice their faith and raise their children within their belief structure though I disagree with some of what is taught. I have a firm live-and-let-live policy on this. They feel just as strongly that they are right as I do, and that is as it should be. We are all committed to our respective faiths. However, if the public schools open the door to formal prayer, they must, in the interest of equity, allow representation of all of the faiths in the community. So my children, who are being raised Christian, would be "forced" to pray to other gods in theory. My community includes Islamic persons, Hindu persons, and Buddists. It also includes Wiccan and Pagan families (most of whom are very low key and almost in hiding due to the strong Christian ethos around here). When my children were young, I can hardly imagine the confusion that hearing prayers from these different religions would cause them.

I saw a political cartoon once years ago that summed it up quite nicely. There was a very nervous teacher at the front of an obviously white, middle-class classroom. An Asian child was rising to lead the class prayer with his statue of Buddha. The teacher wrung her hands and said, "Now class, Lin Yu will lead our morning prayers." In this day and age, I feel that public school prayer would be far more divisive than unifying. Leave religion to be taught in the home by the parents, and keep formal prayer out of the public school classrooms. There is no way to have formal public prayer and be fair to everyone concerned.

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Posted in christianity | issue | prayer | school prayer Been There Done That | | | | 495 reads