quote:
Originally posted by Garnet FalconDance:
Re. prayer in schools: well, I really have no problem with this...AS LONG AS every student has the clear and unfettered choice to decline and the prayer does not reflect any particular doctrine. This may sound like I'm equivocating, but not really. It seems to be common concurrence that only Christians (incl. Jewish, Muslims, and Catholics) 'pray'. Not so! Nearly every (if not every) religious/spiritual belief 'prays' in some manner. I know I do and I'm sure fable does as well (to use only two examples of wicked [img]smile.gif[/img] pagans) We simply don't do so in the same words and to the same name. So if the Powers That Be (ie the govt and the schools) could figure a way to implement a plan in which all faiths could freely pray in the public school venue, I'd support it.
This is my view, too, as you might expect.
If the US could have a moment in school when each child could contemplate or pray in silence as they wish, without pressure, I think it would be great.
Unfortunately, there are extremely vocal advocates on both ends of the spectrum who do not want what seems to me an equitable solution. There are some very conservative Christian groups who want the prayer said aloud, and to their God; they believe the US is a Christian nation, and everybody who isn't is just out of luck in this case. On the other end of matters are the atheists led by people like Madaleen Murray O'Hare, who insists that any such moment, taken out of the school day, is an implied acknowledgement of a deity, and a method of forcing children by peer and teacher pressure into a belief system.
I would only add that schools represent a portion of the day, but by no means all of it. Parents who insist that by leaving out Christian worship (and note, they mean *their* Christian worship, not one which would satisfy all Christian groups) in schools automatically results in immoral, unethical hoodlum graduates deliberately overlook the enormous influence that a close, respectful and loving family can exercise over one another. Religion doesn't usually (I'm not speaking to exceptions) begin in a church, a temple, a coven, an ashram: I think the impulse is awakened and fed at home, and then nurtured from within the individual, directly with that they worship.