School Prayer
“To pray or not to pray?” This has become the question of many states that are unsure that prayer in school should be allowed or not. The problem with this is that the state should not be left to decide one’s relationship with God. Prayer as a whole for a nation is crucial if you are a person of faith. That is, if you believe in God, then you understand He is the creator of all things and to be faithful servants we must bring all things to him in prayer. Thank goodness there is nothing in our nation that keeps a person from praying individually, but it might resort to that if we don’t value prayer in our schools. Since prayer has become abolished in school we have a generation that has seen an increase in violence and crime among teens. Also, there has been a breakdown in our culture and society. After all this is a nation “under God”. People who unfortunately have no faith are making major decisions for those of us who do.
Separation of Church and State is a common phrase. It is a political and legal doctrine stating that the government and religion must be separate, which means no more leading in prayer before class, at graduations, or at school games. This became an issue when it was brought before the Supreme Court in Engel vs. Vitale in 1962, in which the Court decided that government may not sponsor prayer in public schools because it is a violation of the First Amendment stating, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise". Then Township vs. Schempp, in 1963, the Court ruled that the government might not sponsor Bible reading and recitation of the Lord's Prayer in public school. Throughout the 1960s the debate continued. Later, in Lemon vs. Kurtzman, in 1971, the court established the "Lemon test", which set three conditions that had to be met for a challenged governmental action to be constitutional. The federal or state government may not sponsor or aid in the establishment of a...