School Prayer

Before President Obama was elected, prayer in school offered the chance for a rousing debate. No one votes on a single issue anymore, but if they did, it wouldn't be abortion or school prayer. Those days are gone now that people are worried about providing for their families or the dissolution of their personal liberties or war.

When Sydney started Kinder at Hardy Oak, she started their amazing morning ritual. Each day they say the Pledge of Allegiance, the Texas Pledge, the Hardy Oak Pledge, sing one of five well-known patriotic songs, and observe a moment of silence. Every time I experienced this during those five years at Hardy Oak, it brought tears to my eyes. I taught Sydney and Ainsley to use that moment to say a short prayer.

I used to be in favor of school prayer, and then I was introduced to Mike Huckabee. I had friends who told me that God doesn't hear my prayers or that I'm not really praying to God; my skin is thick enough that those comments go in one ear and out the other. However, my friends don't have access to the special pen and special presidential portfolio that are used specifically in the White House rose garden or the west lawn. Although Huckabee's Primary antics opened my eyes, I'm commenting less here on Mike Huckabee's religious opinions or fervor and more on the power and reach of the federal government.

Re-instituting school prayer would have been important to Huckabee; his voters adamantly supported that. I wonder how he would have accomplished this. What would school prayer look like in 2009? A prayer by a different Christian church each day, a day of nothing to please atheists, a prayer offered by a Muslim, by a Jew. What about Scientology, Shekinah, spiritualism, the Divine Female, or local Native American tribes? A prayer to Mary? Everyone has a right to pray according to the dictates of their own conscience, but once you open that Pandora's box, how do you close it? And on a federal level at that, as the Supreme Court would likely decide this debate after the inevitable lawsuit were filed.

What would have happened to the rights of those who don't want to pray. Or what about those children whose parents haven't taught them to pray? Who would teach them?

It's my opinion that a moment of silence is fine, but that it is a parent's responsibility to provide opportunities to pray, to teach the language of prayer, and when it's appropriate (as in all the time, even if it's a pray in your heart). Not to offend the wonderful teachers and administrators that I know, but a teacher's primary job is not the moral training of their students. Their efforts should be aimed at creating safe environments that are conducive to learning and supporting what should be taught at home. I know, what century am I living in? Until then, teachers and counselors teach our kids "the virtues" as my girls call them.

Finally, if the protecting power of prayer is so important to these voters, then why don't they pray with their children before they leave the house each morning? Or better yet, they could pray twice: breakfast and family prayer. If prayer is so vital, why don't they teach their children how to offer up a silent, quick prayer before an exam or presentation or when they need comfort?

This is the essence of my complaint against prayer at school: when has the federal government ever been assigned the duty of instilling moral behavior and, as a result, faith? While there are those who do not teach their children to pray or teach them not to pray, surely the proponents of school prayer are willing and able to pray with their own children. So, why the debate?