Word: prayerful
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SHAMELESS political posturing is nothing new in an election year, but when God is allegedly on your side, politicians are unabashed about whoring for electoral points. Just ask President Reagan, whose current push for a Constitutional amendment permitting officially sanctioned prayer in public schools is particularly disgraceful...
Thankfully, the Senate Tuesday rejected the proposed amendment by a margin of 11--with moderate Republicans tipping the balance. School and prayer are, quite simply, an unacceptable fusion of church and state, as the Senate correctly resolved once again. But the closeness of the vote and the determination of those supporting the measure warrant a close look at the politics of school prayer...
...there are some places in the United States where setting up a creche would be just one more symbol of a community where it is difficult to be a Jew or an atheist. Places where even the government would find something wrong with you for refusing to say a prayer at the beginning of a city council meeting...
What, then, is the fuss about? Why on issues such as the Nativity display and school prayer cannot the majority simply say, "Take it or leave it"? On the crèche issue, that is what the court decided it could say, though not without a lot of irrelevant hand wringing about the "passive symbolism" of the Nativity display as opposed to the "active symbolism," say, of the cross. (The distinction is meaningless.) In the matter of school prayer, the court continues to hold its ground, but why? And why not have an amendment allowing everyone to pray...
Four reasons. First, the voluntary nature of school prayer would be compromised by the fact that a public institution was handling it. Second, no matter how earnestly school officials would protest that the God referred to is anybody's God, it is almost inevitable that God in a public institution will appear to take on the religion of the majority. A Jewish child would know that he is being invited to spray to a Christian God, who seems to bear no resemblance to the God of his synagogue, and an atheist would have no place in the scheme whatever...