Word: prayerful
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...legal scholars think that one of these methods, the move by 19 states to authorize a moment of silence in classrooms, might eventually be approved under the reasoning applied by the Supreme Court majority last week to the Pawtucket crèche case (see box). But advocates of school prayer are no longer willing to wait or to settle for private meditation. Says the Rev. Jerry Falwell, leader of the Moral Majority: "We didn't fight for the right to keep silent." At the outset of an election year, and with the assistance of a popular President...
...drive began in earnest last Monday as amendment supporters staged a night vigil on the Capitol steps in a rainstorm, praying for prayer. Inside the House chamber no amendment had yet been approved by committee, but 59 Representatives, mostly Republicans, took the floor Monday afternoon to speak in favor of one in a session that rolled on until well past dawn on Tuesday. Many speakers associated the absence of prayer in schools with such social evils as drug abuse and sexual promiscuity. Virginia Republican Frank Wolf charged dramatically that the rate of teen-age suicides "began to climb at approximately...
Baker sought to allay fears that some children would be forced to say prayers in which they did not believe, or that government officials would become involved in writing prayers. The key passages of the amendment taking shape under Baker's efforts read: "Nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to prohibit individual or group, vocal or silent prayer, in public schools or other public institutions. No person shall be required by the United States or by any state to participate in prayer. Neither the United States nor any state shall compose or mandate the words of any prayer...
...overwhelming majority of prayer advocates, of course, would be horrified by such tactics. It is their freedom to pray, they insist, that has been taken away by a zealous cadre of secularists, and they are only trying to reclaim it, without coercing anyone. Polls have consistently shown heavy majorities in favor of school prayer; Gallup reported last September that 81% of respondents who had followed the issue supported an amendment that would permit "voluntary" prayer, vs. only 14% opposed. Says Dan Alexander, president of a Mobile, Ala., organization called Save Our Schools: "We've allowed a small, very vocal...
Harvard Constitutional Scholar Laurence Tribe, speaking for many opponents of the amendment, replies that "the premise that prayer is not allowed in schools...is a lie. Official, organized prayer is not allowed, true, but kids can pray if they want"-silently, individually, on the bus, in the lunchroom, during classes. North Carolina Democratic Congressman Charlie Rose wryly notes, "As long as there are math tests, children will pray in school...