Allowing Prayer In Schools

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” In the very beginning of this statement, it clearly says “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” No one can deny the right of anyone under the hand of the Constitution the right to pray or to express their personal beliefs. From a Christian standpoint, I, of course, want prayer to be allowed in schools, but Christianity isn’t the only religion that uses prayer as a form of worship. Religions such as Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism, among others, also pray. Imagine being a follower of any religion that prays and being told that you cannot partake in your religious activities because it is offensive. That is being denied your First Amendment rights and is unconstitutional. Allowing prayer in schools, however, worries many people on the note that it would cause ostracization among students who differ in religious beliefs. Overall, I believe that prayer

should be allowed in our schools.
This issue is important because, not only Christians but people of many faiths, struggle with being open about their religious beliefs. Being unable to pray or practice their religion would be, in a way, denying them their rights according to the First Amendment of the Constitution. Ramifications caused by the presence of prayer in our school systems could include those such as being left out due to religious differences. Being of a religion that participates in prayer and being denied the basic necessity of freedom of religion in a place, such as a school, is against the First Amendment. Of the first 108 universities in the United States, 106 of them were distinctly Christian, including the very first, which was Harvard University. Our own national motto is “In God we trust,” and I believe that because if we, as a nation, can proclaim that we trust in God, that we can allow prayer in our schools. Congress has prayed at the opening of every session since the very beginning. In a moment of crisis at the first Continental Congress, Benjamin Franklin prayed that they would receive the help and guidance that they needed. Congress has begun with prayer ever since. If the government can pray in their sessions, why can't the people who are governed pray in their school sessions?
To resolve this issue of prayer not being allowed in schools, we should allow the ones who wish to partake in the activity of prayer to pray, and those who do not wish to pray will not be made to.

The choice of prayer should be given to each and every person, just as the choice of religion is given to them. The ability to perform their own religious activities, as long as they are not disruptive, should not be stripped from the schools. In fact, the Supreme Court did not ban prayer or religion from public schools. It only restricted the ability of government officials to invoke government-initiated worship. Public school students have the right to pray on their own time, so it should not be frowned

upon.
Since prayer was excluded from schools, the nation has been on a steady moral decline. Former Secretary of Education William Bennett revealed in his cultural indexes that between the years 1960 and 1990 there was a steady moral decline. During this period after prayer was taken out of schools, divorce doubled, teenage pregnancy went up by 200%, teen suicide rates increased by 300%, child abuse reached an all-time high, violent crime went up 500%, and abortion increased 1000%. There is a strong relationship between the exclusion of prayer from our schools and the drop in morality. By allowing prayer back in schools, these high rates of many awful things could be lowered as a reverse effect. Negative outcomes of the decision to permit prayer could possibly be ridicule placed upon those who participate in such religious activities, as well as those who do not. An example of such ridicule could be if a student was placed in a situation where other students participated in prayer. This particular student could be nonreligious, and not partake in the praying. His or her fellow students could call him or her names or make rude comments about how they did not pray. No matter how much I support prayer being allowed in our public schools, I don’t want bullying to be caused by it either. By allowing prayer, however, it could change the behaviors and outlooks of many students, regardless of their religions or lack thereof, as well as guarantee them all rights to their own religion.
I believe that prayer should be permitted in schools because everyone is guaranteed the right to religious freedoms, and by not allowing them to partake in those religious activities is denying them their rights according to the Constitution. Our nation needs prayer, now more than ever, seeing that the lack of morality has taken over. Prayer needs to be placed back in the hands that it was stripped away from. Our nation was founded on religious principles, and the fact that we have stolen those principles and stashed them away, as well as calling them “unconstitutional” is wrong. Christians, like myself and many others, want to be allowed to pray just as much as the multitudes of people who profess other religions that partake in prayer. I hope and pray that our nation brings prayer back, and if you don’t agree, then I’ll pray for you, too.