The Religious Right and the Crusade to Preserve Religion

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The Religious Right and the Crusade to Preserve Religion

This paper was written for my Writing 209 class. For the assignment ,Donna Marsh, asked us to find an article in a periodical that dealt with an issue in our American culture. We were then told to express our opinion on the topic discussed in the article and to analyze the argument presented in the article. I chose the topic of school prayer because I believe strongly in the separation of church and state that exists in our country. This is a controversial issue that is worthy of discussion, and hopefully my essay will provoke you in some manner whether you agree with my premise or feel that the views I express are totally invalid.

In the presidential election of 1992 between George Bush and Bill Clinton, the topic of family values became one of the most controversial issues of the campaign. Vice President Dan Quayle emphasized this issue the most, with his frequent tirades on the subject including his criticism of the television character Murphy Brown. Once this issue reached the spotlight, the more conservative members of the Republican party religious right" delivered speeches calling for the nation to return to instilling "traditional values" in our children. One of the reforms that they called for was the legalization of a daily prayer in our public school system. They claimed that this would be a key first step in reinstituting the essential family values in our children. They called for a change in our laws which have forbidden prayer in schools. These laws have been upheld because courts have asserted that they violate the separation of church and state that is assured in our Constitution.

Following this call for a new religious crusade many articles and editorials appeared calling for new legislation which would allow prayer in public schools. Polls were released which indicated that a large percentage of Americans favored new legislation on this subject, and more than one half of those surveyed claimed that they would be more likely to vote for a candidate in a national election who supported prayer in public schools. One has to question the intensity of this support because Bill Clinton (not a supporter of bringing religion into public schools) defeated George Bush (a supporter of school prayer) in the 1992 presidential election. Those who voiced their support for school prayer felt that it would strengthen the moral values of young children as they went through school.

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