Prayer in Public Schools

The appropriateness of prayer in the public schools has become one of the most emotional issues raised by fundamentalists and Christian conservatives alike. They fervently believe that returning prayer to the public schools is absolutely necessary if American society is to overcome its problems. Provenzo cites a quotation by Ed McAteer, president of the Religious Roundtable, to note the urgency of conservative and fundamentalist reform: "if we are to stem the tide of lawlessness, drug addiction, and sexual perversion which adversely affect academic performance, we must start putting God back into our school systems."

As a result of their belief in a single and absolute Christian truth, the ultra-fundamentalists (those radical reformers such as Jerry Falwell--who once launched the moral majority campaign) do not feel that the expression of their beliefs in the form of school prayer, Bible reading, or the implementation of a

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ing a constitutional amendment allowing voluntary school prayer, with 48% backing the amendment "very strongly." Despite this kind of support, all school prayer amendments have failed in Congress. According to Green and Guth, although the 1980 and 1984 GOP platform endorsed school prayer, and President Reagan made it a top priority in 1983-84, the Republican Senate mustered only 56 of the needed 67 votes. The Democratic House of Representatives refused to bring the measure to the floor, although a similar appropriations rider failed to win even a majority, 194-215 (Congressional Quarterly, 1984: 8-9S, 88-89H). Green and Guth go on to report: Both houses split along part and ideological lines: in the Senate 67% of the Republicans, but only 42% of the Democrats voted for the amendment, while in the House the comparable figures were 79% and 29%. Similarly, if members are divided into equal thirds by Americans for Democratic Action ratings, the most conservative members favored the amendment by 89% (Senate) and 83% (House), the moderates gave 41% and 31% of their votes, and the most liberal third provided only 15% and 5% support. Far from responding to public attitudes, many legislators apparently ignore them. The reason
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Approximate Word count = 2168
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

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