{"id":268,"date":"2013-08-20T14:22:20","date_gmt":"2013-08-20T14:22:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/paulfleisher.com\/?p=268"},"modified":"2013-08-20T14:22:55","modified_gmt":"2013-08-20T14:22:55","slug":"dont-knock-down-the-church-state-wall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paulfleisher.com\/?p=268","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t knock down the church-state wall"},"content":{"rendered":"

First grade. The first day of public school. The very first memory I can locate specifically in time and place. Our teacher leads a recitation of words I\u2019ve never heard before. Yet somehow all the other students already have the words memorized, and join in. I don\u2019t understand. Why do all the other kids know this while I don\u2019t?<\/p>\n

That afternoon I ask my mother why I don\u2019t know the Lord\u2019s Prayer like all the other kids. She explains to me that it\u2019s important in the Christian religion, but not in ours. It\u2019s not a prayer Jewish people say.<\/p>\n

So at age 6, I\u2019m faced with a dilemma. Should I learn this prayer and say it along with everyone else? That\u2019s up to you, my mother tells me. I could say it, or remain silent while everyone else recites, or she offers to request that I be excused from the room during the prayer. That last choice isn\u2019t really an option \u2014 I don\u2019t want to stand out from my classmates that much. Over the next few years I try both of the other choices, but neither seems right. I want to be a full participant in my class, but I don\u2019t want to recite a prayer that\u2019s not part of my religious tradition. Eventually I settle on respectful silence.<\/p>\n

The memory remains with me to this day, more than half a century later. It was the first time \u2014 but by no means the last \u2014 that I would feel set apart from my classmates because of my religious heritage.<\/p>\n

I also remember the day the U.S. Supreme Court finally lifted this burden. In 1962, the court ruled that state-sponsored school prayer violated the constitutional separation of church and state. Public schools could no longer begin each day with an officially sanctioned prayer. My family felt both gratitude and relief that we no longer would have to sit through daily devotions from other people\u2019s traditions.<\/p>\n

Since then, I\u2019ve had too many opportunities to wonder if that decision will ever be fully implemented. When I began teaching in Richmond in the mid-1970s, I was stunned to discover some teachers starting each morning with Christian classroom devotions. I would still hear the Lord\u2019s Prayer echoing from some classrooms, even though a few of our students were not Christian and despite the court\u2019s ruling. Over the years, my own classrooms included Muslims, Jews, Sikhs, Buddhists, Hindus, Baha\u2019is and atheists, among others. If I were to consider leading my students in prayer, how would I choose?<\/p>\n

Several years ago, my late father-in-law was honored at a Chesterfield Board of Supervisors meeting that, to our astonishment, began with a minister praying \u201cin Jesus\u2019s name.\u201d<\/p>\n

And now the dilemma is back yet again. Some people still want to return institutional prayer to public school classrooms and government functions, and even to take it upon themselves to select which prayers should be offered.<\/p>\n

A few weeks ago a Facebook friend posted a petition on my page calling for a return to prayer in public schools. I deleted it. A few days later, the petition was back again, posted by someone else. Government-sponsored prayer also returned to the Virginia General Assembly this year. A constitutional amendment to allow school and government officials to lead organized prayer was introduced \u2014 despite the First Amendment\u2019s prohibition of any form of government-established religion.<\/p>\n

And now this paper has reported that the Obama administration, along with dozens of House and Senate members, has urged the Supreme Court to overturn a lower court decision (Town of Greece v. Galloway) banning predominantly Christian invocations at town council meetings.<\/p>\n

In fact, nothing in the Supreme Court\u2019s decision precludes individuals from praying in school or at government-sponsored events. Students and teachers \u2014 indeed all of us \u2014 are free to pray privately as often as we choose, wherever we choose, to whomever we choose. But our government may not make that choice for us. That is a core American principle. It\u2019s hard for me to understand why anyone would want it any other way.<\/p>\n

So, let\u2019s be clear: In the United States, each of us is free to pray. We live in a nation founded on Judeo-Christian principles. However, no government official or school employee may lead a public meeting or public school children in government-sponsored prayer. Our nation is composed of citizens from so many different backgrounds and beliefs that subjecting us to any one particular invocation will inevitably separate and divide us, rather than strengthening our civic bonds. Institutionalized prayer in school or at other governmental functions is quite simply un-American.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Published August 20, 2013, in the Richmond Times-Dispatch<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First grade. The first day of public school. The very first memory I can locate specifically in time and place. Our teacher leads a recitation of words I\u2019ve never heard before. Yet somehow all the other students already have the words memorized, and join in. I don\u2019t understand. Why do all the other kids know …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Don\u2019t knock down the church-state wall’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nDon\u2019t knock down the church-state wall - Paul Fleisher<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/paulfleisher.com\/?p=268\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Don\u2019t knock down the church-state wall - Paul Fleisher\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"First grade. 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