[Hound of the Baskervilles]

'Apparently the citizens who agreed to live under the Constitution in the first place thought there should be prayer in the schools where they sent their children. They did not consider this to be a violation of the first amendment or they would never have agreed to live under that in the first place."

Back in the good old days the ONLY prayer in schools was Christian prayer. It was just a given that Christians got to pray. Minority religions were ignored and forced to listen to Christian prayer. That is not right. That is the very definition of Christian privilege. That is not America.

If there is to be prayer in schools then Wiccans should be able to thank the earth mother, and the Krishna's should be able to beat their drums and chant. But we know that would be crazy and schools would be battlegrounds for who gets to say what prayers when, how and where. That is why there should b e no prayer of any kind in schools while school is in session or at any school sponsored function. Students of any denomination should be permitted to gather and pray out side the school before classes start or to pray QUIETLY over their noon meal.

And of course any student can always say a prayer internally within their own heart and no one will know. You can pray allowed in your own home, your church ,at family gatherings. You can pray internally while walking down the street, at work and at the park.

A lot of the carping by Christians today is really about loss of Christian hegemony and privledge which we should not have had in the first place.

[wintertime]

That is why there should b e no prayer of any kind in schools while school is in session or at any school sponsored function. Students of any denomination should be permitted to gather and pray out side the school before classes start or to pray QUIETLY over their noon meal. ( Hound of the Baskervilles)

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Hound,

Please think about this. Do our federal and state constitutions say that we have free speech except that we must pray quietly, or only silently over our noon meal?

No!....We have the fundamental human right to free speech and government schools are the opposite to free speech. They forcibly institutionalize children in their centers 180 days a year for most of their waking day and tell them to shut up!

You say "That is why there should b e no prayer of any kind in schools while school is in session or at any school sponsored function."

Sorry, but forbidding pray of any kind is NOT religiously neutral. It is teaching children that religion is shameful and must be hidden like a bathroom activity.

Forbidding religious expression is government sponsored Secular Humanism. It is also a violation of our state and federal constitutions that protect free exercise of religion, free speech, and free assemble.

If the states call for both First Amendment Rights and Government schools then their is internal conflict within their documents and one or the other should be struck from the document.

[OriginalIntent]

You are stating your opinion and it is just that. You are not stating the intent if the first amendment. The first amendment was given and ratified by people who did not intend for it to be used to artificially create godless schools in opposition to the parents whose children go to those schools.

Once again, you have an opinion and one vote, exactly one vote in fact.