Tuesday, November 13, 2018

School Prayer

School prayer is a very hot issue among Americans, right up there with abortion and gay rights. But Americans who know the Constitution understand that the ban on school prayer is not an attack on Christianity or on religion or on God. In the first place, the ban concerns only public schools as they are agencies of the state, of the government (our taxes pay for public schools and they are open to everyone, not just members of one religion or one economic class). There is no ban on prayer in private schools as they do not represent government authority. And, finally, there is no ban on student prayer (individually or in a group), the ban is on prayers initiated (compelled) by the public school, as any such prayer would represent an “establishment” of a (particular) religion. Imagine, if you will, a prayer that would satisfy not only every Protestant Christian sect (Southern Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, Lutheran, Mormon, Christian Science, etc., etc.), but also the Roman Catholic faith, the Jewish faith (orthodox to Reform), the Muslim faith (Sunni and Shia) and even the “faith” of non-believers. Is such a prayer possible? So, any prayer is necessarily the work of one or more religious sects but never the work of all. Thus, any such public-school prayer would be a case of “establishing” a religion, forbidden to government by the words of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Skokie

Few people, few Americans, really get what being American really means.   Here is one American’s take on really getting what it means to be American.

In 1977-78, a bunch of neo-Nazi thugs claimed the right to peacefully assemble and speak in Skokie, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago.  Not only is Skokie predominantly Jewish, but a significant portion of its population is Holocaust survivors.   The Nazis were looking to pee in the faces of their victims.