Allowing prayer in public schools remains a compelling and often heated issue for many Americans. Is a student-led Lord's Prayer acceptable before the big game on Friday night? What about a two-minute "moment of silence" during home room? Of course, this isn't simply a matter of prayer itself but a representation of a much larger, more encompassing topic: Where does the line exist between religious freedom and religious imposition?
During the debates in Congress over the First Amendment in
1789, James Madison stated: “Congress should not establish a religion and
enforce the legal observation of it by law, nor compel men to worship God in any
manner contrary to their conscience, or that one sect might obtain a
pre-eminence, or two combined together, and establish a religion to which they
would compel others to conform.”
America
is the nation where all religions -- including minority religions -- enjoy the
most freedoms, the most rights, and the most opportunities in the world. The
whole prayer-in-school movement, where a teacher leads students, is not about
prayer; it’s about evangelism. School prayer constitutes an unmistakable
government endorsement of religion, and the Interfaith Alliance opposes
legislation that attempts to undermine our religious liberty by altering the
Constitution. Such legislation would send a subtle message from our government
to our school children that those who do not pray to God on behalf of this
nation are not true Americans.
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