PRAYER IN SCHOOL

I thought I’d start off sharing with you all something that wouldn’t get me excommunicated right off the bat and is probably more of a political slant than theological:  prayer in schools.

I’ve got to admit, I’ve always been puzzled by people screaming for the right to pray at school events and such.  But it's only been within the last year that I felt the freedom to question it...and disagree with it.  Have you ever been at a football game when someone prays at the beginning of the game?  How many people pay attention, act reverently, and actually pray with the pray-er?  It’s as if we’re trying to prove to the people in the stadium that we are Believers because someone says a prayer amidst the sounds of popcorn popping and knuckles cracking and feet stomping on aluminum bleachers.  I personally think that God cares as much about prayers at the beginning of a football game as He does when the winning team huddles together to thank Him for the win.  (“Thank You, God, for letting us get that field goal and for keeping Bubba’s knee from giving out and for giving us the division championship!!!  Go Mustangs!”)

And what about the whole Matthew 6:6 thing:  “But when you pray, go into your private room, shut your door, and pray to your Father…”? 

However, my biggest deal has to do with what our forefathers communicated to us through the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution.

My understanding of the First Amendment is that here in the United States the federal government can’t make any laws that establish one religion over another.  And it goes on to say that the government can’t “impede” the exercising of any religion.  The Fourteenth Amendment then states that no state or local government can either. 

In other words, it’s illegal all the way around for any organization that is under federal, state, or local governmental control to give precedence to one religious group over other religious groups. To me, that says a Muslim has just as much right to exercise his religion anywhere as a Christian does, as a Buddhist does, etc., etc.

So, am I saying that we should have Muslim prayers over the school loudspeakers in the morning after the Pledge of Allegiance?  Hindu chants before school lunches?  ABSOLUTLEY NOT.  Just the opposite:  I don’t want my children to be subject to someone leading them in prayers of another religion, or even another denomination that believes differently than I do.

However, since we live in the great free country of the United States of America, if we Christians are given free reign to pray at any school function, then the Amendments to our Constitution also give that right to other religions also.  One group can’t have religious freedom without the others also having it.

But here’s the kicker to me, and it’s a spiritual point:  no one can be kept from privately praying anywhere…ever.  If you seriously want to pray a sincere prayer at a school function, you CAN.  No one can stop you.  You can go into the “private room” of your heart, and say anything to the Father that you want.  As one of my college classmates Morgan Cryar wrote in his song “Pray in the USA”: 

I got news for you today

You can’t stop a heart that prays

Public prayer in schools?  100% against it.  But pray away in that chapel of your heart. God hears you even though you’re not on the loudspeaker….

(Side note:  What about prayers at things like See You At the Pole, FCA meetings, etc.?  I believe these are fine. Students are there because they share similar beliefs and these are not school-sponsored functions. Not that they have to have my approval or anything, you know.)

THE BEGINNING

My young adult years were greatly influenced by my youth minister, my Christian higher education, my BSU director, my parents, James Dobson and Focus on the Family, Bill Gothard and the Institute of Basic Youth Conflicts, early contemporary music, Continental Ministries, St. John Medical Center psychiatric units where I worked as a counselor, pastors I served under, and probably most significantly the churches I served in.  And it’s taken me fifty years to realize that not every one of those influences were always good or right…or right for me.

I've questioned, pondered about, and in general wrestled with many ideas and beliefs as I stepped back from the expectations of the American church and my early influences.  There are some things that I simply asked, "Why,” saw the reason, then thought, "Oh, ok," and nothing changed. Some things I've always had a check in my spirit about but refused to question because, well, it just wasn't the thing to question growing up in a conservative evangelical denomination, and then as a minister in the same. Yet other things popped into my horizon after my ministerial exodus that I simply couldn't avoid dealing with and coming to a new understanding about.

Here’s a list off the top of my head of some of these things:

School prayer.

Divorce.

The words of Christian teachers, preachers and authors.

The apostle Paul.

Public prayer.

The Free Grace/Hyper-Grace movement and legalism.

Being vs. doing.

Inerrancy, infallibility and literal belief of the Bible.

Homosexuality.

Church leadership.

Politics and the church.

Worship and worship services.

Serving in the church.

I’m sure this list is incomplete and will grow with time. But it gives you a peek into some of the arenas I’ve journeyed through.

No, I have not turned my back on my faith, or my God. I simply believe that only bullheaded, stubborn, hard-hearted fearful people are afraid to examine their hearts, their past, their histories, their influences, their beliefs, and change if God leads them to do so.

Periodically I’ll take time to wander through each of these questionings. I hope I don’t bore you, and I hope it causes you to come to a better understanding and a closer relationship with our loving God.