Study: Americans’ Support for School Prayer Has Declined Since the 1970s

Photo Credit: AP
Recently, TheBlaze reported on the results of an online poll in which readers answered a variety of questions surrounding the presence of prayer and the Bible in public schools. These issues, which continue to be highly controversial, gained recent media attention in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting.
While the majority of Blaze readers support prayer in schools, it seems the phenomenon, over time, is losing public support. A new national study sheds further light on where Americans stand, showing a decrease in general support for prayer in these educational facilities.
According to Philip Schwadel, a sociologist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, support for school prayer has been on the decline since the 1970s among most Americans. However, two cohorts defy these odds, as the researcher claims that evangelical Christians and older Americans have not seen a decrease in their support for public invocations.
As for evangelicals, their support for this faith-based sentiment remains steady at 71 percent. And while there has been a decrease among most Americans, including Catholics and mainline Protestant groups, old age is another exception. Among those who are 80 years of age, around 73 percent of both Catholics and evangelicals support prayer in schools; 67 percent of mainline Protestants at the same age agree.
But younger Americans in these groups showcase greater disparities. To illustrate these differences, The Christian Post highlighted some of Schwadel’s results among individuals in their mid-40s. While 72 percent of these evangelicals support school prayer, only 60 percent of Catholics an 58 percent of mainline Protestants agree. Overall, Jews had the lowest level of support for school prayer (24 percent).
Schwadel believes that cultural changes have resulted in these shifting opinions. Considering the rise of the “nones” and the changing religious inclinations that are being seen among the public and political leaders, alike, these changes are not necessarily surprising.

Photo Credit: AP
“Social and cultural changes have led to greater opposition to state-sanctioned prayer and reading religious materials in public schools among some segments of the population,” Schwadel wrote when describing his findings. “Specifically, there’s growing opposition among non-evangelicals but not evangelicals, and these changes manifest across generations.”
Schwadel spoke with The Christian Post for an interview, explaining that the rise of the so-called “Christian right” in the 1980s and 1990s may have had an unintended consequence: Turning Americans away from school prayer. The professor said that this ideal has been substantiated by his research, but he noted that, even today, all evangelical groups (even youths) overwhelmingly support prayer in schools. In fact, more than 70 percent of these Christians in each age cohort fall into this ideological category.
The school prayer results are set to be published in the Sociological Forum, an academic journal.
(H/T: Christian Post)
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Comments (69)
mato
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 4:34pmAmerica has declined since the 1970′s.
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GuruMeditation
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 4:33pmDeluded Narcissists.
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leary1
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 3:17pmthe lack of support is due to the gov,. demonizing religion and the loss of the family unit !
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vaman
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 2:59pmActually, students can pray all day, just make sure no one else can hear it. There is your school prayer. God can tell what your saying, but the rest of the world doesn’t need to hear it.
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jwt
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 7:08pmright on – no gov controled prayer
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vaman
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 2:54pmYes, let’s teach religion in public schools. Every morning, all students will get on their knees and pray to the devil. Is that bad? Does it interfere with your personal belief system? You want jesus I presume? Well, thankfully you get nothing! But be thankful, because the devil supporters get nothing also…as do muslims and everyone else you hate. Facts are taught is schools. Mythical conjecture can be kept in churchs. Sorry evangelicals! Radical christians are the scourge of this country and should be kept away from children.
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turkey13
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 3:09pmBefore we took God & prayer out of scools we never heard about shootings at schools. Tose kids were afrai they would go to hell. Now a modern kid can out cuss a sailer and have no imagination of what the difference is between right & wrong. Teachers from the radical left teach them how to be Q_ueers & L_izzies when they are confused about their sex anyway. Each year we hear more & more about male & femal teachers having sex with students.We just might as well have sex 101 where a student on a one on one basis has to have sex at least once a week with a teacher. Schools souldn’t have a problem flling this position. Probably they can get several women & men that will pay to have the position.
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Granny58
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 3:22pmWell, I’m a fundamental vehement Christian and I don’t support school prayer because we are a multicultural society. While I think everyone would benefit from learning the Gospel, I can honestly see the reasoning for not going for it. But as you say, that keeps us from participating in faiths which which we disagree. It should be possible, however, to find something that most civilized people can agree with and review that each morning as encouragement.
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Locked
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 4:08pm@Turkey
“Before we took God & prayer out of scools we never heard about shootings at schools. ”
Your ignorance of events does not mean events did not take place. The worst school massacre (admittedly, not a shooting) was in the 1920s.
But your premise is still wrong. “God” and “prayer” have never been taken out of schools; students can pray. Teachers can pray. God can, and is, discussed among students. The only concession is that teachers cannot force students to pray, or preach to students, or use their position to further their religious beliefs.
What a terrible thing, huh? I’m as Christian as they come, but I completely agree with that position… know why? Because even a lot of “Christians” I speak to don’t actually know the Bible and end up defiling and warping the words of God. And you think teachers WON’T do that?
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hwiag
Posted on March 3, 2013 at 9:22amWhy the hate, you my friend maybe the poster person for the public school/public colleges system. Love you man, Keep on hating.
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athiest-infedel
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 2:36pmToday in school we learned about islam and jihad and the great prophet muhamad!
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right field
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 2:18pmLiberal, activist Federal judges accomplished this feat along with the MSM & the Hollywood entertainment industry demonizing and mocking all Christians.
99% of all cable networks have one or more programs that are designed to bash all Christians – (mostly Southern), belittle the “traditional family”, minimize the importance of marriage before pregnancy, glamorize crime, killing, stealing, lying, ridiculing the history of America and using black/ multicultural racism to attack American history and the Constitution.
Prayer in schools is the least of our problems.
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charles116
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 2:13pmThe religious right and evangelicals
AND THEIR HYPOCRITIC mouthpieces have done more
for the cause of Athiesm than any athiest could possibly imagine.
Keep it up.
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Eastinfection
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 6:15pmWhy is atheism a “cause”?
Are atheists trying to “convert” people?
That sounds pretty evangelical to me.
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tradcatholicgirl
Posted on January 9, 2013 at 6:44amYa hit the nail on the head, EAST!
They want to save those of us who believe in our “mythical” God from our own naivete. We’ve been duped and they must come to our rescue.
… And then there are those with an actual wicked agenda, who know those of us who believe will resist socio-political power grabs because of our faith!
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zoro51
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 2:11pmand look what took its place HUMANISM SOCIALIZM COMMUNIZM LAWLESSNESS THOU FOOLS you removed god. now reap what YOU SOWED
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mcsledge
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 1:53pmYes, and Americans have pushed God away while whining why me.
And Americans have failed to instill in their children proper values of respect, honesty and integrity.
And Americans have failed to teach girls to be women and boys to be men.
And Americans have allowed the family unit to fail why supporting perverse acts.
Americans are in a state of degeneracy. The lack of support for prayers comes as no surprise.
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What the Heck
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 1:20pmLaw suits yes part of the reason but if we continue to fight, our kids would be praying to Allah, sticking their butts in the air 5 times a day and that would be the RIGHTs of everyone but Christians being observed.
Remember, we are no longer a Christian nation said Obama and muslims are very important to the world.
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The_Jerk
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 1:43pmMuslims didn’t remove Christian prayers from schools. Secular, cultural changing, Jewish progressives are the anti-Christians who did.
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savagenatn
Posted on January 9, 2013 at 2:20am******** you’re terribly wrong. This wave of anti-Christian rhetoric has only come on within the past decade or so, and it’s been driven by the phony muslim “religion”. Jews have not been the problem. Jews have had a strong influence in this country for decades, and hardly a peep against prayer and Christianity. It’s the idiot muslims pushing this crap. Send these throwbacks back to where the he ll they belong, a rathole in the desert so they can wear their filthy nightshirts and behead each other
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mountainbiker
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 11:23amThe whole reason that public schools were established to begin with was so that people could learn to read the Bible. In the early history of our country the everyday American did not read and write and the clergy wanted to change that by making education available to everyone thus “public schools”.
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DeavonReye
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 12:28pmTimes change. So does information. Teach the bible in the church [of which there are far more of them than schools]. Leave the schools to teach life skills.
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AmericanFightingMan1
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 12:32pmWell said. Is it just coincidence that with the decline of Christianity, we have a corresponding increase in violent crime, abortions, out-of-wedlock births, drug use, suicides, STD’s, divorce, debt, etc?
Libs use buckets of lipstick to paint the ugly pig that they are. Their way is totally bankrupt and diseased. Marxist liberals are a cancer.
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Locked
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 1:36pm“The whole reason that public schools were established to begin with was so that people could learn to read the Bible.”
And the reason that a separation of church and state came about in the first place was the denominations (Calvinist and Methodist in the 1820s, if I remember correctly) of Christianity demanding that their version alone was correct, and fighting with the others. The compromise was to separate church and state so that all children acould learn to read and would make up their own minds without the interference of their teachers’ religion.
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jrc99
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 11:12amOf course support for school prayer is in decline especially for the young, although I’m only 31. Because kids are being indoctrinated with humanism from all angles from the “Main Stream” media i.e. MTV and Comedy Central to schools where little kids get suspended or expelled for talking about Jesus.
It’s all about indoctrinating the kids with humanism and we are seeing the results. Look at the parallels between the Roman Empire and the United States. In fact look up Dr. Francis Schaeffer’s work “How Then Shall We Live” and prepare to have your jaw hit the floor!
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AmericanFightingMan1
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 12:37pmThe leftist marxists teach a culture of death.
Not too long ago, children learned lessons. Little Red Riding Hood, The Pied Piper, The Emporer’s New Clothes, Hansel & Grettel, the Three Little Pigs, etc. On their faces, the stories were fun for kids, but their real purpose was to teach lessons.
Little girls learned to beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing. Or to look bravely at tyranny and see it for what it was. Or work hard and prepare for hardship. Or to not let a magical spell lead you to doom.
Those lessons were lost. Children now have supercool cartoons with no messages of virtue. They are taught garbage. Even in “new-age” churches. God and Jesus are your friends now. My, how times change.
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DesertRose1960
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 10:54amWhat the article doesn’t tell you is that Evangelical Protestants are only 28% of the population in the U.S. Catholics make up about 24% of the American population. In other words, about 20% of the Americans. Catholics favoring prayer in the schools is 14% of the general population. About 7% of the American population is made up of Mainline Protestants who support prayer in the schools. If you add them all together and get them to agree to the same prayer, which is unlikely, you still have less than half the American people wanting to bring prayer back into schools.
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IMCHRISTIAN
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 10:40amIf you do not have God in your heart and soul, you will not find happiness in the great beyond….Life is short and eternity is forever.
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DeavonReye
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 10:55amThere is no evidence of this “afterlife”. Why spend my time worrying about “having happiness in that existence”?
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tradcatholicgirl
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 12:14pmDeavon,
You may not have seen my reply to you on a previous story about the 11 dimensions your god (Science) has proved exists. Mathematically, they have proven the existence of ..so far…11 dimensions. We, as humans exist in only three of them.
Even science has proven there are some things that JUST ARE. Regardless of whether you can see them or understand them.
With all due respect, if some Christian believes in an eternity after this life, why does that bother you?
If you want to see my complete reply, click on my sign in name.
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DeavonReye
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 12:20pmGirl, please site the source for “the proof of 11 dimensions”. If anything, I would bet it were a matter of theoretical physics, and not “something proven”.
Why did I post to IMCHRISTIAN? Because there was a statement about “having happiness after you die”. I merely posted my own opinion.
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tradcatholicgirl
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 12:50pmDeavon,
You seem to be hung on up on evidence. Nothing wrong with that. It is just that not everything in existence lends itself to the kind of “evidence” you suggest is necessary.
Case in point: the 11 dimensions subject matter was something I saw on an interview with leading physicists a couple years ago. Scientifically, they had hypothesized the existence of these dimensions……….
And then PROVED they exist with mathematics and physics.
But..has any living person been to those dimensions yet? Or come back with hard evidence that can be detected with our five senses?
Well, we don’t know of any. But does that mean it didn’t happen??? Again,no evidence
But science has PROVED the dimensions do exist, though.
I have no web citation to give you. I am sure it can be cited somewhere with a bit of effort.
It is like the Shroud of Turin. Though it has been studied by thousands of scientists who are eminent in their fields, they have yet to figure out HOW the image was made, nor can they reproduce it. There simply is no EVIDENCE yet that it is NOT the burial cloth of Christ.
So people who want to believe it is Christ’s Shroud…great. And people who don’t believe.
Why does one group or the other have to be verbally demeaned or challenged about their assumptions?
Really, do you care if millions of people believe a piece of linen is actually imprinted with a true likeness of Christ? Do you?
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mcsledge
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 1:55pmDeavonReye — Go ahead and eat, drink and be merry. You have been warned and you will have no ability to say when you step before the Master that you did not know.
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DeavonReye
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 2:19pmIt isn’t that I am “hung up on evidence”. Evidence is our best way to determine what actually IS factual. We can surmise all sorts of things that may or may not be true, including if 11 dimensions actually DO exist . . . or the mythical “shroud of turin”. As I said before, what is most likely is of more value than an elaborate mechanism. Fraud to gain money from pilgrims or “magically imprinted cloth” [somehow]. There isn’t even anything that SAYS it was “from Jesus”. It is assumed, and its history isn’t even really known before ~1,300 bce.
Why not let people believe it is true? They are free to do so. I am also free to critique it. If it sounds ‘demeaning’, that isn’t my call. Just stating my feelings about it. If it ISN’T [nor was ever] “the shroud of christ”, would you feel good that you spent years believing a lie? I know I wouldn’t, which is why I prefer to trust in things evidential.
McSledge, . . . so, because some humans “warned me” about something in a book, I’m suppose to act as though it were true? Are you affected by the muslim who demands you “turn to allah or die”? If not, . . . similarly, that is why I am not compelled by your claims. Prove your “master” first.
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vaman
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 3:07pmImachristian…so sad. I’m sad for you.
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DeavonReye
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 10:38amIt should be seen as a dangerous endeavor to any religious person to allow a state run school indoctrinate their kids with a brand of religion that you may not even agree with. If you BELIEVE everyone worships and prays the same as you, you are deluded. If you want your kid to pray in school, teach them your doctrines, . . . and let them pray when they want [not guided by the school]. Your child is free to say their own prayer.
The public school isn’t a church. It is a place to learn what can actually be taught with some level of evidence and proof.
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title_of_liberty
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 11:35am@deavonrye I am surprised by this, but I agree with you wholeheartedly. A much as I wish religion was not ignored in schools, being a member of a minority religion, I cannot support something that would take away the freedom of people like me. If there was prayer in public schools it would probably be of a catholic, or baptist, or a non-denominational brand. As a Mormon I am quite certain I would be ignored. People should be allowed to pray according to their own conscience, be they mormon like me, catholic, evangelical, mainstream protestant, russian orthodox, jewish, muslim, buddhist, unafilliated, etc. That is something that I am happy to fight and die for.
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RaydocX
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 10:24amRemember what Twain said about statistics.
Polling is supposed to offer a representative sample to obtain a sense of a population’s position.
Modern polling uses skewed sampling or questions to generate a talking point or to support a position. It’s not polling at all.
In the 30 years prayers have been out of schools, the problems in schools have exploded, including mass shootings…
Asked the right way, there would be as much or more support for a return of prayer to school.
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God_Is_Not
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 1:01pmReturn of prayer? Are you implying prayer has been banned? If so, then you have been misinformed. If you’re implying that the lack of state endorsed prayer is the reason for school shootings then I would have to ask for some evidence.
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Top_Contributor
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 10:17amIf you want to have formalized prayer in school, send your kid to a parochial school. Why is that so hard for conservatives to grasp? Why should everyone’s tax dollars pay for the favor of one or two religions? You would think conservatives wouldn’t like that. Oh that’s right, they’re only against tax money going to towards the things they’re against. Typical incessant whining from the unreasonable right.
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jay1975
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 10:30am“Freedom for me, not for thee” is the battle cry of today’s GOP.
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ModerationIsBest
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 10:36amThese people will never grasp it. Unless their religion can be forced by officials and be imposed on other people, they will cry about persecution and say it’s been “banned.”
Fact is, a kid can take a Bible to school if he or she chooses. They can read it before class, in between class, on lunch or after class if they choose. Heck, a small group of kids could even find a spot in between and talk about it, or pray together.
The only thing that has been “banned” is those things being lead by school officials and endorsed by them.
I’m never quite sure how far these Christians want it to go. They want “God” back in school, and would have no problem with a teacher talking about Jesus. I wonder how they would then feel if their kid came home and said, “hey Mommy/Daddy, guess what our teacher told us about Allah and Mohammed today?”
Would these Christians still be saying, “yay for God in school again!” or would they throw a hissy fit and cry about indoctrination as they normally do?
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DeavonReye
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 10:43amOr, Mod, . . . “hey mom, did you know that Jesus came to america to preach to the ‘bad jews’ that were transported here?”
It is a dangerous thing to do . . . letting your children be taught religion outside your control. It amazes me how this simple fact illudes those who are so adamant about “getting prayer back in schools”. They act like every christian denomination teaches the same things.
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ModerationIsBest
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 10:09pm@DEAVONREYE
Normally I would agree with you and say good point, but you also have to account for the fact that if it was a Christian teaching something that another Christian doesn’t agree with, you would just hear the, “oh well they aren’t a REAL Christian” argument.
You see, in their world a TRUE Christian, never does anything bad.
Sure, they can be a Christian for 25 years, but they do something horrible and it’s, “oh well they were never a TRUE Christian to begin with.”
They basically just call each other heretics.
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DeavonReye
Posted on January 9, 2013 at 8:54amYes. That seems to be the new way of explaining why someone can either “do something unexpected” or “fall away from the faith”. “They weren’t ever a christian.” I’ve been on the receiving end of that.
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SpankDaMonkey
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 10:16am.
School Prayer Has Declined, and Mass Shootings by Democrats has gone up………..
Most Gun Violence and All Mass Shootings are committed by a Democrat, need proof just look at Chicago that’s not some white republican committing 500 murders a year it Democrat Obama voters………
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ModerationIsBest
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 10:32amDo you know what classifies a mass shooting?
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Top_Contributor
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 10:35amYou failed statistics, I gather. There’s a lot you’re not controlling for in your correlation “analysis.”
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jackact
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 10:06amSupport has not waned.
The US dept of education has systematically removed prayer from public schools nationally during the past 37 years.
Can’t have blind faith in centrally controlled socialist government with GOD hanging around.
Can we?
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naughtycal
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 10:20amExactly,
And American view it as a battle they can’t win because of groups like the ACLU. I can’t believe no attorney has ever argued the second part of the religious clause in the Constitution…THE PART THAT SAY OR PROHIBIT THE FREE EXERCISE THERE OF…..Schools do collect tax dollars but that doesn’t make them part of the government the majority of the tax dollars comes from local property meaning the community should establish if they want prayewr in thier school. Just because Jimmy (socialist) Carter starts a department of eduction doesn’t me the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT POLICY can control schools. That would be a violation of the 10th amendment.
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jay1975
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 10:22amAnd you can’t have blind faith in your myths if you are educated.
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hauschild
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 10:06amI’m much more concerned about the decline in American’s support for the Constitution than I am school prayer. The former is infinitely more important in the grand scheme of things.
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jay1975
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 10:27amHell yes. If these evangelicals would focus on Constitutional law, then their religious freedom would remain protected, but they aren’t looking at the big picture; without the Constitution and its protections, their religious freedoms will remain in peril.
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Locked
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 1:39pm“I’m much more concerned about the decline in American’s support for the Constitution than I am school prayer.”
Amen!
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BODYBAG
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 10:04amArrogance has been around since the beginning of time.
People havent changed a bit.
God isnt fooled and neither are true people of faith.
Take any atheist or “none” alive and put them in a dire life-or-death situatiion such as a horrible
accident, a terminal disease, or losing a child and I guarantee there’s only one name they will cry out.
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The_Doors_Of_Perception
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 10:30amAre you an athiest in disguise making a joke? Or are you admitting that the belief in God is fear based and irrational?
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ModerationIsBest
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 10:38amZeus!!!!!!!!!!
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God_Is_Not
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 12:51pmHas to be sarcasm.
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vaman
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 3:01pmWell done The Doors…
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Eastinfection
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 10:02amThe problem is in the language we use and how it’s interpreted.
“School Prayer” is misleading if you’re referring to an individual’s Constitutional right to practice their religion….
What you have a right to do should be called “praying in school”.
If a public institution is forcing people to pray, or leading prayers, that should be called “School Prayer”- but only a small fringe element of American society endorses this approach.
Instead, the left and the right both use this expression “School Prayer” when it means something totally different to both of them.
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ModerationIsBest
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 10:39amYou can pray in school. That hasn’t been banned at all.
What has been banned is prayer being lead and endorsed by school officials.
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Eastinfection
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 11:00amI know it hasn’t, MOD…
but just as there are fringe elements that want to force prayer, there are fringe elements that wan’t to punish it as well.
For every wacko teacher or principal that tries to institute a public school prayer somewhere, there is another giving detention to kids saying “bless you” after sneezes, or flunking kids that refuse to acknowledge evolution as fact.
Truth is, both fringe elements are Constitutionally insane.
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ModerationIsBest
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 10:21pmNever heard of a kid getting detention for saying bless you.
And if the kid is answering questions incorrectly on a test then they deserve to fail.
So if a kid said that their Bible taught that the sun revolved around the Earth and answered that on a test, would you say that the teaching was “punishing” them when they marked their answer wrong?
I’m sorry but if you try to equate your myth as fact, you deserved to be told you’re wrong.
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taintso
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 10:02amNo surprise there as the liberal radical loons of the 60′s and 70′s are the teachers today.
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banjarmon
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 9:58amThere is a decline because schools don’t want to be sued, and pay court cost to defend themselves from atheist and the aclu!!
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Sp00kyMulder
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 4:56pmMaybe if they quit commiting unconstitutional acts, they wouldn’t have to worry about that.
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