January 12, 2012
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Excuse Me????
Three Indiana state senators, all Republicans, have introduced a bill that would allow schools to require the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer every morning, if they want to.
The Lord’s Prayer bill says the point is to help “each student recognize the importance of spiritual development in establishing character and becoming a good citizen,” but you can get out of reciting it if you or your parents want.
The bill comes with a fiscal impact statement (pdf) so we can see the cost and revenue from introducing religion into the classroom. Expected expenditures are local, officials write: “There could be some minor impact in deciding the version of the Lord’s Prayer to use; however, it should be able to be done within existing resources.”
This is what theocracy looks like — using public resources to decide whether school kids should recite the King James Version or a new-fangled edition. The original Aramaic one is kind of nice, but it might be a little cosmic-y, karm-y for whichever officials got the job of picking out a suitable prayer.
Perhaps Sen. Kruse, Sen. Tomes, and Sen. Holdman (who, believe it or not, is an attorney) forgot the words of the First Amendment to the Constitution:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
The Senators appear to have forgotten to text of Article I of the Indiana Constitution:
Section 3. No law shall, in any case whatever, control the free exercise and enjoyment of religious opinions, or interfere with the rights of conscience.
Section 4. No preference shall be given, by law, to any creed, religious society, or mode of worship; and no person shall be compelled to attend, erect, or support, any place of worship, or to maintain any ministry, against his consent.
Moreover, these Senators also appear to have missed the fact that the United States Supreme Court ruled on the issue of government-mandated school prayer nearly 50 years ago (in fact, this year is the 50th anniversary of one of the two main cases on the issue of school prayer)! Furthermore, it is worth noting that most of the school prayer cases have dealt with (and found unconstitutional) non-denominational prayers. But these Indiana Senators want to impose a core Christian prayer upon Indiana’s school children.
I also want to note the red-herring contained in the SB251. Yes, the bill permits a student or parent to opt-out of saying the prayer. How realistic of a remedy is this? You try being an impressionable school child, burdened by peer pressure, your own insecurities as your learn who you are and what you believe, and the weight of a teacher or school administrator, and raising your hand to say, “No, I don’t want to say the prayer.”
These three think nothing of having the State of Indiana tell Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, atheist, and other children not only that they must pray but that they must offer a specific Christian prayer. What does that say about our society? About tolerance and diversity? To me it says, “Hey, if you’re not a Christian, you’re not a part of ‘real America’, so just fuck off and let our Christian country move backward.” I would just love to see the reaction of these Senators if a school district chose to require children to recite a Jewish prayer or … gasp! … a Muslim prayer.
Call Sen. Kruse, Sen. Tomes, and Sen. Holdman (each can be reached at 800/382-9467 or via email). And tell them what you think of their efforts to bring theocracy to Indiana. Oh, and you might also suggest that when they’re done reciting the Lord’s Prayer, they ought to go read Jesus’ thoughts on prayer (from Mathew 6:56):
And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men … when thou prayest, enter into thy closet and when thou has shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret…
Regardless of whether or not you are religious, why would you want your child to be forced to perform a rote recitation like this every day?
The reasons we have Separation of Church and State are to make sure that the state gives NO preference to one religion over another (or over a lack of religion). This was actually introduced to protect your religious freedoms, not to limit them: or would you feel this was an appropriate law if a non-Christian prayer were required every morning?
Comments (16)
Just another example of backwards thinking and very surprising in 2012.
As Master Yoda would say, ‘Sue off the ass you must. There is no opt’.
Yoda is so wise.
It’s amazing to me that in this techological and supposedly enlightened age we’re still debating the issue of whether the Religious Reich has the right to force their faith on everyone else.
I have said this before, the only way to apply freedom of cult is not allowing any religious display in schools, if a christian prayer it’s to be recited the school should have to do the same with prayers of every denomination O.o quite impossible.
I’m a catholic, but even I can understand the logic of no religion at schools. I want my kids to pray at school, that’s why they’re in a catholic private school.
I’ve never understood the big deal about prayer in school. If you want to pray you can do it in your head or on your own…they don’t need to make it mandatory…that’s just ridiculous. I have a problem with this as well.
I wouldn’t really worry about this too much. It’s unlikely that this will become law, and even if it does, it will almost certainly be thrown out. There’s a lot of precedent regarding this kind of thing, and it’s all on the side of church/state separation.
What I would be angry about, apart from the obvious unconstitutionality of the situation, is that the three legislators in question are wasting time, money, and resources. I mean, it would be kind of like me buying a satellite cell phone, then getting a listing of phone numbers of a whole bunch of Victoria’s Secret models and calling them and asking them for dates. When I was done, I’d be out hundreds if not thousands of dollars, and I would have spent several hours accomplishing nothing. I have much better things to do with my time and money, and so should Kruse, Tomes, and Holdman.
This is wrong.
I still say that since all must pay the taxes used for public schools, that parents should be given vouchers to determine where that money goes and how it is spent on their kids education. If the senators are so worried about teaching Christian Children the Lord’s Prayer, this would do more to put the power int he hands of the parents to send their kids to that kind of school. These senators need to focus on that instead of trying to make the public schools more religious.
On a side note, I always thought of “The Lord’s Prayer” as the one beginning with, “Our Father Who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name……” The one you have at the top, I’ve never heard before.
fuck. this.
seriously, what the fuck?
what is the point of having elected officials to uphold laws if they don’t even know the basic laws and rights in the constitution?
@mtngirlsouth – the one uptop is translated from aramaic. I have a link in the post to the aramaic.
So the marionettes have taken over and wish to decree that all should dangle on strings, eh? What a colossally stupid waste of time and energy when we have so many other more pressing problems to contend with throughout this wounded nation. I find myself longing for the society of that brief period of long ago when it was accepted by most that the purpose of public schools was education to teach free human beings how to think independently and to provide knowledge, as opposed to indoctrination which teaches people what to believe and provides unchallengeable rules.
In the words a very wise man once shared with me: Dude, this shit is really fucked up.
I got distracted by Anita, Jean-Claude, and Richard. I love this series.
Also, idiots in congress do shit like this to try to piss us off and throw more gas on the “THEY JUST HATE US CAUSE WE ARE RELIGIOUS” fire.
I understand that this upsets you. However, precedent shows that these things never pass.
“What does that say about our society?
About tolerance and diversity? To me it says, “Hey, if you’re not a
Christian, you’re not a part of ‘real America’, so just fuck off and let
our Christian country move backward.“
Wouldn’t you say that was a harsh judgment call towards Christians? That is exactly how it came across to me. If you want to see a change in people, you have to be that change. (Michael Jackson, “Man in the Mirror.”) I agree, if this were any other religion it would bother me & therefore I can see the validity in not having this in school either. I just don’t think you need to say that Christianity is backward.
It’s no different then the people who say you musn’t pray in school.
Both quite wrong.
This is a HOT MESS! I am shocked that people are trying to move the country in this direction! It does nothing!
I’m guessing you haven’t yet seen the other bill up for consideration in Indiana: NCSE article on creationism in schools.
I only pray to the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
I have no comment except WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT?????