I’m totally in favor of prayer. Just not when teachers and hypocrites lead it.
Kerry got some email about a petition—some idiots want to reinstate prayer in public schools. I say “idiots” for the following reasons:
- It’s already legal to pray in public schools! They do it all the time, especially during those “see you at the pole” functions where the Christian students come out of the woodwork and join hands around the flagpole and pray. Students also pray before tests, parent-teacher conferences, beatings (if they’re the one getting beaten), and athletic competitions (even though God doesn’t take sides in these things).
- However, it’s not legal for teachers to lead prayer. If you think about it, this is a good thing. In order to avoid offending anyone, teachers would more than likely pick a nice non-sectarian prayer that addresses nobody. You may have seen such prayers before—prayers that say “We pray for this, that, and the other things” but it’s never stated who the prayer goes to. Or worse—it addresses “the Universe” as if it’s sentient. Or you’ll get some really obnoxious fundamentalist Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, or whatever, who take that time to inflict their religions on the kids.
- Some of these idiots point to growing rates of student violence and crime and claim it statistically relates to the point when the Supreme Court proclaimed that teacher-led prayer was unconstitutional. I don’t know where they get these stats from; likely from the same place that’s sending around a fabricated email about the top 10 school problems in the ’50s. According to that email, in the ’50s teachers complained about chewing gum and talking back, compared with guns, drugs, and teen pregnancy today. This was obviously written by someone who never grew up in the ’50s. (I’m not that old, but my parents are.) Or even the ’30s. I was talking with my grandmother’s boyfriend some months ago about his growing up in Harlem; and the gangs, drugs, and violence were so commonplace that most kids just dropped out of school. And they had school prayer. So don’t give me that crap about how “things were better back then.” The only people that say this are the people that don’t know history. Things are much better now. (But obviously, we have further to go.)
I also object to school prayer for the same reason I always object to obligatory religion: the hypocrisy. I don’t want prayer led by people who have no relationship with God. Jesus doesn’t want it either. Sure, we could always use more prayer in school; sure, the Christians need to pray for the public schools more instead of abandoning them for the private schools. But if you want an example for how prayer in schools isn’t doing anything for the nation, look at the United States in the early 1900s. Or Saudi Arabia now.
Kerry and I are at Perfect Blend in Vacaville. Most people don’t know it’s called that because their sign out front reads “Coffee House” in big huge letters, and “Perfect Blend” in little tiny letters wrapped around their logo.
The coffee’s good and it has wireless internet; but most important of all, it’s air-conditioned. ’Cause it’s 102°F outside (39°C) and I’ll sweat through the couch if I stay in the house much longer.
I should reemphasize: The coffee’s good. If you’re ever in Vacaville, try the stuff. It’s one of the top five coffees on my list.
Update, 1/20/2009: Perfect Blend is closed now. Bummer. They had great coffee.