Prayer should be allowed in Public Schools Essay

The jazz regarding the constitutionality of mandatory school requester in schools in hinged on the separation between the church service and the distinguish that has been decreed by the constitution. On one and only(a) side, there are those who argue that appealingness in humankind school classrooms should be declared unconstitutional because it involves excessive entanglement, which is prohibited under the dogma of separation of church and state (Clark 35). The other view is based more on the argument that much(prenominal) act is tolerable because even the Pledge of allegiance contains the phrase under God.(Clark 35) It is humbly submitted in this position paper, however, that the more counteract view remains to be that prayer in classrooms should be tolerated as long as it is not mandatory. In arriving at a better understanding of this progeny, it is first important to define the constitutional issue at hand. The phrase, separation of church building and State, is actu ally from a letter that was written by one of the founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson, to a group that called themselves the Danbury Baptists (Busher 13).In the letter, Thomas Jefferson wrote that, I contemplate with sovereign value that act of the whole American plenty which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an boldness of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between Church and State. This was of course in reference to the First Amendment of the United States Constitution (Whitsitt 186). The basic precept of this doctrine is founded on a firm belief that religion and state should be separate.It covers a very wide spectrum, as mentioned in the previous sections of this discussion, ranging from the secularization or elimination of the church to theocracy wherein the state works in in tandem with a religion in order to govern over the acts of people (Bradley 199) The problem is that while the church and state do maintain that there is indeed a necessity to abide by the doctrine of the separation of church and state there is no clear way of delineating the boundaries between the spheres of these two institutions (Bradley 199). in that respect are still certain acts that require entanglement between the church and the state because of the duty of the organisation to cater to the welfare of its people who invariably belong to some form of religion, in most cases. one of these instances is when prayer is allowed in exoteric school classrooms. To argue that prayer is unconstitutional would be to deny the people the right to their rich American history. The first settlers were Pilgrims and even the first thanksgiving meal, though not seemingly a prayer by conventional means, was actually an act of thanking the almighty God for all the blessings (Bradley 199).If prayer is to be considered as a religious affirmation that is offensive to the constitution then other forms much(prenomina l) as the pledge of allegiance and the In God We Trust declaration on the dollar standard must also be struck vote down (Bradley 199). It cannot therefore be argued prayer in public school classrooms is a clear infraction of the establishment clause when even the humble dollar meter has the sign in God we trust written on it. If it is to be argued that prayer is a violation of the establishment clause then so must the dollar bill be struck down as a violation (Bradley 199). Yet time and again the almighty dollar has prevailed.The reason for this is because such a declaration is not an endorsement of a single religion, which is exactly what the establishment clause prohibits, alone rather it is a declaration by the American people of their belief in a superior(p) being. This argument is not limited to a single God but to all Gods of whatever beliefs. The beauty of the American democracy is that it empowers instead of stifles. It encourages instead of denies. To argue that pray er should not be allowed is unpatriotic, it is un-American. A prayer is a sign of thanks for everything that has been given to everyone.A single word or phrase separated and taken out of context does much to remove the original intent from it. Reciting a prayer in public school classrooms does not further the cause of any single religion. Instead, it serves to show the rest of the terra firma the pride that Americans have for their great nation. It shows unity. It shows strength. It shows the American way.ReferencesClark, James R. (1965). Messages of the First Presidency. Brigham Young University, Department of Educational leaders & Foundations. Retrieved on 2007-1-30. Fighting the Establishment (Clause).Bradley, Jennifer, The American Prospect, September 1, 1996. accessible at http//www. prospect. org/print/V7/28/bradley-j. hypertext markup language Religion in the Public Schools A Joint Statement of Current Law. The American Civil Liberties Union, 1996. Available at http//aclu. org/issues/religion/relig7. html West Encyclopedia of American Law. West Group, 1998. Busher, Leonard (1614). Religious Peace or, a Plea for Liberty of Conscience. Whitsitt, Dr. William (1896). A Question in Baptist History Whether the Anabaptists in England Practiced Immersion earlier the Year 1641?. C. T. Dearing, pp. 69-70.