By: Shedwin Eliassin / Contributing Writer
Prayer in schools has not always been such a controversial topic. In fact, public schools had prayer for nearly 200 years before the Supreme Court ruled that state mandated class prayers were unconstitutional in the landmark case of Engle vs. Vital in June 1962. Religion aside, prayer should be implemented in schools simply because it has useful benefits on its own.
Our school systems aren’t doing any better since the removal of prayer in schools. In fact, some may say that the situation has gotten much worse, especially in terms of school violence. In 2007, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention found that 5.9 percent of students carry weapons to school with them, 7.8 percent have been threatened or injured on campuses nationwide and 12.4 percent of students have been in a physical fight on school grounds at least once. The most recent studies have found that 5.3 percent of students do not go to school because they do not feel safe.
Since the court outlawed prayer, the nation has been in steady moral decline. Former Secretary of Education, William Bennet, revealed in his cultural indexes that between 1960 and 1990 divorce doubled, teenage pregnancy went up 200 percent, teen suicide increased 300 percent, violent crime went up 500 percent and he maintains that there is a strong correlation between the expulsion of prayer from our schools and decline in morality.
It should be made clear that prayer has positive psychological, physical and emotional influences. Focusing on your emotions by praying can help relieve stress, calm fears and reduce anxiety. When cardiologist Randolph Byrd, did his famous study on the effects of prayer in April 1982 through May 1983, he found that praying on a regular basis can have an enormous effect on the psyche of an individual by stabilizing their mood, giving them a feeling of well-being, improving how they interact with others and positively changing the way they conduct themselves. When it comes to children and how they behave in school, prayer and all these positive effects that it holds can have enormous constructive effects on their outlook and those around them.
The establishment clause is a popular rebuttal for those who are against prayer in schools. It is the first of several pronouncements in the Constitution and it states that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. When the families of New Hyde Park, New York, complained that the voluntary prayer in schools went against their religious beliefs, the prayer in question went as follows: “Almighty God we acknowledge our dependence upon thee, and we beg thy blessings on our parents, our teachers and our country. Amen.” They were most concern with who the God was that the children were praying to, who was never specified, nor was any distinction of religion ever made.
It is a paradox for the same government who has its grounds on religious principals from the very beginning to uphold prayer as being “unconstitutional.” The original purpose of the clause was to ensure that the government should not declare a state religion. If this is the case there should be no harm in leaving the decision to pray up to local districts rather than deeming it against the nature of the nation.
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