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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!unc!mcnc!decvax!genrad!wjh12!n44a!ima!inmet!andrew
From: andrew@inmet.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: prayer in public schools - (nf)
Message-ID: <1011@inmet.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 7-Mar-84 06:01:12 EST
Article-I.D.: inmet.1011
Posted: Wed Mar  7 06:01:12 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 8-Mar-84 19:32:06 EST
Lines: 51

#R:mit-eddi:-137900:inmet:11600014:000:3044
inmet!andrew    Mar  6 21:36:00 1984

There is not and never has been any law or court decision restricting the
rights of any individual to pray wherever he or she chooses!  Reagan, as
usual, has all of his facts mixed up (perhaps deliberately in order to turn
a 20-year-old dead horse into a hot political issue and divert attention from
the obvious failure of his Middle East policy); the Supreme Court decisions
he flames about so ignorantly overturned laws REQUIRING teachers to lead 
classes in oral prayer (NY) or Bible reading (PA).  Those decisions were
correct then and are every bit as correct now... render to Caesar, etc.

Reagan's latest lie (concerning the proposed amendment about to be debated
in Congress) is that no state would be allowed to compose a prayer to be
said in schools and that no student would be forced to participate.  The 
former implies that a prayer will indeed be recited in class, only it will be
composed by someone other than the state (if not by the state, then by whom?
Does it matter?).  The latter is dangerously unclear: does it mean that any 
student choosing not to participate may remain silent or leave the room?  Or
does it mean that a student wishing to be excused from participation would
be required to supply parental permission in writing?
 
What Reagan really wants is mandatory school prayer.  Ignore all attempts to
sugar-coat it as 'voluntary'; there is no such thing.  Peer (and teacher)
pressure is a powerful force upon impressionable young children; see the 3/5 
issue of that tool of Godless Communism (a.k.a. The Wall Street Journal) for
an account of (among other things) elementary-school children being told that
they would go to Hell unless they attended (illegal) school-sponsored prayer
meetings.  This is a prime example of the religious tyranny that the founders
of the US sought to abolish!

Supporters of mandatory school prayer are a) diverting a portion of their
children's religious upbringing to a secular body of dubious ablility in this
area, and b) overlooking the fact that any group-led, oral prayer may contain
ideas in conflict with their own religion.  Reagan, of course, is counting on
the fact that few voters think the least bit rationally, especially on highly
emotionally-charged issues such as this; cf. his non-sequitur during the '82
Congressional race about the "big spenders who took God out of the classroom".

 
Andrew W. Rogers, Intermetrics    ...harpo!inmet!andrew
733 Concord Ave.                  ...hplabs!sri-unix!cca!ima!inmet!andrew
Cambridge, MA  02138              ...uw-beav!cornell!esquire!inmet!andrew
(617) 661-1840                    ...yale-comix!ima!inmet!andrew
 
PS: Another indication of Reagan's {political skills | advancing senility} is
his recent attempt to blame declining SAT scores on the aforementioned Supreme
Court decisions.  Unfortunately, he failed to offer any explanation for 
similar declines in SAT scores of parochial school students, who I assume pray
to their hearts' content without any interference from Big Government or
"liberal" courts.