Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP 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.