Prayer In Public Schools

Argumentative Essay Everybody knows school. A building that is, to some, a prison and, to others, a land of endless knowledge. Despite what you make think of them, people reside in schools for a portion of their lifetimes and it would not be unreasonable to say that schools can have long lasting effects on the people they house. Many would say that children should come to school only to learn what is required to function in the workplace of their choice. Subjects like math and science are prime examples of things normally applicable in the workplace. However, many schools in the U.S. have integrated prayer into their learning regime. Obviously, this is not a problem if the school is privately funded and may, therefore, be less accepting …show more content…
The call for separation of church and state is simple, our founding fathers, who had fled from England to escape religious persecution, thought it would be best to keep the dealings of the church out of the school system. I believe it does not have to be explained why they called for such a ruling. While it is true that, in the past, prayer was allowed in schools, this was due to the U.S. being almost entirely Christian. Now we have much more diversity in our religions or lack thereof. Many people have tried to combat this decree so that prayer may, once again, be allowed in schools. However, almost every single time the topic is brought up, people advocate against it and drop all notions of the idea. Once such case involves a judge who had already brought up the issue on multiple occasions. Every time he was denied the passing of a law that would overturn the separation of church and state. He eventually decided to take matters into his own hands and issue the decree regardless of what he had been told. As was no surprise to anyone, he was fired quite quickly from his position. (Kennedy) This gives strength to the notion that people do not wish for church to become one with schools. That is why we have churches in the first place. Churches are meant for worship which is strongly encouraged there. The government even funds churches so that they may continue …show more content…
It is a fact, the majority religion in the United States is some form of Christianity. If prayer were to become allowed in schools, under the terms that all religions are allowed equal time, you cannot expect this majority to cater to the minority. Some of these Christians hold extremely harmful, radical views on the topic of religion. They are selfish and care little for others that lie outside their opinions. Imagine what would happen if one of these people were to become principal in one of these schools. They would support those clubs and gatherings that worked with their religion, but revoke any others on the basis that they are different. This type of favoritism is bound to lead to someone taking offense and calling someone of authority to fix the problem. At this point, the person of authority would be obligated to speak to the school and either ask or tell them to stop. The majority would then cry out as if they were a minority in order to get what they want. They want little interference from the government except when it involves getting what they want.