Decius Wrote:

] Students are allowed to pray in public school. What right wing
] propaganda have you been reading?

None. Rather, I have parents who are educators and they feel that prayer in public schools should be barred since you would have to accomodate children of all religions. Picture an english class with catholics clutching rosary beads doing novenas, jews wailing at the chalk board on the wall, Buddhists meditating on the desks, Muslims throwing down a rug on the floor and bowing to Mecca, Mormons hooking up with three cheerleaders each at once, Kali Yuga doing ritual scarification, Santerians cutting the heads off of chickens, Voodoo practitioners sticking pins in dolls, American Indians doing a raindance around the teacher's desk, the unitarians could do whatever the hell they do, the satanists could perform a black mass, and the born agains could prostelatyze to all of them.
That would sure be a zoo. I think it would be great! A great lesson in diversity, in fact. Actually, that should be a mandatory class each day. Atheists could take a second lunch or a study hall or just sit there and watch these people raise the roof with faith.

As I recall, a great deal of
] praying went on in school, before tests in particular.

While in Kindergarten, I prayed before a quiz. I was sent to the principal's office for doing this. Yes, it would be a shame for prayer to be forced on students (although the scenario I described earlier does seem like a great deal of fun), but it wouldn't kill anyone to be tolerant of the concept and expression of religious faith. Today, in some school districts, prayer is verbotent. What's humorous is that the same people who want us to tolerate Heather's two mommies would not show tolerance towards religious faith or differing social ideologies. That stinks of hypocrisy. I always figured that they weren't merely looking for tolerance. If that were the case, then we would be asked to tolerate the Ku Klux Klan, conservatives, bestialists, necrophiliacs, cult leaders (Koresh was killed by a liberal administration), fetuses, whalers, and the religious folks who make up the backbone of our nation.

] Religious groups and expressions are perfectly legal as long
] as they aren't organized by the administration or manditory.
] The right wants a constitutional amendment that will allow for
] organized prayer in school.

Why not? There's organized sports, aren't there? If you don't believe in prayer, then don't participate. If it's organized, then I don't see this as anything other than a case of the school being free to do what it would like. Many public universities have taken taxpayer dollars to have Michael Moore speak to the tune of over $30,000 per engagement. At this point, ideologies are the new religion. If it is offensive to have an organized prayer, then why is it not offensive to have a divisive blowhard like Moore take more money than many make in a year breaking their backs so that the fat bastard can stand there and further his hateful agenda? It's about the same as allowing Pat Buchanan to come talk at your school about how lazy minorities are. It wouldn't happen. But I believe all of these things are valuable teaching tools in that to experience something first hand is to learn about it better than a simple glossing over of a fact of american life in some text book. This is history in the making, prayer is a concept and both are useful educational tools. If one wishes to abstain, they should have that perogative.

RE: Debate