Mark Small

Children can pray in school, just cannot force others to pray as a group. Peer pressure can be great, especially among kids in elementary school. A child who chooses not to participate in group-led prayer faces ostracism. 4/20

Let’s suppose group-led prayer in public schools is okay. To whom or to what would the children pray? This is a country with many religious beliefs and many beliefs about religion. 5/20

Let’s suppose group-led prayer in public schools is okay. To whom or to what would the children pray? This is a country with many religious beliefs and many beliefs about religion. 5/20

There are people - notably dominionists - who advocate theocracy, i.e., government run by a religion. The majority of the people who hold such beliefs where I live, Indiana, are fundamentalist Christians. 6/20

If they wrote the prayer, one reasonably may infer, words would praise/supplicate 2 the supreme deity of the Old Testament. This is a focus many ppl, including a great many Christians, would object for their kids. 7/20

In services I attended mid- to late 1970s as I researched 4 a novel, some preachers demeaned baptism other than by complete immersion as “only sprinkling” & derided Roman Catholicism “worships of idols,” i.e. statutes. 8/20

We form a committee of ministers & priests to draft a prayer to supreme deity, whose only begotten son ... We would have problems because the “only begotten son” thing is Christian: not everyone is a Christian. 9/20

We would have to accommodate members of the Hebrew faith. New Testament says Jesus was a Jew. Both religions are based on covenant w/Abraham. There still would be opposition from a lot of Christians & members of Hebrew faith. 10/20