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A variety of amendments
and other measures are being introduced, considered, and advocated
for that would mandate worship in public schools. Though the
specific content of these proposals vary, the substantive
impact is that students would be expected to engage in religious
activity during school time. The Hindu American Foundation
(HAF) finds the coercive nature of these provisions and their
divisive tendencies troubling and potentially dangerous.
Efforts to mandate prayer
in public schools are unconstitutional and violate the secular
ideals enshrined in our laws. The Constitution and subsequent
legal precedent unequivocally mandate the separation of church
and state. In 1948, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down religious
instruction in public schools in McCollum v. Board of
Education. (i) In 1962, the Supreme Court in Engel
v. Vitale ruled that official prayer has no place in
public education and that government officials are not allowed
to compose a prayer for students to recite. (ii) In 1963,
the Supreme Court ruled in Abington Township School District
v. Schempp that school-sponsored Bible reading and recitation
of the Lord’s Prayer are unconstitutional. (iii) Courts
have consistently ruled that teachers may not participate
in religious activities with students at any time relevant
to the school day. (iv)
Despite these constraints,
significant latitude of religious activity is allowed within
public schools. Students can pray in school buses, at the
flagpole, in student religious clubs, and in the hallways
and cafeteria. If the school has as few as one extra-curricular
student-led and student-organized group, then students have
a legal right to organize a Bible or other religious club
to meet outside of classroom time.
The movement to mandate
prayer in public schools is troubling on a number of grounds.
Violence has resulted from such provisions in the past. Though
the prayers sanctioned may be non-denominational and non-sectarian
in theory, there is a real possibility that such measures
will lead to imposition of one religious tradition on all
students regardless of their individual faith. Many people
advocating for these measures are motivated by a desire to
have their beliefs taught in the public schools and illegally
use the educational system as an instrument for conversion
or evangelism.
Author Robert S. Alley has
interviewed several prominent individuals involved in relevant
high-profile court cases and observes, “Communities
attempt to impose the mores and cultural patterns of religion
on their public schools; in some instances these Christians
have gone beyond angry protests to threats of violence against
the parents and children and even as far as arson and other
property damage.” (vii)
More than 1,500 different
religious bodies and sects co-exist and flourish in America.
There are over 360,000 churches, mosques, temples and synagogues.
(viii) Over 90 percent of Americans profess a belief in God;
more than half say they pray at least once a day, and more
than 40 percent say they have attended worship services during
the previous week. (ix) The separation of church and state
has allowed religion to flourish while enabling peaceful coexistence
among a plurality of faiths.
In light of the enduring
continuity of religious faith in America, it is neither necessary
nor advisable to bring religion into the public sphere, especially
the classroom, where children are most vulnerable to peer
pressure and the influence of teachers and other students.
The appropriate forum for instilling morals and values is
at home, and most parents would prefer to keep it that way.
Mandating prayer does not create a more spiritual or religious
society; instead, it politicizes religion and makes a public
display of what should be personal and individual. It enables
evangelization and the denigration of non-majority religious
beliefs.
While many Hindus pray regularly
and Hinduism has always recognized the power of prayer, Hindus
believe strongly in the values of pluralism, acceptance, tolerance,
and respect for the diversity of the spiritual paths of humanity.
HAF feels it is wrong to require prayer in school for those
individuals who would not be comfortable engaging in such
religious activities.
The Hindu American Foundation
believes strongly that the separation of church and state
must be maintained and that prayers should not be mandated
in public schools during instructional time. As such, HAF
urges the following:
1) Recognition
that in a multi-faith, religiously diverse society, the government
should be neutral towards religion. Accordingly, public schools
can allow individual student religious expression without
promoting any specific faith or tradition;
2) Recognition
that decisions about religious activity and belief should
be delegated to the home and private sphere. This is the stance
adopted by the Supreme Court and one by which we must abide;
and
3)
Condemnation of any federal or state legislation that seeks
to mandate prayers or any other religious activity in public
schools.
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(i) McCollum
v. Board of Education, 333 U.S. 203, 68 S. Ct. 461, 92
L. Ed. 649 (1948).
(ii) Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421, 82 S. Ct. 1261,
8 L. Ed. 2d 601 (1962).
(iii) Abington Township School District v. Schempp,
374 U.S. 203, 10 L. Ed. 2d 844, 83 S. Ct. 1560 (1963).
(iv) See, e.g., Doe v.Duncanville Indep. Sch. Dist.,
70 F.3d 402 (5th Cir. 1995) (holding that coach’s practice
of leading and participating in prayers with basketball team
before and after games is unconstitutional); Steele v.
Van Buren Ph. Sch. Dist., 845 F.2d 1492 (8th Cir. 1988)
(affirming that band teacher could not lead student band in
prayer before rehearsals and performances); Peloza v. Capistrano
Unified Sch. Dist., 782 F.Supp. 1412 (C.D. Cal. 1992), aff’d,
rev’d on other grounds, 37 F.3d 517 (9th Cir. 1994)
(disallowing teacher from discussing his religious views with
students during instructional time).
(v) “Religion and Prayer in U.S. Public Schools: Introduction,
Constitution, Court Decisions, etc.,” Ontario Consultants
on Religious Tolerance, April 27, 1995, at:
http://www.religioustolerance.org/.
(vi) For example, full-scale riots occurred and many lives
were lost in Philadelphia in 1844 over a dispute on which
version of the Bible should be used in the classroom.
A similar conflict divided Cincinnati in 1869.
(vii) Robert S. Alley, "Without a Prayer: Religious expression
in Public Schools," Prometheus Books, at: http://www.religioustolerance.org.
(viii) “Front Page,” ACLU, March 6, 1998, at:
http://www.aclu.org.
(ix) Ibid.
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