The Public Schools Declining

In the year 1961 the American public school system was a safe heaven for children around the nation. Parents would send their children to school knowing they would never have to worry about them. But when the new year rolled around, the public school system was about to change in a dramatic way.

“Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers, and our country.” These were the simple words that children said everyday after entering their school house. This prayer was the foundation of our school system. It kept the children fearing our one true God.

Yet in 1962 a supreme court examined this 22 word prayer and declared it illegal to recite any longer in public schools. This was just the start of the total decline of our public schools. This court case was the first of its kind, one that eliminated prayer in schools, but as we fast forward through history we will see that it most definitely was not the last.

-Just one year later the court case Abington School District v. Schempp found bible reading over the intercom illegal.

-Epperson v. Arkansas, 89 S. Ct. 266 (1968): State statue banning teaching of evolution is unconstitutional. A state cannot alter any element in a course of study in order to promote a religious point of view. A state’s attempt to hide behind a nonreligious motivation will not be given credence unless that state can show a secular reason as the foundation for its actions.

-Lemon v. Kurtzman, 91 S. Ct. 2105 (1971)

Established the three part test for determining if an action of government violates First Amendment’s separation of church and state:
1) the government action must have a secular purpose;
2) its primary purpose must not be to inhibit or to advance religion;
3) there must be no excessive entanglement between government and religion.

-Stone v. Graham, 449 U.S. 39 (1980)

Court finds posting of the Ten Commandments in schools unconstitutional.

-Wallace v. Jaffree, 105 S. Ct. 2479 (1985)

State’s moment of silence at public school statute is unconstitutional where legislative record reveals that motivation for statute was the encouragement of prayer. Court majority silent on whether “pure” moment of silence scheme, with no bias in favor of prayer or any other mental process, would be constitutional.

-Edwards v. Aquillard, 107 S. Ct. 2573 (1987)

Unconstitutional for state to require teaching of “creation science” in all instances in which evolution is taught. Statute had a clear religious motivation.

-Lee v. Weisman, 112 S. Ct. 2649 (1992)

Unconstitutional for a school district to provide any clergy to perform nondenominational prayer at elementary or secondary school graduation. It involves government sponsorship of worship.

-Church of Lukumi Babalu Ave., Inc. v. Hialeah, 113 S. Ct. 2217 (1993)

City’s ban on killing animals for religious sacrifices, while allowing sport killing and hunting, was unconstitutional discrimination against the Santeria religion.

These lawsuits thrive off of one thing: separation of church and state.

The people who back this lawsuits claim that religion in schools and public places are unconstitutional and need to be removed from schools. But there is one thing they conveniently seem to overlook: nowhere in the constitution is separation of church and state found! You can look all you want, but you will never find it! The phrase can actually be found in a LETTER written by Thomas Jefferson FIFTEEN YEARS after the constitution was written. The letter was addressed to the Danbury Baptist Association comforting them that they could continue worshiping as they would. Jefferson said that worship was not a “favor” to them granted by the state, rather it was a right that the state couldn’t infringe upon . ( BECK 287)

In Jefferson’s letter he says that the STATE should stay out of the CHURCH. Not the other way around. Most of our founding fathers were religious men. They recognized the need to fear a God and they saw that God was the one who created them. They based their beliefs off the bible, which they read and studied everyday so that in turn, they could build a nation on God’s principles. A nation that rose above the rest of the world. A nation of freedom and liberty, and most of all, a nation that feared God with all of their hearts.

As I wrap up, here are a few statistics since the prayer has been out of school:

1962:                                            1990:

# of unmarried couples .44(million)                               2.8(million)

Living together:

#of violent crimes in

Schools:                                .25(million)                              1.7(Million)

Pre-marital sex:                     22%                                           70%

Birth rate for unwed Girls(per 1,000)                        13                                         37

Look at the numbers, and look at the facts. The absence of prayer in schools has led to a violent, unmoral nation.