This year the Supreme Court will decide if the power to require public schools to hold prayer in the morning lies with the state or the fed. government. On to my point, should public schools be allowed to hold prayer sessions? I think not. At my school we have a moment of silence where students can pray if they want. However, I think requiring prayer to be recited over the intercom would be going to far.

Forced to pray?

There goes the first amendment.

We have the moment of silence every morning. If someone wants to pray, they can pray then. Praying over the intercom is wrong.

Even though I am Christain, forcing prayer is incorrect. It's like forcing someone to be a Christain. If God had wanted us to be Christians, with out our choice, then he wouldn't have allowed the fall of man. God wants devotional love by our choice. If not we would be robot. If you make a robot, and ask it "Do you love me?" and a robot's responce is "yes master, I love you", how meaning full is it?

Public schools shouldn't ban prayer, though. They should hold optional prayer sessions, like during lunch. I have heard of some schools giving students detention because they were praying at the cafeteria, or during break.

No. Forcing someone to pray is plain wrong. If a person wants to pray than they have the right to but you shouldn't make EVERYONE do it. Also, I don't think it should cut into curriculum unnecessarily. This one is pretty obvious, until we have an America that bans are religions except for Christianity than there should be no prayer session in public schools. If parents want prayer to be a part of their childs education than they have every right to send them to a religious school.

Oh yeah, and clpo, I support your run for president too.

Ok, first of all, I'd like to preface my comment with the fact that I'm not anti-religion. Believe what you want, whether you're Christian, Jewish, Muslim, atheist, or Scientologist. But what I object to is when people start forcing 1 religion down everyone else's throats. And, yes, many of the Founding Fathers were Christian, but that's also because most everyone back then was religious to some extent. And anyway, George Washington himself said in the Treaty of Triopoli, "The government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion." And, most importantly, there's a handy little piece of text called the First Amendment to the United States Constitution that says that we have freedom of religion. Which means we can worship (or not worship) however we want. The United States was founded on the concept of freedom for all, not freedom for the majority. So, to conclude, school prayer is leaving a heck of a lot of people out and establishing a religion--something that is against the Constitution and the wishes of the Founding Fathers.
Sorry my post was so long and ranty.

Over here in England, prayer used to be compulsory in young primary schools. However, as I have grown through high school, they no longer hold prayers and instead, hold "assemblies", where the head of the school can announced important issues that may have been raised throughout the week, around school life, such as bad behaviour, which has become increasingly prominent.
When I was younger, prayer used to be an essential part of school life, regardless if you're a Christian follower or not. Hymns used to be also sung, especially around religious festivities, such as Christmas.
Nowadays, there is a huge rise in lack of respect over here, especially amongst older teenagers but more scarily in younger children. You may, or may not, have heard about our increasing "chav" culture here;low to middle-class juvenile deliquency. This could be because of the loss of religious festivities, although I would see it as a lack of discipline, which needs to be re-introduced into English public schools.

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Originally posted by YNmod6:
notsojoey, please consolidate all of your thoughts to one post instead of posting several times consecutively.

quote:

Sorry for the multiple posts, should have editted previous ones.

Please read my posts, I have already addressed this. Please don't spam the boards when it is not necessary.

notsojoey, please consolidate all of your thoughts to one post instead of posting several times consecutively.

Only four of our Presidents were not in the Knights Templar. And the four were not were assisnated, so what does that tell you?

Sorry for the multiple posts, should have editted previous ones.

quote:

just to say most of our presidents were free-masons which is more of a cult than offical christian religon. only two were actually christian and were both assainated in office so really the destinction any one who becomes president and isn't a free mason makes is the third president to now be a freemason no matter what their religon actually is.

Most of Presidents were NOT Free Masons. Free Masons are not a cult, they are a social group, like a fraternity, soriety, or Legion.

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Religon in school is two way street though I can;t take a bible to school with out getting detention

I highly doubt that if you take a Bible to school you get detention. If so, you should sue your school.

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Originally posted by ampmaster:

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We haven't had a non Christian president

just to say most of our presidents were free-masons which is more of a cult than offical christian religon. only two were actually christian and were both assainated in office so really the destinction any one who becomes president and isn't a free mason makes is the third president to now be a freemason no matter what their religon actually is.

That is the supidest thing I have ever heard. "Only two were Christian." Give me a break.

quote:

Originally posted by taurusgirl:
I don't think that public schools should have a specific time set aside just for prayer. If any student or teacher wishes to pray, they should be free to do so as long as it is not interfering with their work and they are not being disruptive.

I agree with that! If someone wants a specific time for it, then that person can get up earlier, or adjust their schedule somehow. Some religions are more strict than others, so everyone should just try to be more accepting of them all.

quote:

We haven't had a non Christian president

just to say most of our presidents were free-masons which is more of a cult than offical christian religon. only two were actually christian and were both assainated in office so really the destinction any one who becomes president and isn't a free mason makes is the third president to now be a freemason no matter what their religon actually is.

Religon in school is two way street though I can;t take a bible to school with out getting detention but other kids are reading the laws of budda and the Q'uran not to mention the book of mormon and other religous texts and I've asked them "are you reading that fro a class?" the response in general is "No I'm reading it because this is my religon" so it's oppression and forceing my views on others when I read the book of John at school but if I complain that it's not fair that other reliogns can take their holy texts to school I'm told I'm discriminating against others religons.

What's up With That?

Green, come up to MA. You can run for Rep. or Senator here.

Go clpo! Just be sure to put on all your signs "clpo13" so we'll know who you are. I want to run, but I'm liberal, a girl, and non-Christian. What are the odds? And again on the prayer thing: No. No religion in school. It goes against everything the Constitution is (or at least was) about. No.

quote:

Originally posted by Horselover14:
we've never had a truely non Christian person run for president.

So Joe Lieberman was just hiding his true colors?

just say no to prayer in schools. of course, if you just want to do it alone go ahead, but to make everyone else do it is ridiculous. would you like to be forced to worship allah, or sacrifice your dog to the sun god because your school requires it? then why would a muslim enjoy praying to a god they know nothing of?...