The controversial question about whether prayer should be allowed in schools is guaranteed to raise blood pressures and tempers, and it also creates some strongly worded Web and social media posts.
Despite consistent rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court that uphold the idea of separating church and state in public schools, lawmakers continue to introduce amendments and laws designed to allow students to pray in schools. For instance, two Alabama legislators, Rep. Steve McMillan and Sen. Gerald Dial, plan to introduce legislation that
guarantees students and teachers the right to pray, according to AL.com.
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McMillan told AL.com that the bill concerns voluntary religious activities in school.
The article about their proposed bill generated numerous comments:
“Public schools are for educating kids...not indoctrinating them in to religion,” one person wrote. “If you want your kids to pray on school days have them do it over breakfast or in the car on the way to school, or to themselves on the school bus. If you want them to pray in school, send them to the religious school of your choice. Theocrats just never give up, do they? What a waste of time and money...McMillan and others like him need to be voted out of office.”
“Any parent that sends his children to government schools is guilty of child abuse. If you can't send your child to a Christian private school, you would be better keeping them home,” another person said. “You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. No amount of legislation is going to make government schools safe for Christians. Everything in government schools is for the purpose of destroying a child's faith.”
“I'm a Christian who is tired of Republicans' fake posing... Republicans disregard Jesus' teachings about caring for the poor, but then wrap themselves in the Bible come election time,” chimed in another person, who went by the tag VoiceofReason. “This would be a pointless, meaningless law: students' right to pray anywhere, including in school, is already protected by the Constitution... just not teacher-led prayer And thank God for that, it protects my children from being taught to pray by a Muslim schoolteacher... Trying to impose a State Religion, Republicans have more in common with the Taliban than with true Christianity.”
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Feelings about prayer in school are also commonly posted on social media sites, sometimes in response to specific news, but often just as a single comment.
On a
Tennesseean story in October 2014 about the Williams County school board in Tennessee considering adding school prayer to their meetings, comments engendered the same kind of diverse viewpoints.
“Why oh why can't they understand separation of church and state? Are they just plain dumb?” one woman wrote.
A person identified in the comments as a teacher at Central High School in Columbia, Tennessee, wrote on the same article, “This is dangerous and expensive territory. As a strong follower of Christ, we still cannot impose our beliefs on others. Would the Board welcome Hindu prayers? Muslim? I think not, so let's stick with the present plan.”
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