I believe in prayer, and I support a student's right to practice her faith publicly in an appropriate manner. By this I mean I could not support a student standing up in the middle of a standardized test and praying aloud for God's help, but I fully support a student's right to assemble with other believing students for prayer during non-class time and to speak of faith before and after class and as it pertains to class discussion (e.g. "As a Christian, I see Character X as a bit of a Christ figure in his willing sacrifice of his life for another.") I believe in prayer. I believe in freedom of speech, even religious speech, and I cringe whenever I hear any of these rights have been infringed upon.
But I have a real problem with the "I support prayer in school" movement, and not just because I'm asked to "share if you agree." I assume, perhaps erroneously, that this movement is calling for a return of prayer at the beginning of the school day. If I'm wrong - if "I support prayer in school," really means "I support individuals' rights to practice faith openly in public places," please forgive me for seeming so harsh. Also, please change your slogan to reflect your actual views.
Here is the problem: We live in an increasingly un-Christian nation. There is no guarantee that the person leading a school prayer over the morning announcements will believe in the same deity you believe in, and an increasing likelihood that they will not. Given the religious diversity of our culture, even within Christianity, the "best" prayer I can imagine a principal or teacher getting away with, even if they could find a way to pray without lawsuit, would have to be to some nebulous divinity that looks nothing like the God in whom I believe. No thank you. I'd rather my children not be schooled in watered-down, heretical universalism. Honestly, to lobby for prayer in school, especially given changing religious views, is to lobby for our children to be, more likely than not, trained in views contrary to our own.
Of equal importance is the fact that prayer cannot be legislated away. It's really that simple, and to suggest otherwise is to completely miss the point of prayer. Those who are going to pray cannot be stopped by legislation forbidding prayer, because prayer is a matter of the heart, a one-on-one conversation with God that begins and ends in the heart, whether or not it takes a detour through the mouth. I could add a few notes on Jesus's instructions not to pray on the street corners and in the market, to be seen by men, but to lock oneself away in private to pray, but that might be taking my argument too far. Perhaps, rather than wasting our breath calling for a return of prayer to schools, we ought to invest our time in training our youth and families to pray with their hearts in all circumstances and, taking it a step further, to live lives worthy of the calling they have received.
Because we don't need sanitized prayer by an institution. We need raw, honest prayer and faithful living by followers of Jesus Christ.
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. II Chronicles 7:14
