When Don Edwards graduated from the U this spring, there were not any spontaneous prayers uttered over the loudspeakers. But despite its absence from the U’s graduation ceremony, the issue of public prayer is present on the minds of lawmakers, education authorities and students nationwide.
Before a football game in 2000, Principal Jody McLoud of Roane County High School in Kingston, Tenn., passed on the news of a court ruling banning a traditional prayer before the game.
“I can use [public school] to condone sexual promiscuity by dispensing condoms and calling it safe sex. If someone is offended, that’s OK. I can even use this public facility to present the merits of killing an unborn baby as a viable means of birth control. If someone is offended, it’s no problem,” Mcloud said. “However, if anyone uses this facility to honor God and ask him to bless this event with safety and good sportsmanship, Federal Case Law is violated.”
Students at the U have mixed feelings regarding public prayer.
“Personally, I have no problem with prayer, but I do consider it an intensely personal, private thing,” said Edwards, who majored in English literature. “Other people are certainly free to pray out loud all day long if they want to, but when something like that is done in a public forum, I feel that it’s inappropriate. The person who’s submitting the prayer for the group is assuming that everyone in that group follows the same faith that they do.”
In a June 1992 ruling, the Supreme Court agreed with Edwards and took it a step further, stating: “The establishment clause [of the United States Constitution] was inspired by the lesson that, in the hands of government, what might begin as a tolerant expression of religious ways may end in a policy to indoctrinate and coerce.”
Edwards’ point that prayer is private, and should not be publicly conducted out of respect for others, sparks another debate about prayer being free speech and having the same rights that an anti-war protest would be given.
“Free speech is a wonderful thing, but it does have limitations…’The right for you to wave your arms around ends where my nose begins,'” Edwards said. “A public forum, such as a graduation or even a hallway, isn’t an appropriate place for a discussion about controversial things, whether it’s religion, politics, sexuality, what have you.”
While Edwards says graduation ceremonies and school hallways are not places for prayers, there are students who feel otherwise.
U student Ben Gerona says he feels more comfortable about public prayers.
“If someone jumps up and says a prayer, I don’t have a problem with it,” he said.
Another U student, Amy Lozano, agrees with Gerona and says public prayer has its roots in the very foundation of America.
“It’s one of the reasons people came to this country, to escape religious persecution. If someone started to pray at a graduation, I’d probably go along with it.”
McLoud continued to say she believes in honoring the law and therefore will not support a public prayer before a game. At her football game, she let her students know that they have the option of praying on their own.
The watchdog group, Americans United for a Separation of Church and State, also encourages those who wish to pray to find another place to do it and suggests a gathering before an event.
“The people in the community should get together and pray beforehand,” said Rob Boston, spokesman for Americans United.
He says the practice of students approaching a microphone before a public event and saying a prayer is “just plain rude.”
When asking around about prayer on campus, there is not any problem finding a wide variety of opinions. Both sides used the U.S. Constitution as a tool to support and strengthen their argument.
Some students say the Constitution guarantees them the right to be free from prayer in public places while others would argue that the Constitution gives them the right to have that prayer.
Each side’s argument comes down to a central discussion: whether the Constitution guarantees freedom of religion or whether it guarantees freedom from religion.