The School Prayer
issue is
addressed in the First Amendment, & for 40 years the
controversy
continues.
This page gives a short
review of
School Prayer in American schools, from Colonial times until the
present. (A span of 342 years with prayer and 45 years with
school prayer banned by the US Supreme Court.)
A
review of School Prayer and Religion in American Schools.
At the bottom of this page are Links of
other pages on the School
Prayer Issue
Prayer in Colonial Schools:
In Colonial America the
schools were
mostly run by the churches. The first settlers in America
felt
that it was important that children learned to read so they could read
their Bibles. Learning right from wrong and developing good
moral
character were considered as important as learning the 3R's.
School Prayer was a natural part of the Pilgrims
school life. The Churches played a big part
in the
formation of schools in America: SeeHistory of
Schools in
America
Bible
Reading &
School Prayer:
As part of the daily
curriculum,
students were taught to pray and read using the Bible. Later
in
1690 the New
England Primer
was introduced which taught spelling, reading and the Alphabet using
Bible verses, thus teaching both reading and Bible morals at the same
time. Daily school prayer was a natural part of this
educational
system. After the American Revolution, Noah Webster
introduced
the Blue
Book Speller
which also used Bible verses to teach reading and spelling.
In
1836 the McGuffey
Reader
was introduced which also featured Bible verses to teach moral
values. This school system produced some of the worlds
brightest inventors and set the Industrial Revolution in
motion.
The schools
continued to be run mostly by Christian Churches until the 1890's at
which point States started to take control of the existing
schools. By 1900 many other text books were in use and they
all
had Bible quotes in them.
School
System
Changes:
As the 20th Century began
many
classrooms started each day with the pledge of allegiance, a prayer
and a reading from the Bible. State
run schools continued to teach
moral values using the McGuffey reader with its Bible verses.
America
had one of the best school systems in the world. The first
crack in the moral school system occurred, in 1925 when the newly
formed ACLU paid a teacher in Tennessee to teach Evolution.
Biblical creation had been taught through out the land, and teaching
evolution was against the Tennessee state law. While the ACLU
lost the case, it set in motion a re-evaluation of teaching
science. Within four decades the laws were reversed so that
now
teaching Creation is outlawed and teaching Evolution is
mandatory.
Today's
Schools without Prayer:
The ACLU then started using
the
courts to change school policy.
In 1948 the Supreme court used the "Separation
of Church and State"
argument to outlaw a time for school prayer. In 1962 the
Supreme
Court again declared that prayer
in
school was unconstitutional.
In 1963 the Warren Court stopped schools from allowing Bible reading in
classes. In 1980 the
Supreme Court declared that posting the Ten Commandments in
a school
classroom violated the Constitution of the United
States.
Thus while the early
American
schools taught the moral values from the
Bible, with school prayer, today's public school system prohibit
teaching moral values from
the Bible, or even allowing
students to pray to a God that a majority of faiths in this country
recognize. The result is America has become a land with much
looser morals then 4 decades ago, which is having a negative affect on
all sectors of
our society. History shows
us that when societies become corrupt they begin to come apart and
crumble.
The
following pages will show you how the courts removed Bible reading
(teaching
moral values), School
Prayer
and the Ten
Commandments
from our schools. The claim is made by the ACLU that these
violate the Constitution, but then why did the founding fathers have,
Bible reading, School Prayer and the Ten Commandments in their
schools? Did
they not
understand their own Constitution?
A
Nation that refuses to teach its children right from wrong, good from
evil will become a corrupt nation, where sin prevails, evil abounds,
and children do as they please!
To learn
more visit
these pages.
Separation
of Church and State, ISthe First Amendment
according to the far left ACLU. Where
did the phrase
Separation of Church and State come
from?
What was
its original intention? What does the First Amendment really
say?
The
Tyranny of
the
Minority. The founding fathers gave us
a Democratic
Republic with Majority rule; however, the Supreme Court has given us
the Tyranny of the Minority when it removed school prayer.
Darrell Scott addresses Congress
on the shootings at Columbine H.S. and his view that the removal of
School Prayer played a role in this tragedy.
This web site is based on a number of books recently published and more
importantly on our founding document the Constitution of the United States.
There is a listing with short reviews of Books
and Videos
that are used
in this Web Site. If you are researching this subject you
will
want to read some of these books.
Cultural
War Web
SiteLearn
about the ideas that divide
America. What are the ideas and where did they come from?
Separation of Church and State, IS the First Amendment according to the far left ACLU. Where did the phrase Separation of Church and State come from? What was its original intention? What does the First Amendment really say?
3 Supreme Court Rulings that removed God and School Prayer from our schools. I believe that these rulings are one of the root causes of the evil that now pervades our society today.
What has been the result of removing God and School Prayer from our schools? Since God was removed from our schools, we have seen a big decline in student performance. Read page for more details.
Quotes from the Founding Fathers point to the importance of a moral society which is formed by a Godly educational system including school prayer.
Removal of School Prayer is a censor of Free Speech and a violation of the First Amendment.
