School Prayer Bell

  SCHOOL  PRAYER  in AMERICA

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.



To learn more
visit these pages
:
 

 Jefferson- Separation of Church and State
 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?  

 
U S Supreme Court- School Prayer Cases
 3 Supreme Court Rulings that removed God and School Prayer from our schoolsI believe that these rulings are one of the root causes of the evil that now pervades our society today.

 
Bill of Rights - School Prayer
 The Supreme Court alters the First Amendment by eliminating School Prayer.

 
School Prayer - Supreme Court
 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.

 
Adams - Founding Father Quotes
Quotes from the Founding Fathers point to the importance of a moral society which is formed by a Godly educational system including school prayer.

 Free Speech - Censorship 
 
Removal of School Prayer is a censor of Free Speech and a violation of the First Amendment.

 
Washington - Majority Rule
 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.  

The School Prayer Debate, Pros & Cons

A more detailed Outline of Religion in American Schools  


 




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: 
See
History 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.  Many Churches turned their schools over the State run educational system.  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. 

Links to other 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! 




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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.
          

Culture War - Cultural War
Cultural War Web Site  
Learn about  the ideas that divide
America.  What are the ideas and where did they come from?


Last Update Mar. 2009