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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Edwarda who wrote (41157)	6/20/1999 4:11:00 PM
From: The Philosopher	Respond to of 108807

But if I understand your position--and I may not because the screaming level got so loud yesterday that I ducked--you are in favor of formalized prayer in the schools. No. That is NOT my position. Is not, never has been, and I hope never will be. Although I don't think I ever posted on it, if I had my position would have been simply: I am in favor of the opportunity for voluntary prayer in the school. I see nothing wrong with a period of silence during which people can pray, or scratch their nuts, or think about how they're going to score that night, as long as they do whatever they do in a way which doesn't interfere with the opportunity for others to do whatever they want to, including praying if that's what they want to do. I see nothing wrong -- and everything right -- with a prayer group meeting in the school under the same conditions as any other school group could or could not meet. (My memory of the details is fuzzy, but I do recall one school which terminated ALL student clubs rather than allow a prayer group to meet during the established student club meeting time. To me, that is totally wrong.) Why is prayer suitable in a school, presumably attended by children of many differing faiths? Since no school I know of has a mandatory prayer time which must be attended by all students, this seems to me a moot question. More of interest is why the Senate and House of the United States both start off their days with formal vocal prayer, and why both have chaplains on their staffs. If I were really good aethist (assuming there is such a thing <g>!) I would be after that, first -- a presently existing infusion of daily religion in the national legislature.