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

To: greenspirit who wrote (42377)	6/28/1999 12:55:00 AM
From: Grainne	Respond to of 108807

Michael, after the massacre at Columbine High School, class was obviously no longer in session. So the praying that was being done would not interest the ACLU. Nonreligious people do often attend funerals and memorial services with the devout, and are quietly respectful of their beliefs. So what if atheists attended? Public prayer in school is coercive because in America it is most often Christian in nature, although an increasing number of children are not Christian, or have no religious beliefs at all. I personally feel violated when I am forced to sit quietly in public while people pray. There have been hundreds of posts on this thread over the past three years by others who have felt intimidated or harassed over issues of public praying, in schools, before school sporting events, etc. Do you think their experience is not valid? Prayer has utterly nothing to do with academic learning, and so has no essential place in public schools. If Christian parents cannot teach their beliefs effectively to their children in all the hours that they have at home and in churches, then there is no reason they should drag the whole thing into the schools as well. Certainly, though, children should have the opportunity to quietly and INDIVIDUALLY practice their beliefs at school, by praying silently whenever they feel like it. It is organized group prayer that is intimidating to people who do not feel like praying. My assistant prays at his computer in the workplace, and I respect that, certainly. If he made me feel like I should pray also, I would have a huge problem with that.