Some thoughts on the debate over prayer in schools

Independent Newsmedia

OPINION — Working with psychiatrists, social workers and clinical psychologists for nearly 40 years, I learned to see the school prayer debate between legislators, school officials, religious groups and parents like children playing with a gun — just smart enough to pull the trigger.

School prayer is a legislative time- waster, making people upset, usually doing more to get people not to go to church.

My client wrote the book on America’s religious traditions. For 30-plus years, he struggled to find high school and college districts that would teach children (and parents) how to carefully think through religious debates and prayer questions.

Churches weren’t interested, mostly because they were too busy praying.

The First Amendment for over 150 years applied only to the federal government, not the states. Then the U.S. Supreme Court decided to apply it to the states.

During that first 150 years, not one recorded state prayer problem. Politicians usually liked prayer at meetings: the presence of a pastor/priest/rabbi offering prayer usually calmed everyone down.

To my knowledge, no school or college has ever refused student requests to have a religious-based student group form a school club and meet at the school. To my knowledge, no student prayer/religious group has ever caused a problem.

Zen Buddhism meditation (their prayer system) is taught in our schools, but schools give it the psychological term “mindfulness.”

In this crazy, high-stress world we all need to learn how to calm our minds and reduce stress.

But here is the danger: what schools put in a child’s mind is not as dangerous as what “mindfulness” brings out of a child’s mind. The child begins to recall terrible events long hidden in their unconscious memories. Bad feelings start to surface.

School prayer can have the same effect. Whoever leads the group better know what they’re doing.

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