The fundamentalists just don't get it

The fundamentalist Christians simply will not give up on the public school prayer issue.

One wonders how many more times we will have to go over this issue. The thing that puzzles me is how, exactly,the right-wing of Christianity expects to benefit if the teachers of America start praying as the school day begins. Do they expect better children or miracles in the classroom?

It simply puzzles me that right-wing christians can't let go of this issue, because the separation of church and stat is so ingrained in our consciousness that it would take a revolution to reverse our thinking.

Besides, wasn't it all decided 50 year sago, when Vashti McCollum took her case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and won?

McCollum was incensed that the Champaign,Illinois public schools were pressuring her son, Jim, to attend released-time religion classes inside the school building. McCollum believed that the law prevented religious people from coming into a public school building for the purpose of evangelizing children. McCollum was truly infuriated when she learned that her son had to sit in the hallway while the religion classes were taught.

Teachers were pressuring her to sign a permission slip allowing Jim to attend the classes, but she refused.And the McCollums paid a high price as the city of Champaign reacted to the family's position. Their story was told in detail in the April, 1998 issue of Church & State, a publication of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Eventually, on March 8, 1948 [50 years ago], the U.S. Supreme Court voted 8-1 to invalidate the Champaign public school released-time plan. Justice Hugo Black wrote: "Here not only are the state's tax-supported school buildings used for the dissemination of religious doctrines. The state also affords sectarian groups an invaluable aid in that it helps to provide pupils for their religious classes through the use of the state's compulsory public school machinery. This is not separation of church and state."

That judgment should have settled the matter. But it is not settled, and the right-wing gang is now pushing an amendment to the U.S. Congress.

It's known as the Religious Freedom Amendment,or the Istook Amendment, named after its chief advocate, Rep. Ernest Istook, R-Oklahoma. The proposed measure reads in part:"To secure the people's right to acknowledge God according to the dictates of conscience: Neither the United States nor any state shall establish any official religion, but the people's right to pray and to recognize their religious beliefs, heritage or tradition on public property, including schools, shall not be infringed."

The proposal, which has passed the House Judiciary Committee, needs two-thirds approval in both the full House and Senate to advance to the states for ratification.

Finally, if it won the approval of 38 states, it would become part of the U.S. Constitution.

Then it would be only a matter of time before preachers were standing in front of classrooms, forcing their brand of Christianity on innocent children.

Students would be the victims.

Those who did not believe in a Christian God would be forced into the hallways.Those who did believe might be exposed to radical fundamentalist ideas that would confuse them.

Then we would see lawsuits, with non-Christian parents taking legal action against the schools, and the fights might transcend anything we had seen in this nation.

The Istook Amendment is a bad and dangerous idea. But some Republicans and the right-wingers want this amendment in the worst way.

If prayer to begin a school day is so important, gather the little children in a nearby church and let them pray to their hearts' content.

But to inject religion into a school day inside the people's public buildings is not separation of church and state.

Mind you, I am a great believer in prayer, and I practice prayer daily. But in this nation, the freedom to pray has to stop at the schoolhouse door. We are protecting ourselves from zealots, tyrants and prejudice.

Clark D. MorphewMay 9, 1998