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As president, Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) says he would fight for a constitutional amendment to allow prayer in schools.
In an ad released last week, Perry declared that President Barack Obama was waging a war on religion because gays are allowed to serve openly in the military and children aren't allowed to pray in schools.
It was the Supreme Court, back in 1962, that decided and its been upheld since then that children couldn't pray in school, Fox News host Chris Wallace told Perry Sunday. Barack Obama had nothing to do with that.
I would support a constitutional amendment that allows children to pray in school anytime that they would like, Perry declared. I happen to believe that ought be a local decision, and that's not the Supreme Courts business to be telling Americans when and how they should pray.
On the issue of don't ask, don't tell: It was working, and for the commander in chief to use our military as a political tool while were in combat in two different locations around the world at least two different locations around the world in Iraq and Afghanistan I just think its really irresponsible. I think [the gay ban] is bad public policy and I would change it.
Wallace noted that the ban on prayer in schools had continued under both Republican and Democratic Presidents.
I'm telling you what I believe, Chris, Perry replied. Americans don't agree with that decision that was made in 1962, and if we have a constitutional amendment election across this country allowing our children to pray in school, I will suggest to you it will pass overwhelmingly. And Ill support that. I will go across this country, as I am promoting a balanced budget amendment to the United States Constitution, I will work on a balanced or I should say an amendment to allow our children to pray in school.
By David Edwards
A popular myth for the Christian Right is the idea that atheists forced God, prayer, and Bible reading out of public schools, leading to social, moral, and educational disasters which continue to plague America. By promoting such beliefs, the Christian Right encourages people to think that atheists are a threat to religious liberty as well as social order, that America is worse off than it once was, and that proper Christianity is the solution to everything troubling us.
Every aspect of this myth is wrong. First, God, prayer, and Bible reading were not removed from public schools. All three are still there, but under the auspices of the private actions of individual students. What was removed were state-written and state-mandated prayers, state-mandated reading of state-chosen Bibles, and official endorsements of particular conceptions of God. These changes were unequivocal victories for the religious liberties of children and parents.
Second, atheists were not responsible -- they were involved in some of the lawsuits, but so were Christians. If the atheists' cases had never existed, the results would have been the same. Finally, the problems attributed to these changes cannot be blamed on them. There is some correlation in time between the changes and some social problems, but there were many social changes occurring at the same time.
Perhaps the most important was racial integration. Not long before courts forced public schools to stop choosing and mandating prayers or Bible readings, they also forced schools to end long-standing racial segregation. Many of the people who complained loudest about the end to religious indoctrination in public schools had already been on the forefront of complaints about the end to racial segregation.
The correlation between social problems and racial integration is at least as strong as that between those problems and the elimination of state-mandated prayers. Why don't conservatives blame integration and argue for a return to segregation? If they don't believe that a causal connection exists here, then they cannot claim that one exists between the religion cases and social problems.
The above image was created from a World War I poster about the need to feed motherless, fatherless, and starving children in war-torn France. I have replaced the text with the claim that the destruction in the background is because of the secularist removal of God from schools and that this is something America should avoid.
By Austin Cline
In an ad released last week, Perry declared that President Barack Obama was waging a war on religion because gays are allowed to serve openly in the military and children aren't allowed to pray in schools.
It was the Supreme Court, back in 1962, that decided and its been upheld since then that children couldn't pray in school, Fox News host Chris Wallace told Perry Sunday. Barack Obama had nothing to do with that.
I would support a constitutional amendment that allows children to pray in school anytime that they would like, Perry declared. I happen to believe that ought be a local decision, and that's not the Supreme Courts business to be telling Americans when and how they should pray.
On the issue of don't ask, don't tell: It was working, and for the commander in chief to use our military as a political tool while were in combat in two different locations around the world at least two different locations around the world in Iraq and Afghanistan I just think its really irresponsible. I think [the gay ban] is bad public policy and I would change it.
Wallace noted that the ban on prayer in schools had continued under both Republican and Democratic Presidents.
I'm telling you what I believe, Chris, Perry replied. Americans don't agree with that decision that was made in 1962, and if we have a constitutional amendment election across this country allowing our children to pray in school, I will suggest to you it will pass overwhelmingly. And Ill support that. I will go across this country, as I am promoting a balanced budget amendment to the United States Constitution, I will work on a balanced or I should say an amendment to allow our children to pray in school.
By David Edwards
A popular myth for the Christian Right is the idea that atheists forced God, prayer, and Bible reading out of public schools, leading to social, moral, and educational disasters which continue to plague America. By promoting such beliefs, the Christian Right encourages people to think that atheists are a threat to religious liberty as well as social order, that America is worse off than it once was, and that proper Christianity is the solution to everything troubling us.
Every aspect of this myth is wrong. First, God, prayer, and Bible reading were not removed from public schools. All three are still there, but under the auspices of the private actions of individual students. What was removed were state-written and state-mandated prayers, state-mandated reading of state-chosen Bibles, and official endorsements of particular conceptions of God. These changes were unequivocal victories for the religious liberties of children and parents.
Second, atheists were not responsible -- they were involved in some of the lawsuits, but so were Christians. If the atheists' cases had never existed, the results would have been the same. Finally, the problems attributed to these changes cannot be blamed on them. There is some correlation in time between the changes and some social problems, but there were many social changes occurring at the same time.
Perhaps the most important was racial integration. Not long before courts forced public schools to stop choosing and mandating prayers or Bible readings, they also forced schools to end long-standing racial segregation. Many of the people who complained loudest about the end to religious indoctrination in public schools had already been on the forefront of complaints about the end to racial segregation.
The correlation between social problems and racial integration is at least as strong as that between those problems and the elimination of state-mandated prayers. Why don't conservatives blame integration and argue for a return to segregation? If they don't believe that a causal connection exists here, then they cannot claim that one exists between the religion cases and social problems.
The above image was created from a World War I poster about the need to feed motherless, fatherless, and starving children in war-torn France. I have replaced the text with the claim that the destruction in the background is because of the secularist removal of God from schools and that this is something America should avoid.
By Austin Cline
