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Prayer in School

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Prayer in School
Monique Holmes Argumentative Writing Final Paper Dr. George Pullman

Introduction
School prayer is a major controversy of this society. Public schools are supported with taxpayer money and you have a lot of believers who want his or her taxes to support an institution that prohibits children from praying in school, but at the same time, you have a loot of believers that don’t want to support an institution that prohibits their children from prayer in schools. The First Amendment of the United States protects both believers’ ands non believers from this situation by mandating government neutrality between belief and non belief. All children have the right to pray voluntary just not through the public school system.

Prayer Should be Allowed in the Public School System
School prayer is a very controversial issue in our society today. The question that people are having issues with is whether or not school prayer should be allowed in the public school system. The main issue is if students should be allowed to pray as a class at the start of the day. Prayer in school has been a major conflict between people therefore there have been a lot of court cases. There were a number of cases that has changed the policy of prayer in the public school system. Thomas Jefferson had spoken of public education ands said, “One goal of democracy is the recognition, solution, and tolerance of controversy; public education should prepare citizens for this reality”. People do need to be prepared because religion is a very

Holmes common controversy. If religion is removed from the public education system then one must know that the system is then defective to the school because how are children to know how to deal with the controversy that comes with religion? Prayer should be slowed in school. One must remember the Equal Access Act of 1984, which says that prayer is an important part of America’s spiritual heritage and the First Amendment (Freedom of Speech). If prayer in schools is so



Cited: Bill Jager, "Public School Prayer Creates Violence," at: Holmes http://www.mindspring.com/~wjager/ Gaylor, Annie Laurie. The Case Aainst School Prayer. “Keep the Church and State Forever Separate.” Madison, Wisconsin: Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc. 1995 Matt Pyeatt. "Congressman Urges School Prayer Constitutional Amendment," CNSNews.com, at: http://www.botcw.com/talk/ Religion and Prayer in U.S. Public Schools : www.religioustolerance.org The Holy Bible “New Tesatment” St. Matthew 6:5-6 The resolution was passed on 2001-NOV-7. The vote was 5 to 4. See: Gene Garman, "Lafayette School Board resolution on public prayer," at: http:// www.sunnetworks.net/~ggarman/ The web site contains a point-by-point rebuttal. "Topic: Prayer in School," AmarilloNet.com bulletin board at: http://www.amarillonet.com/ubb/Forum34/ Holmes

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