Parshall Partners

Prayer in School

​         Someone once said, "As long as algebra is taught in school, there will be prayer in school." Where do Americans stand on the issue of religious expression in schools?

         Several states have pending or have passed legislation on displaying The Ten Commandments or incorporating prayer into the classroom.  So, Pew Research Center did a survey to see where Americans stand on the issue of religious expressions in public schools.

         Here’s the big picture:

• • 78% of U.S. adults favor allowing students to voluntarily pray in student-led groups.
  • 57% favor allowing coaches to lead their teams in prayer.
  • 50% favor displaying the Ten Commandments in classrooms.      
  • 46% favor allowing teachers to lead their classes in prayer.

         Almost half of all those surveyed believe that these types of religious expressions are allowable in public schools.  But allowing something isn’t the same as mandating it and here is where the numbers change.

         53% said they support teacher-lead prayer in public schools with one caveat – that students aren’t required to participate in the prayer. I, as a parent, would not want my child to participate in an Islamic prayer and would welcome a noncompulsory policy.   And, as we are a pluralistic society, it’s understandable why public schools could be forced to have an “all-comers” policy for equal religious representation. 

         Pew found “A majority of Americans in both political parties, all major geographic regions and most of the country’s large religious groups favor allowing public school students to voluntarily pray in student-led groups.  This includes roughly two-thirds of religiously unaffiliated Americans (64%).  There’s less consensus on whether coaches should be allowed to lead public school sports teams in prayer, as well as whether the Ten Commandments should be displayed in public school classrooms.  Large majorities of White evangelical Protestants and Black Protestants favor these forms of religious expression in public schools. The same is true for half or more of Catholics and White nonevangelical Protestants.  By contrast, most religiously unaffiliated Americans oppose allowing coaches to lead their teams in prayer and also oppose displaying the Ten Commandments in classrooms. Older Americans are more likely than younger Americans to support both types of expression. For example, 59% of adults ages 50 and older favor displaying the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms, compared with 43% of adults under 50.”

         These numbers help to eradicate the idea that America is largely secular with a strong hostility toward religion.  It’s encouraging to know that while the classroom can quickly become an ideologue’s bully pulpit, a majority of Americans still believe prayer, especially in the lives of students, is a good thing.

         E.M. Bounds was known as a great man of prayer.  He once said, ​

“Prayer is the helpless and needy child crying to the compassion of the Father’s heart and the bounty and power of a Father’s hand.”

         Encourage your child to pray.  Remind him that God is with him always – even in the classroom.

         Those are my thoughts. I’m Janet Parshall.