One of the results of September 11th is the renewal of the debate about prayer in schools. I have recently received a number of emails on the subject, and I recently came across an article written by a Christian mother on the subject. Here is some of what she had to say.

"I am a Christian mother in Illinois and I sincerely hope that prayer is once again allowed in our schools. Our children need prayer. Why do you people think that abortion takes the lives of millions of unborn a year or why our children are killing each other in our public schools? We as a country are reaping what we have sown over the years the seeds that were sown so many years ago first when prayer was removed from school and then Roe vs Wade just to name a few our country is morally decaying and we have only ourselves to blame."

Even with the grammatical errors left in her quote, I think we can see the gist of what she is trying to say. This woman and a lot of other people seem to be blaming the schools for not passing moral values on to our children. Our schools are not placing the scriptures in the hands of our children and teaching them the Lord's prayer, the Creed and the Ten Commandments.

If schools were to do this, someone would quickly object citing our first amendment. The opening words of our first amendment say, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

Part of the reason that I am familiar with the words of the first amendment is because I served my internship year as a chaplain at Stillwater Prison. The reason that a chapel was built at the prison was so prisoners would have a place where they could freely exercise their religion.

Incidentally, all religions could be exercised in that worship space. All denominations of Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, the Wiccan religion, and any form of pagan religion you can imagine could be exercised there. The first amendment prohibits our government from favoring one religion over another.

The first amendment does not prohibit prayer in school. It prohibits organized prayer in school. A teacher may not lead a class in prayer, but students are allowed to pray on their own.

If a Christian teacher could lead a class in Christian prayer, then a Hindu teacher could lead a class in Hindu prayer, or a Buddhist teacher could lead a class in Buddhist prayer and etc.

I'm not going to get into an argument about how much prayer ought to be allowed in school, but I do have something to say about blaming schools for not passing on the faith to our children.

During baptisms, parents, sponsors, pastors, and congregations make promises. School superintendents, principals, teachers, and school board members are not called on to make these promises.

Parents, sponsors, pastors and congregations promise to faithfully bring the children to the services of God's house. They promise to teach them the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments. They promise that as the children grow in years they will place in their hands the Holy Scriptures and provide for their instruction in the Christian faith.

Statistically a child is most likely to worship as an adult if the child's father regularly attends worship services. If children are taught to pray in their homes, then they will pray as adults. If children get into the habit of regularly reading the Bible, then they are likely to read the Bible as adults.

If we are going to distribute the blame associated with not passing the faith on to our children, then some of the blame should be placed with those who made the baptismal promises. I see no reason to expect the schools to do the things that parents, sponsors, pastors and congregations promise to do. Superintendents, principals, teachers and school board members do not promise to do those things.

I agree with the Christian mother when she says our children need prayer. I hope she prays with her children. I hope she brings her children to church and I hope her pastor, and the Sunday school teachers pray with her children. I hope they learn the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments. I hope they get into the habit of reading the Bible. I hope the ones who promised to make sure they would keep their promises. I hope all of us keep those promises. May God bless you all.

Sincerely,

Pastor Birk