25,000 SCHOOL PRAYERS

This may come as somewhat of a shock to my conservative brethren, since blazing liberals like me are frequently labeled as godless heathens, but I’m for prayer in school.

Did you know the average child spends about six hours per day in school? That’s 21,600 seconds. If you add an hour for riding the bus in each direction, that figure jumps to approximately 25,000 seconds—which means the average student has 25,000 opportunities each day to whisper a silent prayer to God. I think every student should take one of those 25,000 opportunities to thank God for all the wonderful things they have in this world. That's my idea of prayer in school.

For some folks, that's not enough. They want prayers at graduation ceremonies and football games. Well, I’m for praying there too. I’ve seen a few graduates and a more than a few football teams who can use all the prayers they could get. Plus, I see prayer as a dialogue with God. I believe that the more we talk to God, the better each of us will feel, regardless of whether we're a conservative or a liberal. Go ahead and pray at graduation ceremonies and football games too.

Now, when most people advocate for prayer in schools and prayers at graduation ceremonies and football games, what they're really demanding is the ability to put their own so-called piety on display and force others to wait and/or participate while they do it. That's where I draw the line, because that's not prayer. That's haughtiness and forced religious worship and has no place in a pluralistic society like ours that guarantees freedom of religion and freedom from religion.

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees me freedom of speech, but that guarantee does not give me the right to burst into a church and interrupt a religious service just to hear myself speak. That's because my constitutional right is accompanied by an obligation to respect and not interfere with others who are exercising their constitutional rights. When folks demand the holding of prayer time in public forums, what they are actually seeking is the elevation of their own rights above the rights of others. That concept is an anathema to the notions of liberty and equality that are embedded in the framework of our Nation's Constitution and cannot be tolerated.