School, Prayer, and Football
On Monday, June 19, 2000, the United States Supreme Court ruled in a Texas case that public student-led prayer cannot be led before a high school football game. The decision was not unanimous; the vote was 6-3. The three dissenters are Judges Rhenquist, Scalia, and Thomas. Chief Justice William Rhenquist wrote for the three, and declared the decision to be hostile to "all things religious in public life."
Yeah, right. There are thousands of churches, synagogues, and other places of worship in the United States, and various religious clubs and organizations available, even in public schools. Yet somehow the fact that people can't use school equipment to broadcast their prayer which everyone has to listen to, like it or not, before the game starts is somehow a violation of the rights of Christians.
I specify Christians here, because these have been the loudest supporters of making use of school-owned equipment to broadcast prayers before high school football games, and the loudest critics of this recent Supreme Court decision. If someone got up and said, "Oh great Humanity, may we all try to live in peace, for there is no god to help us," or if the prayer was directed to any specific deity other than "God," I imagine the enthusiasm for public prayer spoken with loudspeakers at a crowd of people waiting for a football game would not be so great.
According to some people, such as Charles Colson of BreakPoint and Prision Fellowship Ministries, whom I mentioned in another rant about his slander of goths, seem to think this is a sign of secular humanism marching along, removing all rights to any practice of religion. This, too, is bullshit, and represents either a profound ignorance of secular humanism at best, or diliberate misrepresentation at worst.
Secular humanism does not involve a deliberate attempt to banish religion from every nook and cranny. It is the belief (some might say "understanding") that our morality comes (or should come) from humanity and the natural world, not a deity. Secular humanists, like myself, often have no belief in a god, and see value in humanity and in life itself. We give ourselves our own purpose, and must work together for our own benefit, becuase we ultimately must rely on ourselves to fulfill our own needs.
There is also a misunderstanding of what it means for a government to be secular. To say that the United States government is secular is not the same thing as saying it is atheistic. An atheistic government would promote atheism over religion. It would be lawful, if not actively supported, to publicly proclaim, teach, etc., atheism. A secular government, however, is neutral to any religion and any viewpoint on religion, whether it involve belief or non-belief.
Having a secular government means that it is no more lawful to coerce people into listening to a public proclomation that there is no god than it is to coerce people into listening to a prayer to any such god (or goddess) (or whatever). It doesn't matter if that deity is the Christian god, the Jewish god, or any of the various other gods or particular views of a god various religions or denominations might hold. It's not free speech as understood and protected by the Constitution. People have to listen to it: the football players, the band members, the cheerleaders, the members of the school faculty who have to be there, the people who just wanted to have a good time watching a game, supporting their team, and/or just being with friends -- everyone. The use of public school equipment and willingness to set aside time for prayer itself suggests an implicit acceptance if not support of religion where there should be neutrality.
Whatever happened to praying in a closet, anyway? People who prayed in public to be heard by everyone were supposedly once refered to by a certain Jesus Christ as a less-than-desirable type of person: hypocrites.
"And when thou prayest, thou shall not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly."
Mark 6: 5-6, King James Version
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