50 years later: High court's school prayer ruling still fuels religious liberty debate
When Steven Engel and several other parents decided to sue the state of New York in 1958 over a state-composed prayer being recited in public schools, a culture war was ignited that still smolders today.
In an interview four decades later, Engle recalled the obscene phone calls, a cross burning and taunting of his children in his New Hyde Park community, which was in conflict over the prayer and his decision to fight it.
While the U.S. Supreme Court sided with Engel on June 25, 1962, the decision hardly put to rest the overarching issue of religion in public schools....