Support for School Prayer Declines Among Catholics, Jews; Remains High Among Evangelicals
A new study shows that support for school prayer has steadily decreased among most Americans since the 1970s with the exception of two groups: evangelicals and older Americans.
University of Nebraska-Lincoln sociologist Philip Schwadel concludes from examining studies over the past 30-plus years that overall support for school prayer has declined – even among Catholics and mainline Protestants – but the support among evangelicals across all generations has remained steady at around 71 percent.
"Social and cultural changes have led to greater opposition to state-sanctioned prayer and reading religious materials in public schools among some segments of the population," Schwadel reported in his findings. "Specifically, there's growing opposition among non-evangelicals but not evangelicals, and these changes manifest across generations."...
I agree Frank, the other option would be to have a prayer that everyone agreed on. Then it would be watered down and mechanical and have absolutly no effect.
No one says that you can't have prayer in school. It can't be led by teachers.
I am usually at odds with folks on this topic. If my kids were school age, then I would not want them being led in prayer by someone that I didn't approve of. There is no religious litmus test in our constitution and since the public schools are subject to that, then who would lead the prayer; a Catholic, Buddhist, Mormon, etc. I guess what I am saying is, I think prayer should be left out of the schools, especially when the kids are young and impressionable.
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