School Board's Prayers Questioned

In many small communities across America, the dominance of and preference for Christianity tends to go unquestioned - and then when someone actually does stand up and say something, people react with shock and horror. No one can imagine why a person would in any way object to the government encouraging and promoting their Christian beliefs - after all, this is a "Christian Nation" and if anyone doesn't like it, they can just leave, right?

Something along those lines seems to be occurring in Manatee County, Florida. For at least the last two decades the school board has opened meetings with prayer - not simply a generic theistic prayer, but specifically the "Lord's Prayer" from the New Testament. A Jewish parent has objected and no one can understand why. According to the Herald Tribune:

Since [Steven] Rosenauer first complained about the prayer, the board members have gone to considerable lengths to continue saying it. In recent weeks, they tinkered with the language of the meeting opening. Instead of asking those in the audience to "rise for the Lord's Prayer," they tried "inviting" the public to join them in saying it. ...[Chairwoman Barbara] Harvey said she will pray "no matter what," whether aloud or silently. "For us to have to stop saying the Lord's Prayer is almost criminal," she said.

It would be "almost criminal" if public officials, while acting in their capacity as representatives of the state, were not permitted to encourage or promote Christianity? That's the mindset of arrogant theocracy, not republican democracy. Only in a theocracy is the promotion of a particular religion mandated by law. She can certainly pray silently any time she wants, but she can't use her position to make a point of it.

Read More:

• Religion in Public Schools
• School Prayer