Why US Public Schools Dont Have a Prayer

Students at America’s public schools can still -- under certain specific conditions -- pray at school, but their opportunities to do so are dwindling fast. In 1962, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Union Free School District No. 9 in Hyde Park, New York had violated the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution by directing the districts principals to cause the following prayer to be said aloud by each class in the presence of a teacher at the beginning of each school day: Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers and our Country. Since that landmark 1962 case of Engel v. Vitale, the Supreme Court has issued a series of rulings that may result in the elimination of organized observances of any religion from Americas public schools. The latest and perhaps most telling decision came on June 19, 2000 when the Court ruled 6-3, in the case of Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe, that pre-kickoff prayers at high school football games violate the First Amendments Establishment Clause, typically known as requiring the separation of church and state.. The decision may also bring an end to the delivery of religious invocations at graduations and other ceremonies. School sponsorship of a religious message is impermissible because it (implies to) members of the audience who are non-adherents that they are outsiders, wrote Justice John Paul Stevens in the Court’s majority opinion. While the Courts decision on football prayers was not unexpected, and was in keeping with past decisions, its direct condemnation of school-sponsored prayer divided the Court and honestly angered the three dissenting Justices. Chief Justice William Rehnquist, along with Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, wrote that the majority opinion bristles with hostility to all things religious in public life. The 1962 Courts interpretation of the Establishment Clause (Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,) in Engle v. Vitale has since been upheld by both liberal and conservative Supreme Courts in six additional cases: 1963 -- ABINGTON SCHOOL DIST. v. SCHEMPP -- banned school-directed recital of the Lords Prayer and reading of Bible passages as part of devotional exercises in public schools.1980 -- STONE v. GRAHAM -- banned the posting of the the Ten Commandments on public school classroom walls.1985 -- WALLACE v. JAFFREE -- banned observance of daily moments of silence from public schools when students were encouraged to pray during the silent periods.1990 -- WESTSIDE COMMUNITY BOARD. OF EDUCATION. v. MERGENS -- held that schools must allow student prayer groups to organize and worship if other non-religious clubs are also permitted to meet on school property.1992 -- LEE v. WEISMAN -- outlawed prayers led by members of the clergy at public school graduation ceremonies.2000 -- SANTA FE INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT v. DOE -- banned student-led pre-game prayers at public high school football games. But Students Can Still Pray, Sometimes Through their rulings, the court has also defined some times and conditions under which public school students may pray, or otherwise practice a religion. [A]t any time before, during or after the school-day, as long as your prayers do not interfere with other students.In meetings of organized prayer or worship groups, either informally or as a formal school organization -- IF -- other student clubs are also allowed at the school.Before eating a meal at school -- as long as the prayer does not disturb other students.In some states, student-led prayers or invocations are still delivered at graduations due to lower court rulings. However, the Supreme Courts ruling of June 19, 2000 may bring this practice to an end.Some states provide for a daily moment of silence to be observed as long as students are not encouraged to pray during the silent period. What Does Establishment of Religion Mean? Since 1962, the Supreme Court has consistently ruled that in Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, the Founding Fathers intended that no act of the government (including public schools) should favor any one religion over others. Thats hard to do, because once you mention God, Jesus, or anything even remotely Biblical, you have pushed the constitutional envelope by favoring one practice or form of religion over all others. It may very well be that the only way to not favor one religion over another is to not even mention any religion at all -- a path now being chosen by many public schools. Is the Supreme Court to Blame? Polls show that a majority of people disagree with the Supreme Courts religion-in-schools rulings. While its fine to disagree with them, it is not really fair to blame the Court for making them. The Supreme Court did not just sit down one day and say, Lets ban religion from public schools. Had the Supreme Court not been asked to interpret the Establishment Clause by private citizens, including some members of the Clergy, they never would have done so. The Lords Prayer would be recited and the Ten Commandments read in American classrooms just as they were before the Supreme Court and Engle v. Vitale changed it all in June 25, 1962. But, in America, you say, the majority rules. Like when the majority ruled that women could not vote or that black people should ride only in the back of the bus? Perhaps the most important job of the Supreme Court is to see to it that will of the majority is never unfairly or hurtfully forced on the minority. And, thats a good thing because you never know when the minority might be you. Where School-Sponsored Prayer is Required In England and Wales, the School Standards and Framework Act of 1998 requires that all students in state-run schools participate in a daily â€Å"act of collective worship,† which must be of â€Å"a broadly Christian character,† unless their parents request that they be excused from taking part. While religious schools are allowed to mold their act of worship to reflect the school’s specific religion, most religious schools in the United Kingdom are Christian. Despite the 1998 law, Her Majestys Chief Inspector of Schools recently reported that about 80% of secondary schools were not providing daily worship for all students. While England’s Department of Education has stressed that all schools must maintain religious prayer in schools in order to reflect the beliefs and traditions of the predominantly Christian country, a recent BBC study found that 64% of students do not take part in daily acts of worship or prayer. In addition, a 2011 BBC survey revealed that 60% of parents believed that the daily worship requirement of the School Standards and Framework Act should not be enforced at all.

American And Dutch Missionaries During The 19th Century

In late 19th Century, American and Dutch missionaries started to getting in to Korea to share a gospel. Some of them just got killed without sharing any good news. Among many of the missionaries, there was one missionary who got killed as soon as he got landed. This missionary is very special in Korean church’s history. Because right before he got executed, he gave small bible to the executioner. On that time, excutioner’s were the ones who were poor and illiterate. However, since the quality of the paper was really good, he tore up the each of the papers to use as a wallpaper. And that house became the first church in Korea. Anyways, in the earlier history of Korean Christianity, there was a funny story. It was also happeened to the Jewish christians also, however, as we do every first Sunday of the month, all the christians around the globe share a communion at least once a month. As Christ said, â€Å"For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink,† (v.5 5) non-christians accused christians as cannibalists. Non-christians did not know what it means to have a flesh and blood of Christ. So I like to ask you all that, do you know what it means? Do you know what the church means? Moreover, do you know what is the church? Some of you might wonder how can I talk about church, even though today’s scripture talk about Holy Communion. So this is how United Methodist stated on Holy Communion, â€Å". .We believe the Lord s Supper is a representation of our redemption, a memorial ofShow MoreRelatedIntegration of Spanish Empire2531 Words   |  11 PagesPortuguese, who desired to maintain their monopoly on East Asian trade.  The Philippines  was administered as a province of New Spain (Mexico) until Mexican independence (1821). Manila revolted the attack of the Chinese pirate Limahong in 1574. 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Mark Twain and His Use of Humor Free Essays

Samuel Clemons became known to the world as Mark Twain the man of satire and humor.   Through his humor, he entertained the world during his lifetime and he has continued to entertain for generations.   Practically everyone found him funny, but not everyone understood his biting satire. We will write a custom essay sample on Mark Twain and His Use of Humor or any similar topic only for you Order Now    His subtly in itself was humorous.   Twain was known toward the end of his life as â€Å"the man in white.† He wore an all white suit and with his shock of white gray hair and he would lecture or perform in front of a black or dark background.   His image, when he performed, was a contrast between good and evil, just like his humor was funny on one level and piercing on another.   It has not needed the careful, retrospective estimate that a great writer’s death usually brings to his works for the reading public to have come to the conclusion years ago that SAMUEL L. CLEMENS measures up to a vastly more complex figure in literature than the mere â€Å"funny man† that his first and amazingly popular achievements in authorship seemed to make him. (Changing Humor) Mark Twain was exposed to humor from an early age.   He was brought up in Hannibal, Missouri on the banks of the Mississippi River.   The location of his upbringing was an important aspect of his life.   Steamboats made regular stops daily in Hannibal.   This brought a variety of visitors to the town.   Many of those visitors had interesting and humorous stories to tell and Twain was always ready to listen.   Most of the humor that he came in contact with were from the men who worked on the steamboats.   They would gather by the local stores and the river bank to talk and enjoy a smoke.   The young boys of the town found it the highlight of all of their entertainment to hang out around the men and listen to their stories of wild adventures laced with incidents that were funny. There were those who thought that Twain was funny because he was ignorant, but they were mistaken.   Twain’s repeated professions of innocence or ineptitude in literary craftsmanship are not to be believed. (Horn)   He was an entertainer as well as an author.   Audiences enjoyed Twain’s delivery of his own stories as they did reading themselves.   He saw many flaws in society, and he knew that writing articles and lecturing people about these vices would only turn them away. However, when laced with humor, people were much more likely to listen, and then internalize the message.   In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the social injustices of child abuse, slavery, feuding, and hypocrisy in religion are told in such a way that the reader is amused as well as shocked at the atrocities. He wrote that Huck, on his decision not to turn in Jim, a runaway slave, that he would go to hell if the only way that one could enter heaven was to accept that a man could be owned by another person. Between 1876, when he began Huckleberry Finn, and 1884, when he completed it, Twain suffered a series of personal and financial disasters from which he never recovered.   A short list would include: the loss of close friends, a drastic break with his publisher, financial troubles running to bankruptcy, ruinous involvements with various patents he had acquired; a bitterly disappointing return to the Mississippi River, Hannibal, and boyhood scenes; and the beginnings of chronic ill health for the four deeply loved female members of his family. (Bercovitch)   Yet with all of the pressures of life he still used humor in his writing. Twain made use of the newly settled Southwest as the outset of his career.   Using dialect and the regional setting as a tool for humor was just one way that he entertained his readers. The genre that developed originates from the politics and oral histories of a burgeoning region– full of fire and out to prove itself to the world. This enthusiasm manifests itself in bawdy, violent, and predominately masculine portrayals of the world of the Southwest. Yet beneath the savagery of the stories, there is an effort at realism and regional descriptions that had not been attempted previously. (Price)   He was able to take them to a place that seemed to move at a slower pace, and where the â€Å"city slicker† with all his education was no match for the common sense of the frontiersman.   This is notable in the story The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, where the narrator from the city is taken and made out the fool by an older uneducated man in a country store. Southwestern humor was not the only way that Twain displayed his humor.   He did not feel the need to limit himself by only writing regional literature.   In A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, the Yankee is an idealist who believes that when transported back in time, that technology and reforms in the church could change the morality of the world.   The naivety is presented in a humorous way, but people were forced to look at morality instead of only focusing on technology. The short story Luck displayed quite humorously the intelligence of military leaders.   While the story is set in England, the purpose was to question leaders in all countries.   He tells the reader that the man being honored as a brilliant military leader is really a fool.   The narrator is a minister so he should be believable.   He lets us in on the secret that the man has only made all of his heroic and brilliant actions were actually foolish blunders and mistakes. In Twain’s later years his humor changed.   He suffered tragedies that would shake anyone.   His humor transformed into bitter satire.   While in Europe, he received word that his favorite daughter, Susie had meningitis.   By the time he and Olivia, his wife, returned to America, Susie had died.   This devastated him, and he never really recovered from his grief. A few years later, Olivia died.   He threw himself into the care of his epileptic daughter, Jean.   Unfortunately, Jean had a seizure and drowned in her bathtub.   Mark Twain had lost most of his family and was a broken man.   After the suffering he went through in such a short amount of time could only affect his humor.   His anger toward God was the target of most of his satire. In his last work, The Mysterious Stranger, Twain chronicles the wanderings of Satan, the nephew of the famous Satan, on earth.   This work was a product of his bitterness at the loss of the beloved women in his life.   It was published six years after his death and was not completely finished.   However, it should only be natural that a person would change during the course of his/her life. Mark Twain will always be known to the public as a humorist.   He enlightened millions with his social ideas in a funny and entertaining way.   He brought many issues to life through an amusing little boy that made people think of days gone by.   He will continue to do so for many years to come.   Humor has changed drastically over the years.   Mark Twain’s writings are different from the humor today that relies on someone being hurt or frightened silly.   It is refreshing to see the work of a humorist with substance. Works Cited Bercovitch, Sacvan.   What’s Funny about Huckleberry Finn.   18, June 2007, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n27_v12/ai_18486848/pg_3 Changing Humor. 1920.   The New York Times. 18, June 2007, http://www.twainquotes.com/19200321.html    Horn, Jason.   Mark Twain: A Study of the Short Fiction Book Review.   Summer 1998.   18, June 2007, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2455/is_3_35/ai_83585394 Price, Angel.   Southwestern Humor and Mark Twain.   18, June 2007, http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/projects/price/southwes.htm    How to cite Mark Twain and His Use of Humor, Essay examples