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Prayer in School

Yesterday I was talking to a coworker about an e-mail I received. The e-mail sender asked that I sign a petition to bring prayer back into the schools. I refused to sign it. In fact I'm against bringing prayer back into the classroom in 2009. Are you incredulous that I would be against this? Well as one sign I saw stated, " As long as there are tests there will be prayer in schools."
All joking aside, I'm against this for several reasons.

The premise of bringing prayer back into the school seems to rest on an idea that we are going to recreate the 1950's and 60's and 70's. During those school prayer times little voices were heard reciting the Lord's Prayer or even the twenty third Psalm. No one seemed to be offended because most people could subscribe to similar prayers. Anyone who was offended basically kept quiet. They were in the minority, and people did not take too kindly to the God is irrelevant or dead talk. Now we are living in what some are calling the post Christian era in the United States.

What if by some great change of events prayer was brought back into the public schools?
Do you think you would be enthusiastic if the prayer was to Buddha, or Allah? What about the week the witches got to pray and do their incantations, or the Hare Krishna's were whirling in front of the classroom? I know I would have a problem with the return of prayers in school.

I'd sincerely like to see prayer return to several places. First, how about bringing prayer back into our own personal lives. Now that does not take a governmental action and it's within every one's reach. Secondly, how about bringing prayer back into one's own family? What a novel idea! Families used to have daily devotions and prayer. Who is stopping you from doing this?
Thirdly, here's another big idea. How about bringing prayer back into the church? This is a thought worth a minute or two of reflection. How many churches have canned the weekly prayer meeting or corporate prayer on Sunday mornings? Was there a law passed that said the church couldn't pray together?

I'm really not worried about returning prayer to the public schools. I am concerned that we get our individual, family, and churches aligned with the practice of prayer. When that is done none of us will have to worry about prayer in school.
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