Prayer Ought to be in Schools | Teen Ink

Prayer Ought to be in Schools MAG

November 24, 2010
By GodChick BRONZE, Leander, Texas
GodChick BRONZE, Leander, Texas
1 article 0 photos 2 comments

Favorite Quote:
"900 years of time and space and I've never met anybody who isn't important." - The Doctor


Prayer has always been part of the culture of the United States of America, its people, and its foundation. George Washington himself was a devout Christian, as were most of the founding fathers. The hand of God directed the Bill of Rights and the U.S. Constitution. Christianity found its way into the very heart of our nation and remained the pulse of this country until 1962.

That year was one of tragedy, opposition, and downfall for young people in America. That year the Supreme Court prohibited prayer in schools. Ironically, the Supreme Court judges struck prayer from our nation's educational system in the same building where the Ten Commandments were hanging. They destroyed this part of our heritage, threw it away like a used scrap of paper, considered it useless in the present day. Yet, our president prays in the Oval Office.

Since 1962 young people in America have been in a downward spiral with nothing to catch them. They have nothing to cling to, no set of guiding morals, nothing to tell them the difference ­between right and wrong. Nothing to believe in; no ­foundation and no comfort for the agitated soul. Instead of upholding our Constitution, the Supreme Court ­destroyed it.

“It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ,” said Patrick Henry, a founding father and signer of the Constitution. Our country was founded on Christianity. That Christianity ought not to be taken from us.

Indeed, James Madison, our fourth president, said: “Cursed be all that learning that is contrary to the cross of Christ.” He would never have approved of the 1962 ruling of the Supreme Court – in fact, he would have cursed it. If our founders were here today, they would be putting their feet down and changing the United States back to the way it should be. The Ten Commandments would be hung in schools, prayer would be reestablished in the schoolhouse, and our government's ways would be corrected.

John Hancock, the first signer of Declaration of Independence, said: “Continue steadfast and, with a proper sense of your dependence on God, nobly defend those rights which heaven gave, and no man ought to take from us.” God guided the fathers to give us the right of prayer – prayer in schools, prayer in public, and prayer everywhere. We have instead succumbed to the broken ways of the world and obliterated the words of not only our founders but God as well.

With God – the Creator of the universe, Savior of sinners, the Prince of Peace, the Shepherd of all mankind – I will uphold John Hancock's words and “nobly defend those rights which heaven gave, and no man ought to take from us”!


The author's comments:
Christianity was the basis for our nation, the guideline for our US Constitution and the Declartion of Independence. No one can deny with amazing truth. Yet, our nation has slipped away from this and instead into a state in which Christianity is denied, and even persecuted at times. Jesus Christ is the Lord God Almighty, the One and Only Savior of our broken world. He gives us a way to be saved, yet even our government, which was first a Christian-based system, has changed into a corrupt system where even prayer in schools is not allowed.
Pray for our broken world.

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This article has 59 comments.


on Aug. 29 2017 at 6:28 am
WriteFreak BRONZE, London, Other
3 articles 0 photos 24 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Everybody lies." - Hugh Laurie, House MD.

It is an interesting article. While I disagree with your point, I do understand what you are trying to say. The U.S prides itself on it's diversity. Assuming that we all pray in schools, people who are not Christians may feel left out, or excluded. Imagine how this would influence an atheist child! They are going to have two conflicting worlds: one where they must believe in God, and one where they must not.

Ruth solomon said...
on Mar. 17 2016 at 8:51 pm
Cool and weird at the same time......

Patriot said...
on Feb. 1 2016 at 9:55 am
Assuming that God had a hand in creating the Bill of Rights, and guided the U.S to where it was in 1962, where was he when slavery dominated the South? Prayer was still taught in schools then, and both slaves and their masters were often times Christian, but God simply allowed that to happen? While the slave masters beat and abused other Christians of a different skin color, God chose not to intervene at all, despite their loyal following?

on Nov. 12 2015 at 3:59 pm
Lucy-Agnes PLATINUM, Clarksville, Ohio
22 articles 0 photos 53 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Have the courage to have your wisdom regarded as stupidity. Be fools for Christ. And have the courage to suffer the contempt of the sophisticated world." - Justice Antonin Scalia

And my respect for Teen Ink has been heightened. :)

on Jan. 26 2015 at 11:13 pm
Caleb.Andrews, London, Other
0 articles 0 photos 27 comments

Favorite Quote:
Multi vad, putini pricep.

How in the world was such a ghastly article published in the magazine? My respect for TeenInk just took a major blow...

Chloe123 said...
on Jul. 16 2014 at 7:16 pm
It's probably useless to post yet another comment telling you why you are wrong. But, of course, I will anyway. At least a brief one. First of all, you can pray in school all you want. Everyone has the individual right to pray whenever they want, wherever they want, as long as they don't coerce others into supporting there religion or interrupt the peace. So pray in school. Feel free. And in that way, I will be able to decline from doing so without feeling the wrath of my peers. No religion should be forced on anyone and no, the founders didn't found this as a Christian nation. People came to the U.S. to flee from religious persecution and to be able to practice what they would like. Even then there wasn't even mere toleration of other religions until the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, which by the way was instituted by our very well known founder Thomas Jefferson. Who has reported it was is most prized achievement alongside the Declaration of Independence. You are whole heartedly supporting that we shove your religious beliefs down the throats of our children... Even though a founding principle of this country was religious freedom. The very first amendment of the United States institutes that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion". If they didn't support religious freedom then they wouldn't have put that in the Bill of Rights and we would not be the country we are today. We would be a narrow-minded, oppressive nation like England was when we fought them in the Revolutionary War. Is that what you want? You don't seem to understand the implications this would have on the national level and you don't seem to fathom the diversity we have in this nation. Texas may be majority Christian, but the rest of the country is filled with other cultures and religions. According the Supreme Court's coersion doctrine, the US allows the strictest application of the establishment clause regarding school prayer to apply to religion. You know why? Peer pressure. That one silent kid at the back of his class is bowing his head and praying with you, he looks like he's fine with it. Secretly, he doesn't want to pray, but he thinks his peers would persecute and bully him if he didn't. So he bows his head and says the prayer to the Lord. And after weeks of doing this, he begins to think 'maybe they're right... if so many people believe in this God, maybe I should to, maybe I shouldn't follow the practices my parents have taught me.' Maybe you consider such conversions to be a win for Christianity, but they're fundamentally wrong. Our school systems has the right to teach and inform on different doctrines. But the right to teach which is true and correct is a strictly personal matter that should only be decided by one's own conscience.

on May. 30 2014 at 10:23 am
writinggurl SILVER, Easley, South Carolina
8 articles 0 photos 14 comments
Saying the pledge has everything to do with our men in women overseas believe me. This is the country you live in whether you like or not. The men and women who fight for our country say the pledge with pride. They give their lives for the freedom for you not to say the pledge. I say the pledge with utmost respect to the americans who were brave enough to fight this fight and continue to sacrifice their lives for ungrateful people who are given a choice of freedom of speech.

on May. 29 2014 at 12:38 pm
SomethingWitty, No, Other
0 articles 0 photos 22 comments
Bro, saying the pledge does nothing to thank our Bretheren at Arms. The pledge is a brainwashing tool. It's propaganda for small children that would belive the moon was made of cheese if you told them so. Think about it, it's literally called "The Pledge of Alligence."

Also, not once in the pledge does it mention our military men and women.

on May. 29 2014 at 12:33 pm
SomethingWitty, No, Other
0 articles 0 photos 22 comments
I like the idea of everyone being able to express themselves without ridicule. I also like that you tried to solve the problem while being respectful, but I don't think that would work. A lot of kids struggle with their religion, especially in a place where most everyone believes in the same religion. When I was struggling with my religion I tried to force myself to belive what I was saying and being taught and if I had to sit in silence while the other students prayed to the same god like the good Christian kids they were and I wasn't then I would've felt very very bad. I already felt guilty, if that happened I don't know how I'd react.

So while I really like the idea I don't feel it would hold up. (No disrespect intended)

on May. 28 2014 at 6:01 pm
SomethingWitty, No, Other
0 articles 0 photos 22 comments
I could not possibly post a response to this in the form of a comment, so I wrote my own article on it. I would love if you (the author of this article) would read it and respond however you may. The link is here:

TeenInk.com/opinion/spirituality_religion/article/678823/No-a-response-to-Prayer-Ought-to-be-in-Schools-by-GodChick/

on May. 28 2014 at 12:33 am
JesusandHisLawyers SILVER, Austin, Texas
7 articles 0 photos 99 comments

Favorite Quote:
"who the fuck has a favorite personal quote what does that even mean" - me, just now.

Nobody cares if you pray in school. It's not illegal to pray in school, FORCED prayer is what is illegal as the public education system is secular, as it should be.  And evolution is taught in school because it is backed up by sound scientific evidence. If you have anything to dispute that evidence, step up to claim your Nobel prize. 

on May. 28 2014 at 12:32 am
JesusandHisLawyers SILVER, Austin, Texas
7 articles 0 photos 99 comments

Favorite Quote:
"who the fuck has a favorite personal quote what does that even mean" - me, just now.

Thanks for summing that up neatly for me, ha. Another thing: You can pray in school. Nobody is going to stop you unless you're being discruptive (so doing it vocally while a teacher is talking). I doubt anybody will care. 

on May. 27 2014 at 1:55 pm
Aramis_999 PLATINUM, Matthews, North Carolina
25 articles 0 photos 54 comments

Favorite Quote:
Be strong, believe in freedom and in God, love yourself, understand your sexuality, have a sense of humor, don’t judge people by their religion, color or sexual habits, love life and your family. -Madonna

Pastafarian in is a parody of relegion any way. i don't think anyone actually belives in it. I could be wrong though, I could be wrong though.

on May. 25 2014 at 5:26 pm
SomethingWitty, No, Other
0 articles 0 photos 22 comments
I'm a devout Pastafarian and I can gaurentee that if I were to pray to His Holiness, The Flying Spaghetti Monster, I would be ridiculed. Why can I gaurentee this? Because it has already happened.

Virgil BRONZE said...
on Feb. 25 2014 at 1:13 pm
Virgil BRONZE, Bessemer City, North Carolina
2 articles 0 photos 3 comments

Favorite Quote:
"...[T]he most desirable to do is the one in which there is the most trouble."

-Montaigne (The Taste of Good and Evil)

So, as I began reading this artical, I thought it was satire. Then I actually kept reading and realized that you actually believe what you're saying. SO, I am going to try to do what it seems the Texas (shocker) education system is incapable of doing. The US Constitution was orignially founded with (yet not upon the) basis of religious freedom and other liberties. What you ar arguing is that forced prayer should be brought back into schools, and I would be inclined, for the progression of education, to disagree.  If we were to take everything which was at a point in the original constitution, or stated by one of the founding fathers, we would still be in a country in which women (and blacks) could not vote or own land. Women and blacks would, once again, essentially be property. Marriage would once again be owned by religion (even though marriage is actually older than most modern religions).  Just think about this. Think about the cruel domino effect for which you are asking...

on Feb. 10 2014 at 12:58 pm
writinggurl SILVER, Easley, South Carolina
8 articles 0 photos 14 comments
You misunderstood I think that christian prayer should be aloud in school. I DID NOT SAY that everybody should pray christian prayer. It would be stupid to pray to something you don't believe but still keep that right to peoplewho still believe like our founding fathers.

on Feb. 8 2014 at 11:54 pm
CharleyLatta BRONZE, Salem, Massachusetts
2 articles 0 photos 14 comments

Favorite Quote:
"We can do no great things, only small things with great love." -- Mother Theresa

Unless you are a Native American (which if you go back far enough, still apply) everyone here is an immigrant.

on Feb. 8 2014 at 11:50 pm
CharleyLatta BRONZE, Salem, Massachusetts
2 articles 0 photos 14 comments

Favorite Quote:
"We can do no great things, only small things with great love." -- Mother Theresa

Do you hear yourself? "That is the whole reason people traveled over to America on the Mayflower was for freedom of religion."  So let's make everyone pray with Christian prayers.

on Feb. 8 2014 at 11:46 pm
CharleyLatta BRONZE, Salem, Massachusetts
2 articles 0 photos 14 comments

Favorite Quote:
"We can do no great things, only small things with great love." -- Mother Theresa

It isn't a big deal if you pray in school, but making everyone else pray with you is the issue.

Jake_A SILVER said...
on Jan. 23 2014 at 11:07 pm
Jake_A SILVER, Gilford, New Hampshire
9 articles 0 photos 1 comment

Favorite Quote:
"Experience is not what happens to you; it's what you do with what happens to you." - Aldous Huxley

I wouldn't say 'most', but you bring up a great point. Jefferson, Paine, and (to an extent) Adams were all Deists. In fact, Paine even wrote a book urging against most of what the author is arguing for (and, to clarify, I have no issue with prayer - as long as it is not forced and all religious beliefs or lack thereof are taken into account) and in favor of a government based solely on science, reason and justice rather than individual religious beliefs.