Let's all bow our heads. Until 1963 we were pretty much all given that instruction every morning. Our public school day began with a by-rote recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, The Lord's Prayer, and a stumbling reading of several verses of the King James Version of the Bible. In our school we recited the long-form Lord's Prayer preferred by Presbyterians everywhere. None of that short, Catholic version for us. They had their own schools for that sorta off-brand stuff. If they were too lazy to say the whole thing...well, that was on them.
The Bible reading was done by a different student every day. It was normally concluded quickly because watching a third grader trying to read the KJV Bible was nearly painful. Those of us who could read aloud fairly well always had to read longer. I resented that. I remember not one word. Maybe we should have read the "Song of Solomon".
That's the problem with forced obeisance, no one pays any attention. It's all pro-forma and no imparted substance. I wonder why people don't know that. I also wonder why they would bother to worship a god that doesn't know that. Their god seems to me to have a less than complimentary contempt for the mental or spiritual abilities of his adherents. I think a legitimate God knows the difference between indoctrination and the adult acceptance and embrace of faith. What's so hard about that?
Here's one practical side to my particular belief. My wife and I agreed about the difference between indoctrination and an embrace of faith. To that end we raised our daughter with a minimum of childhood, spiritual instruction. She was certainly raised with the Golden Rule and a healthy degree of moral certitude. Maybe too much of that certitude, I sometimes think but we were young and carried that certainty, inflexibility of youth. It wasn't until she became old enough to discuss secular philosophical ideas and ideals that I realized she was functionally ignorant of about a third of the culture. Literary allusions to things most people learned in Sunday School were lost on her. She had an extra burden of learning at a time when learning was burden enough. Not that either of us ever thought learning was an unwelcome burden but there's only so much you can cram into your head at any given time.
So, what's the point? As near as I can tell there was no point. We seem to have trivialized what some would honor. I'm a relatively observant guy but I had to look up the Lord's Prayer to get the words straight. That's after repeating it by rote probably 800 times. Bush senior made a big deal of the Pledge of Allegiance during the '88 campaign. At a photo op at a flag factory in Massachusetts, he fumbled the words. Demonstrating that something that has been trivialized by mindless repetition apparently knows no politics but political expediency knows no shame.
Anyone who can imagine the thoughts of students around finals time or the prom knows there is a lot of sincere prayer in public schools. It's hard to imagine an omnipotent God who wants or needs something as puny as a government or a school administration to force faith into a student's mind or heart. It's also hard to imagine such a God that doesn't know the effort isn't just useless but ultimately insulting to the whole idea. I'm not sure why that seems like such an obscure concept. Maybe because my mind tended to wander in grade school.
Sixty-five percent of Americans who apparently aren't currently in school think there should be mandatory prayer in schools. It's interesting to note the vast majority of those people could never have experienced organized school prayer. I wonder what they could think it would mean or accomplish.
Amen.
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