Thursday, March 15, 1934
Daily Nebraskan
Pago 5
School-prayer disciples skip vital question
s
.Until someone complained last year, a recording
of Kate Smith's version of The Lord's Prayer was
played every morning over the intercom at the
Joseph A. Craig Elementary School in New Orleans.
As upset as some parents and teachers are about
the school's decision to stop Kate's golden voice, I
really doubt that any child's spiritual welfare has
Eric
been harmed by its absence. And it seems unlikely
th::t the Kate Smith recording meant that much to
the grade schoolers while it was there. That's one of
the major and often unaddrcssed questions about
the school prayer amendment proposal now before
Congress. Public observance of non-denominstlonal
religious sentiment by its nature tends to be bland
and meaningless.
A letter sent to U.S. newspapers by 23 ministers
and rabbis asserts that organized prayer in schools
reduces the importance of prayer as a religious
experience "bland compromise incantations could
trivialize and demean the spiritual significance of
prayer itself"
Although 81 percent of people asked by Gallup
last year said they wanted organized prayer in the
public schools, it's not clear what kind of prayer they
mean, or why it is important. The school prayer
issue clearly has become a matter of self-righteous
pride for the people who keep pushing it, a way to
"bring God back into the schools." And for a presi
dent who almost never goes to church, the school
prayer amendment is an election-year godsend.
Senate Republican leader Howard Baker of Ten
nessee has put together a compromise amendment
from several proposals in Congress. It would change
the Constitution to allow prayer or the notorious
"moment of silence" in public classrooms, and allow
religious groups to use school facilities. Baker hopes
to get the two-thirds majority a constitutional
amendment needs to be sent on to the states, and he
possibly may, he certainly has Ronald Reagan's sup
port. "Hasn't something gone haywire," Reagan asked a
convention of evangelicals in Columbus, Ohio, re
cently, "when this great Constitution of ours . . .
supposedly prevents our children from Bible study
or the saying of a simple prayer in their schools?"
Sen. Lowell Weicker, a Republican from Connecti
cut and the major opponent of the proposed amend
ment in Congress, has stressed that the present
Supreme Court position, while it has outlawed
organized and teacher-led prayers in public schools
since 19G2, has never stopped children from oral or
silent prayers as long as school sessions are not
interrupted. And it's hard to see how organized
prayer or meditation sessions will strengthen or
engender genuine religious feelings in anyone.
The most important reason school prayers in
organized form are and should be illegal seldom has
been mentioned: that people who don't believe in
God or believe differently from most of the other
students have every right not to have a rote prayer
forced down their throats . . . and the so-called
voluntary school prayer is just as much of a forcing
as the old mandatory exercise; there is just as much
community pressure.
However, the basic emptiness of the whole school
prayer idea the void it creates by its organized
and supposedly universal nature might be more
convincing to the people who want the amendment,
if they would give it, or something, more than a
passing thought.
She
rc-cerm sacrifice meanin
gless
It's been a rough seven days but I'm sure I can
make it through the next four and a half weeks. I've
given up Catholicism for Lent.
In making this decision, I weighed all those things
that are near and dear to me. I thought about giving
up horseback riding which I never do. I thought
I v- Y- l
about giving up my study habits of which I have
none. I thought about giving up sweet potatoes
which I eat on rare occasions and then only with a
quick milk chaser.
Then it hit me: Why dont I give up being some
thing I'm not? Since Tm not Catholic, why go
through the motions of observing Catholic trad
ition? I'm not implying that it's ludicrous to observe this
Catholic Lenten tradition. IVe been told that obsti
nence at thb time of year makes up for self
indulgences the rest of the year. IVe heard that
denying yourself the things you enjoy is a way of
sharing in Christ's suffering.
Surely many Catholics take this seriously. How
ever, it seems that for many people Lent becomes an
opportunity to lose some weight or a way to fit in
with peers.
One woman told me she used to give up gum every
year for Lent. Her friends all gave something up and
she thought she should, too. It didn't matter that
, she never chewed gum.
Lenten promises begin to take on the air of New
Year's resolutions. IVe given up ice cream three
Januarys in a row and never fail to have my first
scoop by February.
It seems that many of the things given up for Lent
are on the same scale as ice cream. The sacrifices are
shelved with the understanding that they can be
taken up again in 40 days.
' Maybe next year Catholics and non-Catholics can
unite and give up something that matters. Could
everyone vow to boycott something like petty grie
vences? Maybe. Forty days isnt too long.
Who knows, maybe well like it so much that we
will never go back.
Highroads to Adventure
Travel Fcir
Friday, f.!srch 18
3-6 p.m.
Films, Tips & Information
about budget travel in
Europe, Africa & the Orient!
Representative from KLM
Royal Dutch Airlines
Will be present!
'Free admission!
WHERE: SKYLIGHT BSISTO
WHEN: FRIDAY, MARCH 16
3-6 p.m.
Sponsored by:
American Youth Hostels, Nebraskaland Council
Contact Travel
' Overseas Opportunities Center, UNL
A v
i
cot
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