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FROM: Jerry Falwell
DATE: October 26, 2001

DEFENDING PRAYER IN SCHOOL

On Monday, Gov. Rick Perry (R-Texas) said he sees no problem with ignoring the U.S. Supreme Court ban on organized school prayer "at this very crisis moment in our history." He defended a decision to have a Protestant minister open a middle school assembly with prayer last week.

"Any time you have a crisis that faces you either in your personal life or as we have now in our country, reaching out to a Supreme Being is a very normal act," said the governor, who attended the school assembly in Palestine.

You will recall that last year, the High Court ruled in a Texas case that organized prayers before high school football games were unconstitutional. In fact, the Court has outlawed organized school prayer since 1963.

Many, including me, believe that fateful decision launched the onset of descent in American education. Our nation's schools have replaced God with moral relativism and situational ethics in the nearly four decades following that decision. Subsequently, our children learn that there are no absolute truths, no moral authorities, no governing principles to design their behavior.

Gov. Perry said on Monday that he is ready to make school prayer a campaign issue as he seeks election next year to a full four-year
term. Prior to the September 11 attacks on our nation, this might have been an unwise campaign approach. But not now.

The suicide attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., and the failed attack that resulted in a downed plane in Pennsylvania, have motivated Americans to reconsider the secular path down which our nation has embarked. Many have seen the error of this downward trajectory. They now see our need for God in the conduct of our nation.

I'm not saying every American must be forced to pray. I'm simply saying that those Americans who embrace prayer as a way of life - as a way of literal sustenance - must not be prohibited from this quest.

"Why can't we say a prayer at a football game or a patriotic event like we held at Palestine Middle School?" Mr. Perry asked. "I don't understand the logic of that. I happen to think it was appropriate."

To that, millions of Americans say AMEN!

Of course, there are those who ardently object.

Samantha Smoot of the Texas Freedom Network, which monitors the activities of religious groups in education, is one of those
individuals. She told the Associated Press this week that, while school prayer "is a tempting issue for a politician," it "isn't
until later that voters start thinking, What if it isn't my God they're worshipping, or my prayer?"

That's an empty argument. I'm probably seen as one of the most conservative religious leaders in the nation - a dangerous religious fanatic in the eyes of some - but I have absolutely no problem with
a student or religious leader of any faith leading a prayer at school. Prayer in school is not designed to alienate students
because of their differences. It is designed to unite students and focus their attention - even if just for a moment each day - on the fact that this nation was founded by men who honored and revered God
and that we continue in their tradition.

Gov. Perry noted that Congress and the Texas Legislature open their sessions with prayer, and suggested that public schools should be
able to do the same. He correctly said that it was "very confusing," why our nation permits this double standard.

We have seen the course of secularism in our schools and it is obviously time for a change. It is high time our nation once again favors its people of faith by allowing our public school students to be exposed to prayer and the pursuit of faith.

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[This message has been edited by Avalee (edited October 26, 2001).]

Teach the kids to read the Bible, ask the God of the Bible to tell them what He wants them to do, and do it without the public schools leadership and institutional bias.

Then as they learn more and more of Scripture they will better and better imitate the God of Scripture and not any political or public school expedency. God will instruct them as to time and place and opportunity to pray. Let it be spontanous and student lead.

Teachers who themselves know God can introduce students and their parents to Him, in those circumstances God opens up. Individuals with burdens for other's salvation probably will not be politically motivated.

There will be battles between ideologies & beliefs & practices, and the Bible will settle those beliefs; hopefully outside of public state run school. But controvercy will bring present truths to attention & the forefront.

By all means kids read the Bible and pray, your salvation depends on it, but look to God for leadership and not what is momentarily popular. Faith built upon the trendy, evaporates when the trendy does.

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Edward F Sutton

by Andy Butcher

They say 'floodgates have not opened' for public prayer since Sept. 11 attacks

Civil liberties groups are largely turning a deaf ear to public prayers that challenge the law. But they are concerned that some Christians are trying to use the country's greater openness to God since the Sept. 11 attacks to permanently bring faith back into schools and government.

In Greenbrier, Ark., high school football games are being preceded by a public recitation of the Lord's Prayer, despite a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year that banned such practices. According to "The Christian Science Monitor," the Greenbrier stand is "perhaps the boldest example of just how pervasive public prayer has become."

Texas Gov. Rick Perry last week prayed with a group of middle schoolers during an assembly and wants to make legalizing school prayer a campaign issue, the newspaper said. "The New York Times" said that a bill is being considered in South Carolina that would turn the moment of silence that starts each school day into a moment of prayer --even though the practice has also been ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile in Florida, legislators yesterday took time out of a special budget session to pass a bill permitting volunteer student prayer at graduation ceremonies and other non-required student assemblies, the Associated Press said. "This is a time when all people in our nation should be called to prayer," said sponsor Wilbert Holloway, D-Miami.

The "Times" said that after an "outpouring of prayer" as people looked for healing and hope in the aftermath of the terrorist strikes, most public schools have returned to normal routines, reinstating limits on public expressions of faith.

Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said that there had been some more complaints about "inappropriate prayers" in schools in the last six weeks, but "the floodgates have not opened."

However, he did not believe that the courts would reverse earlier decisions on prayer. The new practices being adopted by some in challenge to existing rulings would prove costly to communities forced to defend them, he said, reported the "Times." "The Constitution has not been suspended since Sept. 11," Lynn said.

Anne Nicol Gaylor, president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, said there was currently a level of "religious hysteria" in America, the "Monitor" reported. "You only have to look at history, during times of war, to see how religion attempts to move in on government," she said.

A Muslim prayer has caused a row in Mooresville, Ind. Rafla Syeed, a visiting speaker, said a Muslim prayer and translated it for students when she visited Neil Armstrong Elementary School. Principal Sylvia Graves told "The Indianapolis Star": "It was a short teachable moment. I felt it was an opportunity to show the children that these people are the same as us."

Some parents complained that they had not been told about the visit in advance. "We can't talk about prayer, but they ask these people in and give them full rein," complained one parent, Sherry Pearson.

Charisma News Service