School Prayer controversy in U. S. the issues, permitting prayer failed

[strateguy632]

Supreme court decisions relating to God seem inconsistent due to the various judges in each ruling.
i will list the reasons people wanted school prayer. it is a big deal.

an assembly of sources from which i selected. cherry picked for both sides pro and con

In 1962, supreme court invalidated a school prayer. not due to consistent anti-god as some athiests wish.
as late as 1890s u.s. supreme court "interpreted" that u.s. is a Christian nation.
in 1968 it upheld the clause "under god" in pledge of allegiance. not anti god as Atheists wish.
in 1970 it upheld "so help me god" in courts and also "in god we trust".
im 1972, u.s.s.c. upheld prayer at school graduation ceremony despite government public school. how is that content different from daily prayer content.
a historical background is relevant. communism had been suppressing religious ideas and education. when such suppression was perceived in u.s. it was associated with communism especially when soviets were the cold war enemy.

proponents of school prayer presented various reasons. 1 as above to separate from atheist communism. in 1954 in the cold war, congress added to pledge allegiance under god. 14 years no problem. in 1968 as above it was challenged and court upheld god as above.
a senator paraphrased psalms, " our warplanes are not enough. defense spending is useless unless god considered us worth protecting. " this was to reinject god wherever possible to show we are worthy as above.
people complained without school prayer our schools were like communism schools.
God will only grant us victory in this Cold war, if we are loyal to Him. and similar ideas. the atheists and anti prayer judges were associated with the communism enemy.
the idea of "self evident to have the right to liberty," personal choice was based on the faith that it was "granted by god" not spoken merely by a priest in church but in a congress session in 1964.
soon after the court limited religion in 1962 , problems grew. by 1964 an appalling increase in social problems. without god people and students went wild. nothing else stopped them.
violence increased . vandalism increased arson increased during these 2 years.
when kids prayed to god it influenced them to be better dsiciplined but now the kids were more wild.
some held secularism responsible for social ills. if kids would act as if god was real, they would not do action that would anger god. it would be a pragmatic tool as long as the kids did not see teachers acting evil. one atheist said that was the purpose of the moses "charade" to encourage a self enforced morality.
some added commentary to the kennedy assassination. in 1964 a congressman related kennedy, a catholic, assassination to godless-ness. students growing up lacking godlines, will feel free to be more assassins", he claimed. in simple words who said murder is bad. a fairy tale that says do not murder is just fairy tale. murders and ra_pe happen tragically and frequently we see nothing else stops them so we need to teach god. in contrast to the increase in violence since 1962, the alternative to read prayers was "harmless" they claimed. nobody got injured due to "religious zeal".
another reason was the poll 80% supported school prayer. a minority can't suppress the majority, said a florida attorney general.
a governor pointed out we must not suppress religion. this hinted at the first amendment not to limit religion.
a compromise i suggest is: a daily prayer time, when all students must be present. there those who choose to pray can pray. the others will have a respectful silence to show tolerate those who differ.
the declaration of independence was not pure secularism but has religious references, which were quoted to support putting god back in schools. how relevant? this did not violate the separation of church from state, that related to federal funding , not god and equally school prayer. other examples:
prayer in congress, a chaplain in the executive branch reading prayers and more examples were cited.
in court as above "so help me god" by jury and witnesses.
every meeting of the Supreme Court was opened "god save the court." it was the status quo and tradition. this did not violate the separation of church from state so equally school prayer, they claimed.
founders including Washington were religious who did not obligate everyone to be episcopalian but allowed personal choice including atheism. equally prayer must not be stifled.
people related the increase in social problems coinciding with the stop of school prayer from 1962 to 1964 as a above. increased alcoholims, violence suicide drug addiction and more problems were associated to the change. these problems continued to speead and increase.
the emphasis on government handouts (unless handicapped =capable) seems suspiciously communist , coinciding with atheism. people complained about the direction to a "communist welfare state" due to the coinciding elements.
as above, a school prayer must not check that every kid is chanting the prayer, because not required to pray, but must be present. for equality.
reagan put a huge emphasis on prayer along with several issues, only mentioned here because reagan mentioned them together. he withdrew u.s. troops from lebanon to avoid those expenses. he pledged to limit government spending and try to get god back into schools... and they elected him a second term. that is what people wanted and who they wanted as a representative (in contrast to the vastly outrageous spending by obama dnc in 2010s and now biden dnc in 2020s. but that is just by mentioning spending) the voters showed they wanted these policies including school prayer. the voters were not turning against reagan for secularism, who claim, "oppose him so our kids won't pray". he won a second term.
in congress prayer was not protected. even "permit silent prayer" was rejected limiting religion... which seemed to violated the first amendment not to limit religion which shockingly was from the secular t. jefferson who said to add it and it was included.
similarly, regan "tried to keep his commitment" to make rooom in schools for god. "senate rejected the president proposal." this was a bipartison rejection not along party lines. even reagans own political party rnc opposed school prayer.
in the BIG picture, god was not reinstated in schools... and i contrast to the issue of winning the cold war above, still russian communism was defeated.
meanwhile school problems and social problems increased. so that was the story until the 1980s. i selected from proffesor kutler's research on this topic altering the order and phrasing for easier reading.
for more details see, kutler, s. , school prayer controversy, 1984.

[monorprise]

The 1st amendment of the Federal Constitution was written explicit to allow states to retain their State institutions of religion without Federal interference.

That is why it says what it says and why states continued to have religious laws thereafter for upto a century as they did before.

Religion like it or not is very important to human development and life, our brains are programed to for faith and when we don't have it, we tend to go off the rails culturally and politically as we are now doing, and as communist countries did even more quickly.

[imfreeze95]

You just hit the nail on the head

[OddBeMe]

Seems like a good judgement.

People can pray on their own, with others even form a group. Why do they need to force everyone else into their magic sky man chanting?

[serious_miss419]

Is is to teach maths and sciences.
That’s it!

[monorprise]

@serious_miss419
Since when have you been able to give politicians access to future voters and not had them abuse that power?

When I was in school i was subjected to rather 1 sided propaganda even in just "Teaching" the basics of "Reading" and "Science".
Where the books chosen had SJW message, and the "science" was heavy on anti-christian history of cherry picked examples of persecution alleging the church was responsible. When in fact it was the state the same State that had similarly persisted and held back science for countless other reasons both religions, economic, ideological, or simply ego.

Politicians both elected and unexpected tend to abuse their power, the only way we ever hold them account able is with other politicians pointing out that abuse and the people electing them.

This doesn't work reliably particularly in a political system which is both too broad in scope (too many issues to vote on) and too distance to be even seen.

[lightbulb27]

And we put God on our currenxy… swear in on a bible

[Drewtate]

I think in most cases a little common sense would go a long way.

[imfreeze95]

I have no problem with a special time set aside for people to pray however they want during the school day