Prayer in schools arguementative

Essay by jaybrogCollege, UndergraduateA, April 2005

download word file, 3 pages 3.0

Religion is a very controversial issue, especially when it comes to religion and prayer in public schools. The United States of America was founded by the constitutional framers, who were devout Christians. On March 4, 1805, President Thomas Jefferson said: ". . . I shall need, too, the favor of that Being in whose hands we are, who led our fathers, as Israel of old, from their native land and planted them in a country flowing with all the necessaries and comforts of life; who has covered our infancy with His providence and our riper years with His wisdom and power, and to whose goodness I ask you to join in supplications with me that He will so enlighten the minds of your servants, guide their councils, and prosper their measures that whatsoever they do shall result in your good, and shall secure to you the peace, friendship, and approbation of all nations" (1805 Inaugural Speech).

Before his death, Thomas Jefferson wrote his own epitaph stating for what he wanted the world to remember him. One of his greatest achievements was the passage of the Virginia Statute of Religious Liberty, which was passed in 1786 after a long and heated debate in the legislature. This piece of legislation provided the basis for the constitutional guarantee of religious freedom as found in the First Amendment of the Constitution (The home of Thomas Jefferson). Prayer should be allowed in school because America's roots were founded upon Christianity and our right to pray has always been preserved.

In the court case of Engel v. Vitale in 1962, it was decided that prayer in school was unconstitutional. (The Engel v Vitale court case) The First Amendment of the Constitution gives every individual the same rights. One right is protection for the free exercise of...