Hi

 

The first three editions (this is #3) of the Copeland’s Corner blog come out on Wednesdays and will be sent to everyone on Brian’s mailing list. After that, it will only go to those who SPECIFICALLY SIGN UP FOR IT. To subscribe for free, go to briancopeland.substack.com.

 

Believe it or not, I am a vigorous advocate for the power of prayer. I’ve been praying all my life. I say grace before meals. I ask for God’s help during difficult times. I pray for friends and family who are struggling medically, socially and financially. Every night, just as I did when I was little boy, I kneel bedside and say my prayers. By the way, I don’t still do the “If I die before I wake” thing, because it’s just creepy. Prayer brings me great comfort. That said, prayer is a very private and personal thing that has no business in institutions that are funded with the tax money of all taxpayers, be they subscribers to a particular faith or no faith at all.

 

This year, the right wing dominated United States Supreme Court issued two rulings that have sent the wall separating church and state tumbling down. In June, the court ruled that a coach at a public Washington state high school could kneel midfield and lead his team in religious prayer. The justices cited the Constitution’s guarantees to the rights of free speech and freedom of religious exercise as the rationale for essentially allowing prayer at public schools. The court also ruled that the state of Maine cannot prevent religious schools from receiving public tuition grants that are permitted for other private schools. These rulings have opened the floodgates.

 

School boards and school districts across the country are now tripping over themselves to try and implement some kind of mandatory prayers in their public schools. The ideas range from designated “Prayer Days” to coaches leading their sports teams in prayer to teachers beginning each school day by leading their students in some form of worship. Secularism be damned. The most dangerous thing about this is that when you hear them talk about prayer, you know exactly what kind of prayer they’re talking about. Christian prayer.

 

I know that there is a segment of the population that doesn’t want to hear it, but America is NOT a Christian nation. It’s a nation made up of people who belong to all religions or, if it’s their choice, NO religion. Forcing Christian prayer down the throats of their children, who may be Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, Hindu or atheist isn’t just wrong, it’s unconstitutional. That’s a fact, no matter what six black robed toadies for the religious right claim. The Constitution guarantees that the state shall not sponsor a religion. That’s what freedom of religion is all about.

 

I say this as a practicing Catholic. I’ve been a practicing Catholic since I was four years old. I went to Catholic educational institutions from elementary school through college and sent all three of my kids to them. I was an altar boy who served mass before class and on Sunday mornings. I grew up with the school day beginning with a prayer. My sixth-grade classes ended with a recitation of An Act of Contrition. I went with my class to get ashes on my forehead in church on Ash Wednesday and to Stations of the Cross on Good Friday. My eight-grade graduation was in a church and my high school graduation began and ended with a prayer. The instructors at my university were mostly nuns, many of whom started lectures with some sort of acknowledgement of the Almighty. I tell you these things not to come off as “holier than thou,” but to illustrate how there is an appropriate place for school religious worship if that’s what you seek for your family. It’s not at a taxpayer funded school where the Muslim child is forced against his or her will to listen to worship contrary to their family’s beliefs.

 

There’s really a simple solution to this issue. EVERY religion must just demand equal time in schools where prayer is mandated. You want your football coaches to start the game midfield with a Christian prayer, fine. Just as long as the Hindu students get to lead a prayer next, followed by the Muslim students and the Jewish students. Let’s even give the Scientology kids a forum. And let’s not forget the Wiccans. They should have a voice. And you certainly can’t exclude members of the Church of Satan.

 

If you want your kids to pray, I personally think it’s a good thing. Just keep it where it belongs. That’s in the home, the religious school, the church and other non-secular, non-taxpayer funded venue. If you don’t, you’re stepping on all our rights.

 

Brian Copeland

 

The first three editions of the Copeland’s Corner blog come out on Wednesdays and will be sent to everyone on Brian’s mailing list. After that, it will only go to those who SPECIFICALLY SIGN UP FOR IT. To subscribe for free, go to briancopeland.substack.com.