Should prayer be allowed in school?  I have always found both the question and the controversy that it usually generates highly intriguing.  I would argue that prayer is already “allowed in school” and everywhere else, for that matter.  Everyone has the option to pray silently to God anytime and anywhere. Indeed silent prayer is probably the only way that most Christians have any chance at all to obey God’s call to “pray without ceasing.” Advocates of school prayer however, aren’t talking about this unobtrusive, “just between God and me” kind of prayer.  The controversy arises over the idea that prayer in school has to be done as a group and out loud in order for it to “count.”

I consider myself to be a devoted Christian who strongly believes in the power of prayer.  Prayer has calmed my fears, given me comfort and joy and solved many of my problems on more than one occasion.  But I don’t support formalized school prayer.  Why?  First, I think that is it highly impractical given the diversity of our society.  Christians pray to God in the name of Jesus, but is it right to require Jewish children to participate in a formalized prayer of this nature?  And what if the classroom teacher in charge of leading the prayer time is a Muslim or a Buddhist or a Wiccan?  How would Christian parents feel about non-Christian prayers in the classroom?  Or should each student just pray his or her own prayer aloud and all at once?  While that would give each individual the opportunity to pray (or not) in his own way, somehow I suspect that the resultant cacophony of divergent prayers occurring simultaneously is also not what proponents of school prayer have in mind. 

However, the most important reason why I don’t support organized group prayers in school is that public prayer isn’t Biblically supported.  In Matthew 6:5-8 Jesus Himself said, “And now about prayer. When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I assure you, that is all the reward they will ever get. But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father secretly. Then your Father, who knows all secrets, will reward you.”

At the heart of Christianity is the charge for Christians to emulate Jesus’ example of being the embodiment of God’s will.  In this vein, Christians should note that Jesus prayed for guidance in places of quiet solitude.  According to Mark 1:35, for example, “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.”  Or consider Luke 5:16, “But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.”

Sadly, it often appears that those who clamor most loudly to “bring back school prayer” do so more out of the desire to impose their own will and beliefs on others than to connect personally with God.  One wonders whether those who are adamant about instituting daily group prayer in schools pray with their children at home on a daily basis.  Do they say “grace” over every meal, including those eaten in their workplace cafeteria or in restaurants?  Have they prayed and asked for God to lead them before showing up at anti-health insurance reform rallies with posters of the President altered to look like the “Joker” or Adolph Hitler?  When we observe the volatility and the mean-spiritedness that seems to permeate the public discourse of this so-called “Christian nation,” it is hard to believe that all of the citizens who are promoting the necessity of school prayer are sincerely asking for God’s guidance and listening closely to His answers.

The problem in our society isn’t a lack of prayer in school but rather the lack of love and generosity among those of us who profess to be Christians.  Rather than worrying about whether school children are standing and reciting a daily prayer maybe we should instead take more time to follow Jesus’ example to steal away into a quiet place and pray for God to bless us with more loving and generous hearts.