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CHRISTIAN ETHICS AND RESPONSIBLE CITIZENSHIP IN CHURCH-STATE AFFAIRS: THE DEBATE OVER PRAYER IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS
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CHRISTIAN ETHICS AND RESPONSIBLE CITIZENSHIP IN CHURCH-STATE AFFAIRS: THE DEBATE OVER PRAYER IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS
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CHRISTIAN ETHICS AND RESPONSIBLE CITIZENSHIP IN CHURCH-STATE AFFAIRS: THE DEBATE OVER PRAYER IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS
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Dissertation
CHRISTIAN ETHICS AND RESPONSIBLE CITIZENSHIP IN CHURCH-STATE AFFAIRS: THE DEBATE OVER PRAYER IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS
1986
Overview
This dissertation examines the ongoing debate over school prayer (especially as it is chronicled in some of the periodical literature of the early 1980s) in an attempt to reach some conclusions about the appropriateness or inappropriateness of group devotional exercises in the public schools. The focus is on historical as well as contemporary guidelines for adjudicating the specific issue of school prayer, but the analysis also provides a normative framework for evaluating other topics dealing with religion and public education. Issues such as the establishment of religion, the free exercise of religion, equal access to school property, possible coercion in the classroom, the nature and purpose of prayer, and the rights of religious minorities and nonreligious groups are discussed in the context of competing values which are at stake in policy decisions in this area. Landmark decisions by the Supreme Court are used to analyze the constitutionality of school prayer according to the three tests of secular purpose, primary effect, and excessive entanglement. Another chapter explores some of the theological questions pertaining to school prayer. For instance, what view of God does school prayer tend to promote? Is such a conceptualization theologically valid and desirable? In this regard, the problem of acculturated Christianity is discussed in relation to governmentally sanctioned rituals. In addition, the normative approaches of separationism, accommodation, benevolent neutrality, \"religion blindness,\" and evenhandedness are evaluated in terms of their efficacy in achieving governmental neutrality in the area of religion and public education. The overall thrust of the dissertation is that state-authorized devotional exercises are not appropriate in the public schools. They violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, they tend to obfuscate the doctrinal claims of particular religions, and they trample on the rights of the nonparticipants. In a pluralistic society, governmental neutrality is required in matters of religion. Therefore, the public schools should not be used to try to inculcate religious piety in the students; they should teach civic virtues associated with responsible citizenship in a democracy, including respect for each citizen's freedom of conscience.
