Charlton Heston as Moses

The recent kerfuffle about posting the Ten Commandments in Louisiana schools reminds me of the days when school prayer was ubiquitous and accepted but unfair.

Now, to be honest, I attended St, Louis de France parochial school in Swansea, MA, for the first six years of my education and we were taught by the Sisters of Saint Joseph. We prayed in school every day—a lot. Nobody objected: that’s what our parents were paying for and the sisters were happy to provide it.

Problem #1: Unfairness

But I moved over to the Somerset, MA, public schools system in the seventh grade and went on to Somerset High School from there. Every morning, we stood and said the Pledge of Allegiance and the Lord’s Prayer.  The prayer was the Protestant version; the one that ends “for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory.”

Catholics don’t say this version out of the belief that Jesus gave the Lord’s Prayer to his apostles. He would never have spoken of himself in the third person. Plus, Jesus did not care much for kingdoms, power, or glory and never claimed them for himself. Those are human concerns.

So, I would just stop speaking just before that portion. The fact that we were praying in public school didn’t really register as a problem for me. After all, I was accustomed to doing it under the nuns’ supervision,

No Diversity There

Most of the kids in my classes were Christian, of one denomination or another, with a few Jews sprinkled in. We had no Muslims, Hindus, Unitarians, Quakers, Shintoists, Jainists, or other faiths in attendance. Any atheists or agnostics kept that to themselves.

That meant no one objected to saying a Christian prayer at the start of every single school day. After all, back then most folks considered this normal. But the fact remains that the parent of those Jewish kids paid taxes to support the schools just like everyone else. Yet their children had to sit quietly while the Catholics and Protestants prayed. Just as I did when I refused to say the Protestant ending.

That makes for Problem #1: Unfairness and preferential treatment for one religion over others.

Problem #2: Exclusion

Now, anyone who remembers anything about high school—for better or for worse–knows that the last thing any teenager wants is to stand out from everyone else. You don’t want to be different, unless you are athletically gifted or Prom-Queen pretty, It helps if your parents have a lot of money, you get a convertible for your birthday, or you’re the class clown.

Refusing to say the Lord’s Prayer doesn’t fit into any of those categories.

Problem #2 means any non-Christian students who sat quietly did, by definition, stand out from everyone else, but for a negative reason.

When School Prayer Went Away

I remember clearly when the Supreme Court effectively banned school prayer, which happened on June 25, 1962. I had English for First Period and our teacher, Mr. Sullivan, disagreed with the decision. He declared that we would have a moment of silence in which to pray by ourselves.

I thought that was okay and, probably, everyone else did, too. A moment of silence is, after all, not religious. Plus, it gives you a chance to close your eyes and pull yourself together for the class ahead. All good.

But Mr. Sullivan’s anger at the decision had a certain effect. He was, after all, an authority figure who was putting his official weight behind the concept of school prayer. No one in class asked him if we should, perhaps, broaden our prayers to incorporate other religions. That didn’t occur to us. And, if it had, I don’t think anyone would have spoken up. Speaking up makes you stand out.

The Old Days of School Prayer

But I think of it now, every time religious zealots try to shove their particular faith down the throats of student populations that are more diverse than ever before. I have not been back to Somerset High School for many years but I’m willing to bet the student body has more different faiths than they did back in my day.

Let’s not go back to the days when America had a de facto national religion. Our Founding Fathers, particularly James Madison, did not want that. They were a lot closer in time to Europe’s religious wars than we are, and they knew well how much blood was spilled there in the name of God.

Now we stand on the verge of violating what they wrote into the Constitution of the United States. Don’t get me wrong: I have no problem with the Ten Commandments. I think that if a school put up a series of posters depicting important legal documents, like the Bill of Rights, the Magna Carta, the 42 Laws of Maat, and the Code of Hammurabi, it would fit right in. Otherwise, not so much.

The current kerfuffle is happening because religious zealots tend to believe the same four things: (1) Their way is the right way; (2) Their way is the only way. (3) It is right and just to impose their way on everyone else; and (4) God is on their side. The first three are not true. As far as I know, God has not appeared to speak up on the issue.

Beware the zealots, even when what they want to impose on everyone else seems perfectly reasonable. You can be certain it’s only the first step toward a slippery slope.