Supreme Court Prayer Case

The Supreme Court has upheld prayer at government meetings according to this article from USA Today. I was a little surprised to read a Supreme Court prayer case decision that favored Christianity. I am happy that the local clergy will still be able to pray at events like this. The 5-4 decision was split along religious ideological lines according this article from the Washington Post. (All the dissenters except Sotomayor are Jewish. She is Catholic, as are all of the justices in favor of the law.) This Supreme Court prayer case decision will have positive effects in the near term. However, the 5-4 Supreme Court prayer case decision also showed that the court could easily shift to more a pluralistic trend in society. The United States Supreme Court is one of the barometers of American culture today and what the justices say matters. We need to keep watching the Court for the rest of its 2014 term to see how their decisions will affect our lives.

How does this Supreme Court prayer case decision affect Christians today? There won’t be much change in the way people pray at government functions. There won’t be any change to the way Christians are called to share our faith. Yet, a 5-4 decision is not a clear majority. The minority opinion will eventually impact every American Christian. I believer that the First Amendment should guarantee the right for every person to worship as they choose. I also agree that the government should not be in the business of establishing one religion or placing religious viewpoint over another. The government should protect all points of view, especially those that are in the minority. I believe that as American society moves forward, Christianity will soon be a minority view. In this scenario, when the government allows the “views of the many” to be heard in a public government forum, it will be much harder for the Christian viewpoint to be heard.