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{"id":31531,"date":"2015-08-27T11:30:46","date_gmt":"2015-08-27T15:30:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/?p=31531"},"modified":"2015-08-27T11:30:46","modified_gmt":"2015-08-27T15:30:46","slug":"our-children-should-always-be-allowed-to-pray-in-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/08\/our-children-should-always-be-allowed-to-pray-in-schools.html","title":{"rendered":"Our Children Should Always Be Allowed To Pray In Schools"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"Prayer$ <\/p>\n

Hemant Mehta<\/a> shared some nice reworkings of a popular right-wing meme about prayer in schools, which were created by Tracey Moody. All of the depictions of\u00a0children praying in the memes on his blog are ones that he would support \u2013 except for the one in which a teacher<\/em> is\u00a0leading<\/em> children in prayer, and thus imposing something on the inevitably diverse group of students. Children praying\u00a0of their own initiative<\/em> is not prohibited and never has been \u2013 nor will it ever be entirely absent, as long as there are students who believe in God and forget to study for exams.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless,\u00a0if a tradition only accepts prayer that is verbalized aloud, and requires this to be done at set times which conflict with classes, I could see issues arising at the intersection between the potential disruptions to the\u00a0educational aims\u00a0of the school and the religious freedom of students.<\/p>\n

Be that as it may, Mehta\u2019s aim is one that Baptists and other supporters of separation between church and state will\u00a0concur with: formal\u00a0collective prayer in school means prayer which reflects\u00a0one particular sectarian approach, imposed on the group in a way that either mandates participation or shames those who do not participate. And when that is\u00a0done, religious freedom suffers.<\/p>\n

Click through<\/a> to see more of the reworked memes.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"