Using religion for political purposes? ... Surely Not!

One of the sites I consult on a regular basis is Religious Dispatches, which can be found at www.religiousdispatches.org. In addition to links to news items related to religion, the site has great writers who provide different perspectives on religious related issues.

This week, a Baptist minister from Missouri wrote an essay, which can be found at http://religiondispatches.org/Gui/Content.aspx?Page=AR&Id=170, about the efforts of Missouri legislator to introduce an amendment to the Missouri State Constitution explaining that children have the right to pray in school and to read the Bible on the schoolbus. Now, this might be a really important issue, except for the fact that all citizens of the United States, even schoolchildren, already have those rights as guaranteed in the First Amendment.

I know, I know. Most folks think that, according to the US Supreme Court, school prayer has been outlawed. That is only partially accurate. In simple terms, what the Supreme Court ruled as unconstitutional was prayer led by or instituted by a school official or the school system. Part of the reasoning behind it being that having an officially sanctioned and mandated prayer placed undue pressure on a schoolchild to conform to one particular religion. That does not, however, take away the right of any child in school to pray.

Granted, some school officials over-react when they see a child engaging in private religious activity and forbids it. Typically, an incident like that makes the news, and various 'talking heads' proclaim how horrible this is and blah, blah, blah. What is needed, though, is not a Constitutional Amendment. All it would take is an enlightened training program for school administrators and teachers.

What Brian Kaylor points out is the apparent political machinations of the proponents of the bill. They are forcing it to be on the ballot in November, after defeating a move to have it on a ballot in August. Evidently, these politicians want to point at those who oppose the amendment as being against prayer or against religion. It plays better at the polls that way.

I have already commented on this site about my fervent belief in the concept of the separation of church and state. I believe that attempts to use religious practices as a way to influence voters in a partisan way is unconscionable and reinforces my belief.

What do you think?