Essay About Separation Of Church And Letter Thomas Jefferson

Is Praying in School Really Allowed?
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Is praying in school really allowed? Do the majority of children that do want to pray get put down or get frowned upon? Well that answer to that question years ago would have been that praying in school was a part of everyday routine. These days it doesnt look so good considering most of us just put it a side and said it was easier to dill with this way. Childrens right to pray were ever they choose is being taken away. As a U.S. citizen they are entitled to their right to do so. But as religion has became more varied and diverse, some became offended by what was perceived as Christian expectations in the public school system. Consequently, after much objection, the right to pray in schools came to be seen as a violation of civil liberties and even unconstitutional. Is this not two sided ? Doesnt it violate the Civil Liberties of both parties? At the heart of all the controversy is the separation of church and state and the what society says is a problem with school prayer. Prayer in school does matter and it is still an issue today. It is not seen much in West Virginia with cases of people fighting to get prayer back but in places like Alabama it is a well known topic. The problem with prayer in school to some children and parents is that the choices that were given we given to the students that were not religious were unfair. For example: Suppose that your school day begins with the principal reciting a prayer and you the child did not want to participate. You would have been given three options, you could have recited the prayer even though you didnt agree, you could have sat there quietly, or you could have excused yourself from the classroom and stood in the hallway. Some felt the first two choices were not really choices because they denied you of your basic right to freedom of religion and they left you with out the right to make choices about the religious teachings you believe in. The third choice calls attention to the fact that you worship differently from everyone else and that you dont follow the crowd. In any case all of these problems could have been fixed without making this into a war. We could have said all right each day we will start by taking a moment of reflection. There case solved. That is not saying nothing about prayer and the child could do what ever needed to be done mentally before the school day started. But no that did not happen. Instead we turned it into a huge war and said that it would just be better if we didnt have to deal with it and for get about it. However, our founding fathers built this great country based on religion. That is no secret. Maybe if people would research they would know that and know that everything we still do today that has to deal with this nation is religion based. The next topic could very well be argued but I would like to cover what we have all herd about the separation of church and state and why it effects prayer in school. I truly believe that this is a good question. When our founding fathers wrote the Amendment is what they meant what the Supreme Courts took it as today? The phrase “separation of church and state” is not mentioned in the U.S. Constitution, because its drafters did not see a division between the two parts in their religious beliefs and the document that constructed their Republic. The phrase “separation of church and state” came primarily from two sources, a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote to a group of ministers and from the U.S. Supreme Court case, Everson v. Board of Education. The Danbury Letter-Thomas Jefferson wrote the famous phrase “separation of church and state” in a letter to the Committee of the Danbury Baptist Association in Connecticut. He was responding to the letter they had written, part of which said: “Our Sentiments are uniformly on the side of Religious LibertyThat Religion is at all times and places a Matter between God and Individuals That no man ought to suffer in Name, person or effects on account of his religious Opinions that the legitimate Power of civil Government extends no further than to punish the man who works ill to his neighbor. Jeffersons response to their letter was very friendly. He said, “Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions [emphasis added], I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between Church and State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.” To me this says Jeffersons declaration of “a wall of separation between Church and State” expressed his opinion that the federal government did not have the authority to “prescribe even occasional performances of [religious] devotion.”He did not question the basis of religious belief, but he constructed his “wall” to protect religious freedom of conscience from the potential of one federally recognized religion. His fears were well founded. In his Inaugural Address of the previous year, Jefferson had noted that America had “banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered.”Clearly, Jefferson wanted not the federal domination of religious freedom through one established church. In addition, when Jefferson founded the University of Virginia, the Pamphlet of University Regulations included two sections that read: No compulsory attendance on prayers or services. Each denomination to send a clergyman to conduct daily prayers and Sunday service for two weeks. Was this a man who would have sanctioned the complete removal of any form of prayer from the public schools of America? Obviously, Thomas Jeffersons views on church and state have been grossly distorted. I really believe that Jefferson is saying is that he did not want a religion ruled by the government. Everson v. Board of Education. The second notable mention of the phrase “separation of church and state” came in the 1947 U.S. Supreme Court case, Everson v. Board of Education. The plaintiff argued the New Jersey law that reimbursed parents for the cost of bus transportationto public and religious schools violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The Supreme Court said that it did not. In the majority opinion, however, Justice Hugo Black used language to set the stage for damaging rulings in the future. He wrote that the Establishment Clause created