>>>http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/27/us/rhode-island-city-enraged-over-school-prayer-lawsuit.html
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>>I'm familiar with the case. This kid is a mess. Atheism and intellectual consistency are a rare combination. They require mad skills. She on the wrong path, but not for the reasons that the religious community is likely claiming.
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>>First, I question this girl's claim of atheism. She says she decided when her mother became ill. This is misplaced anger and disenchantment. You can't be disappointed in something or even rejected it, without somehow believing to begin with. I've been an atheist since I was five years old - not out of emotion or anger or fear or reaction to an incident. Because I knew it wasn't based on any kind of logic, and was more a tool to drive behavior.
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>>Second, this girl is a coward. I don't care if she gets good grades and reads Harry Potter. If she feels that seeing the prayer on the wall is an "affront", she should identify why. Because it makes her uncomfortable? That borders on circular logic. If she wants to fight what she thinks are bad ideas, she should write something for a school paper, or pass out fliers. She should write about the history of the Catholic church and what it represents - the misconceptions and inconsistencies out there....
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>>Getting a school to put a tarp over a plaque of a prayer in a school is the coward's way out, and only perpetuates the notion that seculars/liberals ultimately want to silence the things they don't agree with. Learning how to develop a voice of opposition is much tougher. It's too bad the ACLU will pull every string possible to help her cut every corner.
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>>There's a difference between intellectual activism and putting a tarp over something that makes someone uncomfortable. If I want the latter I'll go watch a documentary on Hillary Clinton.
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>>She was never forced to recite the prayer. (Though truthfully, kids should read SOME of the 10 commandments because there are still some good rules by which to live).
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>>Also....it's wrong for people to threaten her. But that article does bring out some of the opposition to her, like the claim she shouldn't be carrying money around because of the "in god we trust" on it....the fact that she mocked religion online....
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>Not going to respond point by point. To me, the key issue is that the prayer on the wall is a statement that this is what the school believes and teaches. Thus, the non-believer is not welcome, or more accurately, is being told to become a believer.
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>Similarly, when they used to say the Lord's Prayer at the start of the school day (which my husband remembers; I'm just young enough to have missed it), the message was that the school was for Christians and others were there on sufferance.
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>Religion is a personal matter and the school has no business taking a position on it.
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>Tamar


I remember saying the Pledge without the 'under God' up into the mid-60's followed by a moment of silence followed by a 'non-denominational' prayer. The prayer was usually in the form of "God, thank You for today and please help us survive it. Amen'.
Being the little Methodist that I am, even then I didn't like praying in school (or the moment of silence so you could pray on your own) because it was far too public a venue for such since I subscribe to the "go to the closet to speak to your Father" lesson.