Created on Thursday, 26 July 2012 23:44 Published Date Hits: 3943
The Constitution is a marvelous plan for running a nation, but sometimes it falls short.
Support for prayer in public schools surged with the Colum
Created on Thursday, 26 July 2012 23:44 Published Date Hits: 3943
The Constitution is a marvelous plan for running a nation, but sometimes it falls short.
Support for prayer in public schools surged with the Columbine, Colo., massacre of 1999. Calls for stricter gun laws followed. That clamor has been renewed by the slaughter of 12 moviegoers in Aurora, Colo. The gun control debate will die quickly.
But gun control is not the only issue excited by the grim event in Aurora. Millions of Americans believe America is in a moral decline – one that began with the banning of prayer in the public school. The Aurora incident energized prayer in school advocates. It also renewed the anti-gun clatter and chorus.
The link between gun control and prayer in school is spelled out in a bumper sticker that reads: “Guns, Guts and God. Made in America. Let’s keep all three.”
More than 80 percent of Americans belong to a church – the greatest church membership among developed nations.
How important is this affiliation? It has been important enough to spark battles between brothers and neighbors. Wars flared in the Old World where Roman Catholics fought Protestants, Protestants fought Protestants and scattered in a multiplicity of sects.
Religious dissenters fled to America in search of religious liberty. When English-ruled colonies revolted and founded a new nation, religion topped the Bill of Rights.
The First Amendment reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people pe