Since the Supreme Court banned nondenominational prayer recitation in public schools in 1962 with the Engel v. Vitale decision, people who feel that students should be able to pray in public school classes have waged battles in courts to change the law. Those who are opposed are equally committed to keeping prayer out of schools. What are their arguments?

Arguments Supporting Prayer in Public SchoolsThe unites States Government Was Formed on Religious Ideas and Principles

George Washington stated on September 17, 1796, that, “It is impossible to govern the world without God and the Bible.” In his 1781 “Notes on the State of Virginia,” Thomas Jefferson, the main author of the Declaration of Independence, wrote: “God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are a gift of God?” The Founding Fathers were convinced that the New Nation existed because of God’s will. They would not have supported removing prayer from schools.

The Founding Fathers were not concerned with religion and government per se, but with a state religion as the Church of England was in England the during that time. Since many of the original colonists came to the New World to escape religious persecution, the Fathers wanted to make sure that the government would never adopt a "formal" religion. The separation of church and state has been taken to an extreme that the Founding Fathers never would have intended.

• Majority Rule

  The majority of people in the United States support prayer in schools. According to a Gallup poll conducted in July, 1999, 70% of Americans agree that students should be allowed to say prayers out loud daily during class time. Since the United States is a democracy and polls clearly indicate that the majority of people living in the United States would prefer to have prayers in schools, the government should allow spoken prayers in public schools during school hours.

• The United States Has Gone Through a Moral Decline

  Since the Supreme Court ruled against prayers in school in the early 1960's, there has been a major decline in the morals and character of the American people. Divorce rates for 1,000 married women over the age of fifteen went from 9.2 in 1960 to 20.9 in 1990. From 1963 to 2000, violent crime has increased almost 350%. There have also been huge increases in the rates of drug abuse and the incidents of teenage pregnancy. There is a clear link to the decline of morality in the United States and the removal of prayer from schools.