Arguments Against Allowing Prayers in Public Schools
Separation of Church and State
The Founding Fathers were not as supportive of religion as those who favor
prayer in schools would like to believe. In fact, many of the Founding Fathers
strongly questioned not only religion, but in some cases, the nature and
existence of God. In a letter to John Adams on August 15, 1820, Thomas Jefferson
wrote that, "To talk of immaterial existences is to talk of nothings. To say
that the human soul, angels, God, are immaterial is to say they are nothings, or
that there is no God, no angels, no soul. I cannot reason otherwise." James
Madison wrote, "That diabolical, hell-conceived principle of persecution rages
among some; and to their eternal infamy, the clergy can furnish their quota of
impas for such business..." in a letter to William Bradford, Jr. in 1774. In
1758, Benjamin Franklin wrote in Poor Richard's Almanac: "Lighthouses are
more helpful than churches.”
The Founding Fathers were very concerned about the separation between church
and state. "I consider the government of the United States as interdicted by the
Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines,
discipline, or exercises," wrote Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Samuel Miller.
In 1808, James Madison wrote to William Bradford, Jr, "Who does not see that the
same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other
religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians,
in exclusion of all other sects?" And, in 1797, President John Adams and the
entire Senate of the United States acknowledged that Christianity was not the
foundation of the United States government when it ratified "the Treaty of Peace
and Friendship between the United States of America and the Bey and Subjects of
Tripoli, of Barbary." This treaty, commonly referred to as the "Treaty of
Tripoli," included the statement that "…the Government of the United States of
America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion…" The Founding
Fathers would have applauded the Supreme Court’s removal of prayer from public
schools.