Perceptions #200129

"School Prayer"

by Dennis Conner

It is a common complaint, and a popular perception that our country has not been the same since prayer was removed from public schools. For the sake of accuracy, kids can still pray in school. For instance, on many campuses around the country the Fellowship of Christian Athletes has groups meeting after school hours. There are also Bible clubs of all kinds that meet on school property, but are not a part of the school curriculum. At all of these meetings prayer goes on unhindered. And no one, not even the Supreme Court, can prohibit a student from praying silently to oneself during school hours. In fact, I suspect that's a practice a lot of kids engage in regularly before a test!

To be sure, the banning of public prayer in the classroom corresponds with a shift toward secularism in our society and educational system. Whether the banning of prayer was a cause, or merely a symptom, of that shift is still debatable. While it is popular to attribute the moral decline of our nation to the lack of prayer in our schools, I believe there is another dynamic at work here that has gone largely unnoticed. More troubling than the lack of prayer in public schools is the lack of prayer in Christian homes! Beyond the traditional "saying the blessing" at mealtime, my experience over the years has led to the suspicion that there is very little family prayer going on in Christian families. Husbands and wives seldom pray together. Parents seldom pray with their children (here I am not thinking of the practice of bedtime prayers taught to small children, but prayer as an integral part of family life throughout the growing up years). Prayer is more of an afterthought in many families, rather than a vital part of family life and faith.

There has arisen a twisted irony in which a lack of prayer in secular society (what else should we expect from the world?) is met with moral outrage and indignation, while the general lack of vital and persistent prayer in Christian homes (the one place we certainly should expect it) is met with an apathetic shrug. Perhaps the reason is that it is far easier for us to criticize others rather than ourselves; to call attention to the failing of others rather than our own failings.

Can you imagine the difference it could make in the church and in the world if we would devote as much energy and concern to restoring prayer to our homes as we do to seeing it restored to our schools? There may not be a lot that we can do as individuals to change the moral and spiritual fabric of our nation, but there is a lot that we can do through encouraging prayer in our homes to strengthen the moral and spiritual fabric of our families. But then again, by taking seriously the latter, we may well have more influence on the former. After all, a little leaven leavens the whole lump!

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