President Trump recently announced “guidance on constitutional prayer in public schools” on January 16: Religious Freedom Day. Trump first announced his prayer push at a Miami mega-church rally, “I’ll be taking action to safeguard students’ and teachers’ First Amendment rights to pray in our schools… They want to take that right along with many other ones.”
But we already have the right to pray at school. It seems especially likely that around midterms and final exams, tens of thousands of students across the country are praying. We can pray alone or in groups.
We can even use school property to hold meetings to discuss the Bible and pray as long as the same accommodation is provided to non- Christian students. The constitution already protects our rights as students to personal prayer and worship on campus—and the right to not pray or be forced to participate in prayer.
The law holds that in public schools, which are funded in part with tax dollars, employees of the school including faculty, coaches, administrators and other paid staff cannot lead or participate in prayer. To do so would be a violation of the constitutional provision for the separation of government and religion. There are many past examples and court cases where teachers, coaches and principals already abuse government power to impose their personal religion on other people’s children. Trump is exacerbating the problem.
This new Trump administration guidance is not about constitutionally protected prayer, but about giving cover to unconstitutional prayer in public schools and violating our right to religious freedom.
Since Trump took office, the Freedom from Religion Foundation, a state-church watchdog, sent 519 letters to public schools where staff- imposed prayers on a captive audience of schoolchildren. FFRF stopped nearly 250
of those violations, protecting the religious freedom of students. This is the area where public schools could use guidance.
The Secular Student Alliance at University of Idaho stands strongly against any actions that would further marginalize non-religious students by privileging Christian practice at a public, state institution.
The Trump administration is working to subvert, not defend, the Constitution. This move is about Christian nationalism, the student government and administration of University of Idaho should vocally oppose it.
Netizen_James
Good essay! The only acceptable stance of government toward religion, the only stance which respects everyone’s religious liberty, is a stance of strict neutrality. Government can neither promote nor prohibit religion. Government can neither endorse nor enjoin any particular religious practice qua religious practice, nor promulgate nor persecute any religious tenet or belief as either ‘officially correct’ or ‘officially blasphemous’. Not even allegedly 'generic' tenets like 'at least one deity exists'. Any of those things would violate our right to Religious Liberty – a right which includes freedom from ‘Government Religion’ in any way, shape, or form.