A relevant point is that most parents of children in public schools, particularly elementary schools, would have been born after 1980, that is, belong to the cohorts that are majority opposed.
I’ve always been nervous about the whole idea of “prayers in public school.” I’m from California, so I figure you’d never know what you’d get! I’m old fashioned Religious Right (pre-Trump) but this was the one Religious Right issue I could never support. Unlike abortion, divorce, and sexuality, which are moral rather than strictly religious, this one issue crosses the line into Christian Nationalism.
There were no laws against prayer in school until the 1960s. The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment had never been interpreted that broadly until then. This new legal doctrine then began to spread slowly through culture over the next few decades. Christians opposing prayer in school after the 1970s is a lagging effect of new legal doctrines introducing a culture change.
Excellen post. One of your best. The numerous Hindus, etc. who support school prayer are interesting.
This shows the importance of being specific, too. I'd like to see a poll asing about a specific prayer.
A relevant point is that most parents of children in public schools, particularly elementary schools, would have been born after 1980, that is, belong to the cohorts that are majority opposed.
I’ve always been nervous about the whole idea of “prayers in public school.” I’m from California, so I figure you’d never know what you’d get! I’m old fashioned Religious Right (pre-Trump) but this was the one Religious Right issue I could never support. Unlike abortion, divorce, and sexuality, which are moral rather than strictly religious, this one issue crosses the line into Christian Nationalism.
There were no laws against prayer in school until the 1960s. The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment had never been interpreted that broadly until then. This new legal doctrine then began to spread slowly through culture over the next few decades. Christians opposing prayer in school after the 1970s is a lagging effect of new legal doctrines introducing a culture change.