School Prayer – Much Ado About Nothing

“Much Ado About Nothing” is an appropriate title for the farce Senator Helms staged in the United States Senate the past few weeks. He attempted to pass legislation to get around the Supreme Court ruling on prayer in public schools. In doing so he tied up the Senate for two weeks, forcing it to push aside consideration of the important matters.

It was truly much ado about nothing.

In the first place, the Supreme Court has never prohibited prayer in the schools. It has only said that school authorities cannot set a time and place for prayer in the school program. Any child who wants to pray may do so at any time he does not disturb the school routine. He can close his eyes and pray – a private silent prayer.

The real issue is that the Senator, using school prayer rallying cry, is trying to drum up support for his effort to destroy the three-part government set up by the Constitution. He wants to prevent the courts from ruling on certain Constitutional liberties to which he objects. He does not question the ruling of the courts. He asks that they be forbidden to consider the matters involved. It is just one step further to bar the courts from protecting freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of religion. Dictatorship is just around the corner.

Jesus has something to say in this regard: “Beware of oracticing your piety before men, to be seen of them, for you will then have no reward of your Father who is in heaven. - - - When you pray you must not be like the hypocrites who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners that they may be seen of men. But when you pray, go into your room and shut your door and pray to your Father in secret.” (Matthew 6:1, 5-6) Contrary to the spirit of Jesus, much of the pressure for school prayer emphasizes going through a form, rather than the moral and spiritual content of the prayer.

The inoffensive and neutral prayers suggested devaluate prayer as trivial and innocuous when it should be stimulating and life-giving.

For those who want their children to pray, it is simple. Start the morning with family prayers at breakfast and end the day with family prayer in the evening. The school should not have to make up for the deficiencies in family life.

The Senator reminds me of Demetrius, a silversmith in Ephesus, whose story Luke tells in Acts 19:23-42. Ephesus, according to the ancient tradition, as the site on which the goddess Artemis, cast down from heaven a magic stone. The stone had been enshrined, and a temple erected in the goddess’ honor. The silversmiths had a big thing going in making and selling replicas of the temple and images of the goddess.

St. Paul had been preaching at Ephesus for several months when Demetrius heard about him. He called his fellow silversmiths together and spoke in these terms: “Men, you know that from this business we get our wealth. Now, here is this fellow Paul saying that gods made with hands are no gods at all. This stuff is being preached all through this area. If this keeps up there will be no tourists coming to visit yje shrine, and buy our souvenirs. Business will fall off. We’ll lose a lot of money.”

With this, the craft men started a riot against Paul, taking to the streets and raising the cry, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians.” What they did was to use emotional, religious and patriotic slogans to squelch a movement which might hurt their economic interests. I am always skeptical of people who use such pious phrases behind which to hide their real purposes.