Prayer in Public Schools. A Christian New Year?
by Pastor Walter Snyder

Q: I am doing a speech in my school about school prayer. I know that prayers in school are
not to be government led, but I need some insight and support on why prayer sessions and
such should be put back into school daily. Why do schools need prayer and religion? I need
some expert advice and asking you seems to be a good idea. Thanks!

A: When I was in elementary school in the 1960s, school prayer was common. The U. S.
Constitution's so-called "Establishment Clause" was understood to mean that the state should not
interfere with the churches, not that churches should have no say in affairs of state. The Supreme
Court later reinterpreted this basic law, essentially saying that church and state should be almost
completely divorced.

Yet you cannot keep "religion" out of schools unless you keep anyone who is in any way religious
out of schools. Ultimately, this would mean that even atheists would be uneducated, since they
have strong faith that there is no god in which to have strong faith---in other words, they make
themselves and human reason to be their gods. As a Christian, I think it is good when Christian
faith lives in our schools and when the morals and ethics of the Bible are lived to their fullest.

Yet many atheists, non-Christians, and quite a few Christians think that using state-funded schools
to impose participation in a strange belief upon those of different faiths is wrong. Among these,
many Lutherans in the United States disagree with many other Christians and oppose sanctioned,
public school prayer for many of the same reasons as do atheists and believers in other gods.

We think that many of these "prayers" are not good and proper prayers. We also think that
including unbelievers causes them to sin doubly; first they deny the true God, then they practice
deceit by verbally acknowledging a Deity they deny in their hearts.

On the other hand, we'll also fight to allow those who choose to have times of group prayer, even
on school property, provided that this won't interfere with the schools' ability to function in their
primary task of imparting earthly knowledge to the students. This means that we would support
before- and after-school prayer or Bible study groups and the like. In this way, Christian students
and teachers may testify to their faith in God without making others mouth words they don't
believe or else sit through religious rites that aren't part of their faith and values.

The public schools are not there to give Christians a captive audience for evangelism. We
certainly wouldn't like to live in a non-Christian land and be forced to participate or sit through
school prayers to Allah, Vishnu, or other false gods. We would rightly cry out that the schools are
there to educate about all things possible without favoring another faith above our own. We
would say, "Do it on your own time, not on school time."

Finally, an old joke (or proverb) reminds us, "As long as there are tests in school, there will be
prayer in school." There is no overwhelming need for public, school-sponsored prayer, since each
Christian may pray at any time and under any circumstances. God encourages each of us to, in
Jesus' Name, call upon Him in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks. We can do this quietly
at our desks, with fellow believers around the lunch table or in extracurricular organizations, on
the playground, the athletic field, or anywhere else.

Q: Why don't we celebrate the December 25 as the new year? We separate BC and AD
according to the birth of Christ, so why not use the 25th to begin the new year?

A: Not all of our divisions are according to the Christian calendar. The new year and our division
of months comes from the Roman calendar. So do the names of the months. Our day names come
from German/Nordic and Roman sources. The BC/AD division didn't come long after Jesus'
Ascension. Because of this, dates for the life of Christ were imposed upon a Latin calendar (Jesus
would have ordered much of His earthly life according to the Hebrew calendar). Not only is there
no exact match for some of the dates, the division given for BC and AD is incorrect. All the
Scripture evidence points to Jesus being born several years BC (I've read anywhere from 3-8 BC
as possible birth years).

The start of a new year is somewhat arbitrary, anyway. Why use the birth of Christ? Why not His
resurrection, when new life began? Pentecost, which was the "birthday" of the Christian Church
would be another possibility. In much of Christendom, the division for the Church's new year is
the First Sunday in Advent (four Sundays before Christmas Day).

To Ask the Pastor, please write Ask the Pastor, PO Box 12, Emma, MO, 65327 or send email
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Walter Snyder is the pastor of Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Emma, Missouri and coauthor of
the book "What Do Lutherans Believe."

Ask the Pastor, © 2002 by Walter P. Snyder. It may be reproduced in totality, including this
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