Thursday, June 11, 1998

Good advice about public prayer

By Molly Ivins

AUSTIN -- For bigotry, un-American and un-Christian behavior, it's pretty hard to top some of the lobbying on behalf of the Istook amendment, which failed in the U.S. House on a vote of 224-203 because it was 61 votes short of the two-thirds majority to amend the Constitution.

Rep. Chet Edwards of Texas described the amendment as "a horrible solution in search of a problem." The so-called Religious Freedom Amendment was an effort to "improve" the work of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and the other Founders by Rep. Ernest Istook of Oklahoma. This would be less droll if Istook were not such a knothead.

The Istook amendment undertook to solve a nonexistent problem. It was supposed to establish religious liberty in the United States -- as though the First Amendment had not already done so (in mercifully fewer words than Istook's poorly written, vaporous amendment ) and as though America has not been the envy of the world for over 200 years for the extent of our religious freedom.

Freedom of conscience is the very first of all the rights articulated in the Bill of Rights. What Istook is aiming for is forced prayer in the schools.

Voluntary prayer is, of course, permitted at all times and in all places. However, the Supreme Court has held since 1962 that mandatory prayer composed by the state and led by school authorities is not permitted. Students are free to meet on their own for prayer in school.

All of this could have led to an important debate on how to resolve public expressions of faith in a land of many faiths. Instead, the Christian Coalition attacked those who opposed the amendment for "anti-Christian bigotry." Hello?

To take a stand that clearly threatens to impose one set of religious beliefs on everyone else and then attack them for bigotry is seriously bizarre. Pat Robertson -- a man with his own television network and multimillion-dollar enterprises and a powerful political operation under his influence -- actually compared Christians in America today to Jews in Germany under the Nazis.

I have heard of the "victim mentality" run amok, but this is surreal. The Christian Coalition sent a flier to Edwards' constituents saying "Edwards' bigotry directed at Christians and people of other faiths is outrageous and must be stopped." The flier also said his "attitudes have no place in Texas or anywhere in America."

This attack so infuriated Rep. Bill Hefner of North Carolina, one of 153 co-sponsors of the Istook amendment, that he withdrew his support and voted against it. "That's not Christian," Hefner told Istook during the debate, and he called Edwards "one of the finest, most moral and devoted family men in Congress."

Another Istook supporter told members of Congress they would go to hell if they didn't vote for the amendment. Hefner, a gospel singer and a devoutly religious man, said, "I'll take my chances."

So where in the world does this accusation of "anti-Christian bigotry" come from? Ah, now therein lies a tale.

Istook and the Christian Coalition cite one horror story after another: a judge in Alabama who expelled 70 children for praying in school; a girl in Tennessee who got a zero on a research paper because she chose to write about Jesus Christ; the Supreme Court ruling that a moment of silence in school is unconstitutional because it could be used for prayer. None of that is true.

No students in DeKalb County, Ala., were expelled for praying in school. The court order in the case specifically recognizes the right of students to pray on their own in non-school-sponsored, non-captive-audience settings. One school in the district allowed students to stage a prayer protest around the flagpole during school hours. Sixteen students who refused to return to class were suspended for the rest of the day. The discipline was for failing to attend school, not for praying.

The student who received a zero on her paper did so because she had not met the requirements of the assignment. The topic she chose was not the problem.

The 1985 Supreme Court ruling did not outlaw moments of silence in public schools. The court held the specific law passed by Alabama was unconstitutional because it was "for the sole purpose of expressing the state's endorsement of prayer activities." Justice Sandra Day O'Connor noted many states have moment-of-silence laws -- Georgia's has been upheld by the Supreme Court.

Nor was there ever a schoolteacher in Colorado fired for reading the Bible to himself in class. Nor does the Internal Revenue Service forbid employees to keep Bibles on their desks. Nor was there ever a federal marshal sent to a high-school graduation in Galveston with orders to arrest anyone who mentioned Jesus. And so on, and so forth.

For American Christians to claim they are somehow victims of bigotry is just standing reality on its head.

I've always thought these problems would disappear if Christians would just read Matthew 6:5-8: "But when you pray do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogue and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."

The Bible says not to make a show of piety. Good advice, I always thought.

Creators Syndicate, Inc.