Praying for good sense

By DALE McFEATTERS

Scripps Howard News Service

Conservatives profess great reverence for the Constitution - as should everybody - yet they keep trying to change it.

So far Congress has wisely rejected amendments requiring a balanced budget, banning flag desecration and imposing term limits. Waiting its turn to be wisely rejected is a proposed amendment enshrining victims' rights.

Conservatives are not entirely alone in coming up with dumb ways to tinker with the Constitution. One of this year's dumbest was a liberal's idea to change the First Amendment so Congress could pass sweeping campaign finance reform legislation. Mercifully, that proposal died a quick death.

The latest attempt to disfigure the Constitution is a school prayer amendment offered by Rep. Ernest Istook, R-Okla., backed by a $2 million Christian Coalition war chest and expected to come up when Congress returns from Easter recess.

Proponents call their proposal a "religious freedom" amendment, but freedom of religion is already in the Constitution - bluntly, clearly, unmistakably in the First Amendment, where it has served for 206 years without amplification.

The courts have spoken on the issue of school prayer: There shall be no officially sanctioned or mandated prayer or devotions in the schools. Should this amendment become law, the schools will undergo another lengthy round of litigation while the courts sort out what the new amendment means. And since this amendment does not supersede the First, we will be back where we are now: Private, voluntary prayer in the schools is OK; public, compulsory prayer is not.

The Christian Coalition has come up with a litany of anecdotal horror stories about overzealous school officials ripping up Valentines, banning Christmas cards and prohibiting private Bible reading.

These local problems should be solved locally by the only remedy that will work - common sense. Even the Constitution can't ordain common sense.

Congress when it returns should reject this unnecessary and litigation-provoking amendment. The Constitution is fine as it is.