High school graduation ceremonies are arriving soon across New Jersey, so might I suggest a little "civil disobedience" by parents and school officials. As part of commencement exercises, educators should schedule a short public prayer.

Yes, I know, most, if not all, public high school officials across the state will not take that kind of bold step for constitutional liberties. If asked, school officials will probably give the “politically correct” reason for excluding any prayer – it’s “unconstitutional” and “not inclusive.”

The real reason, as we know, is less idealistic. School officials have been utterly intimidated by the ACLU, which has doggedly threatened to sue any district that allows any hint of religious expression in the public square. Thinking this is one battle that they (literally) cannot afford to fight, even if they wanted to, school officials have mostly chosen the safe path.

In my view, that's a mistake. Parents, teachers and school officials ought to make a stand for prayer at public high school graduations, as a simple matter of standing up for our constitutional liberties. It is also a matter of fairness. School officials ought to schedule an opening or closing prayer, even if they are not themselves particularly religious.

By the way, school officials are not particularly anxious to address this issue. Office staffers at the John F. Kennedy Memorial High School in Edison informally told me last week that there will be no public prayer at the school's graduation ceremonies on June 22. I asked that someone in charge call back to explain why there will not be a prayer, but no such luck.

In any case, the Constitution and Bill of Rights, apart from re-working by judges, is quite plain on the matter of religious liberty. The First Amendment states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

In other words, the federal government may not establish a national church. Nor may the federal government prohibit any form of religious expression.

The plain meaning of the text has been twisted, by the ACLU and others working through ideological judges, into its exact opposite. The federal government may not prohibit a free expression of religion has become … public prayers at high school graduations are not allowed.

Instances of this absurdity are legion, but here's a recent example from earlier this month in Texas. The good news is that a judge-imposed ban on prayer at a high school graduation was overturned by another court. But the example illustrates just how fanatical the anti-prayer zealots can be.

Following tradition, students In the Medina Valley Independent School District, near San Antonio, wanted to ask those attending graduation ceremonies to bow their heads or join in prayer. But then, Chief U.S. District Judge Fred Biery ordered an end to the practice.

The judge’s order extended to specific words, banning the use of “amen” and other inflammatory terms. The judge further ordered the district to leave the words “benediction” and “invocation” out of the graduation program.

Including such religious language, the judge said, would cause “irreparable harm” to one student whose parents apparently do not like religious language used in public ceremonies.

The judge declared that his ruling be "enforced by incarceration or other sanctions," according to news reports. In other words: you pray, you pay – with jail time! But shortly after that judge's order, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted an emergency appeal filed by the district, and the ceremony went on as planned.

The campaign to keep any recognition of religious values, however minimal, out of the public schools has also struck closer to home, making for an unintentionally comic scene.

School officials in Neptune Township will go to extraordinary lengths (or here) to make sure that this year's high school graduates will not accidentally see some religious imagery during commencement ceremonies this Friday.

Those administrators agreed to cover over any religious symbols at an auditorium in Ocean Grove, where graduation ceremonies have traditionally been held. To avoid walking under a 20-foot cross – just think how horrible that would be -- the students this year will walk into the auditorium from a side door.

The "cover-up" of religious symbols came after one student complained, prompting the ACLU to spring into action. An ACLU spokeswoman declared the organization was satisfied that now "everyone" can enjoy the ceremony. (Everyone, I guess, except for those who would have preferred to have those religious symbols uncovered.) It's no wonder that some people cynically (but perhaps accurately) describe the ACLU as the "Anti-Christian Lawyers Union."

In this war against religious expression in the public schools, repeated in many school districts, the script is very familiar. (A similar script is followed in outlawing manger scenes in cities.)

Here's how the school scenario typically plays out. A school has a mostly secular graduation ceremony. The ceremony includes a brief prayer to the Judeo-Christian God, acceptable to nearly all the religious. The prayer expresses "inclusiveness" toward the religious, and briefly reminds everyone that the nation was founded on Judeo-Christian principles.

Such a schedule is a fair compromise. There is no mention of God during most of the ceremony, which seems acceptable to those who don’t want God mentioned at all. Those who do want God to be mentioned at least once get five minutes of “air time,” during which reasonable secularists agree to doze off.

But then, one family (usually a parent) complains, and the rights of all the other students to minimally acknowledge God in the ceremony are tossed out. In Texas, a judge threatens jail for anyone who doesn’t conform to the will of that one family. In New Jersey, everybody notices how funny the draping over of religious symbols looks – but nobody says anything out loud.

Administrators in other districts learn the “lesson” and do not include a prayer, even without a lawsuit.

In a democracy, it does not make sense for the pet project of one parent to override the rights of the many. What about the harm done to the many who would like to have an invocation or a benediction – but who are denied their right to hear that prayer by the judicial fiat of a lone judge?

What is happening here is that the religion of "non-religion" is being foisted upon people, whether they like it or not. Words such as "non-inclusive" are being used as battering rams by ideologues to hammer home their political and philosophical agendas.

There is more than a little hypocrisy among those who employ the courts to prohibit prayer at high school graduations. As the Founding Fathers created the Republic, they very publicly called on the Almighty for help. Abraham Lincoln called for a day of repentance and prayer. In the days after 9/11, members of Congress were seen singing “God Bless America.”

Both George W. Bush and Barack Obama, together with every recent president, have routinely ended Oval Office addresses with words so commonplace that they are seem clichéd: “May God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America.”

Several decades ago, some school officials were willing to step outside the established routine – to commit civil disobedience -- to desegregate public schools. By contrast with that bold action, changing today’s graduation program to include a short prayer seems just mildly courageous.

But might I challenge parents and school administrators across New Jersey to take even that small step. Such action would strike a blow for constitutional liberties – and would also be the right thing to do.

