South Carolina lawmakers push school prayer compromise

Bill would institute a moment of silence for prayer in South Carolina public schools.

Storified by AJAMStream· Thu, Jan 02 2014 14:39:51

"The compromise would be to have the students to pray to whomever they want to. If they want to do away with teachers conducting the prayer that would be fine with us. The essential part of the bill, the important part, is putting prayer back in school," Gilliard said.abcnews4.com



As demonstrated in the charts below from the Pew Research Center , the Supreme Court decisions against public school prayer remain unpopular among many Americans, particularly in the South. The new version of the bill brings the legislation in line with past Supreme Court rulings on the subject of school prayer. The Supreme Court had previously ruled that voluntary student prayer in public schools is protected under the First Amendment, but stated that teacher-led prayer represents "excessive government entanglement" with religion.

Pewresearch

Pewresearch

The issue of school prayer in South Carolina was ignited over the summer by an impromptu prayer delivered by the valedictorian of Liberty High School in Pickens County at his graduation speech. Valedictorian Roy Costner tore up his school-approved speech on stage and delivered the Lord's Prayer to raucous applause. The school district had been under pressure to remove prayer from school-sponsored gatherings. The video of Costner's prayer, shown below, received more than 700,000 views on YouTube.

LHS Graduation valedictorian speech/prayer www.libertyspeaks.netlogancg11

Many South Carolinians weighed in on the renewed legislative push for school prayer on online forums. Gordon Cashwell from Charleston commented in favor of school prayer:

When prayer was in school, our education was #1 in the world. Statistics demonstrate that the deterioration of our public school system corresponded with the removal of prayer from school in 1962. Prayer has always been a great part of our public lives in America and the federal government has no right to keep official prayers out of school. Religion was left up to states to decide and if the majority of SC citizens want prayer in school, there is no legal recourse to keep it out. Let the people decide! I am sure they will decide for prayer!abcnews4.com

Maahes Ra criticized the compromise, calling it an endorsement of religion in disguise:

We all know that a "moment of silence" is publicly endorsing prayer in disguise. Which is a violation of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and goes against the separation of church and state. I'm so awfully tired of religions pushing themselves in every facet of our lives that they can, and oppressing anyone that would otherwise not agree with their bullying.abcnews4.com

What do you think of the compromise version of the South Carolina school prayer bill? Leave a comment below.