Removal of Prayer Snowballs
Source unknown
"Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers, and our Country."
The 22 word prayer that was declared to be unconstitutional and which led to the removal of all prayer from public schools in the case Engel v. Vitale. This little prayer acknowledges God only one time. The Declaration of Independence itself acknowledges God four times.
Within 12 months of Engel v. Vitale, in two more cases called Abington v. Schempp and Murray v. Curlett, the court had completely removed Bible reading, religious classes/instruction. This was a radical reversal of law&md;and all without precedental justification or Constitutional basis.
If portions of the New Testament were read without explanation, they could be, and had been, psychologically harmful to the child. (Abington v. Schempp, June 17, 1963).
The Court's justification for removing Bible reading from public schools. The Court at this time declared that only 3% of the nation professed no belief in religion, no belief in God. Although this prayer was consistent with 97% of the beliefs of the people of the United States, the Court decided for the 3% against the majority.
What happens when a nation stops basing its judgments on a Biblical basis?
Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. George Washington
Stone v. Gramm, 1980, challenging the right of students to "see" the 10 Commandments on the wall of a school. The Court even the defined the posting of the document as a "passive" display, meaning someone would have to stop and look on their own volition.
