From: greeny@top.cis.syr.edu (J. S. Greenfield)
Subject: Prayer at graduations
Followup-To: alt.censorship 
Organization: Syracuse University, CIS Dept.
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 92 00:17:42 EDT

In article <1992Jul21.152442.24007@henson.cc.wwu.edu> n9020351@henson.cc.wwu.edu (James Douglas Del-Vecchio) writes:
>
>>Nice logic, Rush. Of course prayer is not illegal, it just cant be government
>>funded. Im sure that few jurisdictions would allow "Cop Killer" to be sung
>>at their graduation ceremonies either. Such ridiculous, inflammatory non-
>>logic places rush one level below Paul Harvey in my book.
>
>Ah, but it is illegal now.  Not only can the school not pay for praying
>at a graduation, but the SC recently ruled that no praying can take place
>there, regardless of funding.   I'm not a christian, or in any way religious,
>but I think it is ridiculous for the federal government to micro-manage
>the actions of local schools, all the way down to what is said at graduation.

This is incorrect.  *You* (and anybody else) are free to pray all you want at
a high school graduation.  The prayer, however, cannot be *sponsored* by the
school.  (The original poster was incorrect in referring to funding--it is
highly doubtful that most high schools *pay* for their graduation
benedictions.)

You are free to say a prayer, yourself.

Furthermore, I would venture a guess that even non-administration graduation 
speakers would be free to speak of god or religion.  (I suspect it would
be considered improper for administrators, in their capacity as school
officials to do this--just as it would be improper for them to solicit a
speaker expressly for the purpose of discussing god and religion, or to
(at least, knowingly) allow a speaker to actually lead a prayer.)

However, I seriously doubt that the SC decision could be interpreted to
suggest that, for example, a valedictorian could be prohibited from
personally thanking god in his speech--the valedictorian is not an agent
of the school (and, therefore, the government), and to prohibit any mention
of god would be to infringe upon the valedictorian's free speech rights.

(I have not had the opportunity to read the full text of the opinions in
the latest case, so the above is based solely upon the limited information
that I have regarding that decision,a s well as my knowledge of previous
court precedent.)

Certainly, the Court has never prohibited individuals from deciding
*personally* to say a prayer.  Just as it has *always* been legal for an
individual student (or teacher, or administrator, or anybody) to say a
prayer in school--it remains legal for individuals to do so at graduations.

It is merely illegal for an agent of the school (state) to *lead* the
school in prayer--for the court recognizes that even "voluntary" prayer
can be coercive in this context.


>A lot of other people feel this way also (but obviously not the SC members),
>and would feel this way regardless of what the SC chose to ban in local 
>schools.

A lot of people don't give a damn about anybody's rights except their own.
Those same people would probably be outraged if it were a Islamic prayer
being said as the benediction.  (And let's not even discuss a Satanic
prayer...)

-- 
J. S. Greenfield                                         greeny@top.cis.syr.edu
(I like to put 'greeny' here, 
but my d*mn system wants a 
*real* name!)                        "What's the difference between an orange?"
Newsgroups: alt.censorship,soc.culture.british