Prayer in Public Schools: When Church and State Collide

Prayer and Bible reading in public schools have led to three major Supreme Court decisions and the introduction of numerous constitutional amendments in the U.S. Congress which would permit voluntary prayer in public schools or limit federal court jurisdiction. Public opinion polls beginning in 1964 have suggested widespread support among the American public for prayer in public schools. Little is known, however, concerning the characteristics of those supporting and opposing prayer in public schools. This article addresses the school prayer issue through an analysis of three national surveys which were conducted in 1974, 1980, and 1982. Those favoring school prayer were found to be older, less educated, and socially, politically, and religiously conservative. Multivariate analysis revealed that the key predictor variables were religious orthodoxy and religious salience, a finding which may stem from the observation that school prayer is both a political and a religious issue. Issue salience, congressional voting decisions, and demographic characteristics of school prayer advocates are considered as possible explanations for the failure of Congress to act in accord with public opinion. Kirk W. Elifson is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia. C. Kirk Hadaway is Research Director, Center for Urban Church Studies, Nashville, Tennessee. The authors wish to thank Jim Garand, John Hutcheson, and G. Melton Mobley for their helpful comments on earlier drafts. Public Opinion Quarterly Vol 49 317-329 0 by the Trustees of Columbia University Published by Elsevier Scicnce Publishing Co . Inc 0033-362X/85/0049-317/$2 5() This content downloaded from 157.55.39.127 on Tue, 28 Jun 2016 05:29:14 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 318 KIRK W. ELIFSON AND C. KIRK HADAWAY analysis of empirical data from three national surveys which assessed respondents' views on prayer in the public schools. Religion in State-Supported Schools Ironically, the first schools in the United States were religious and not secular. By the beginning of the Revolutionary War, state churches had been established in a majority of the colonies; not until the 1830s were serious objections offered to Bible reading in the schools. The immigration of large numbers of Roman Catholics to the East Coast in the early nineteenth century followed later by Jews and other religious minorities resulted in the first serious protests concerning religion in the schools. Most states forbade the use of public funds for church schools by the 1870s (Stokes and Pfeffer, 1964). Religion in the form of Bible reading, devotional exercises, and prayer remained an integral part of many school systems until 1960. At this point three Supreme Court decisions that dealt with prayer in public schools were rendered within a period of one year. All centered upon one sentence in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution which simultaneously guaranteed government neutrality toward religion (the "Establishment" clause) and the right to freely practice religion (the "Free Exercise" clause).2 The three cases upon which the current controversy rests include Engel v. Vitale (1962), which tested the constitutionality of a daily school prayer written by the New York State Board of Regents,3 and Abington School District v. Schempp (1963), which questioned a Pennsylvania law requiring the reading of 10 Bible verses without comment to begin the school day. The third case, Murray v. Curlett (1963), which was decided by the Schempp case, challenged the practice of Bible reading and recitation of the Lord's prayer in the Baltimore schools. In all three instances, the Court ruled the activities unconstitutional, and the effect was to remove legal expressions of organized prayer and Bible reading from the public school. Religion and Politics The question of why people oppose decisions made by the Supreme Court concerning school prayer can be seen as both political and religious. It is political in the sense that the issue concerns public policy enforced by the state, and it is religious in that it concerns the expression 2 "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thercof." (U.S. Constitution, Amendment I). 3"Almighty God, we acknowledgc our dependence upon Thee and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents. our teachers and our country." This content downloaded from 157.55.39.127 on Tue, 28 Jun 2016 05:29:14 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms PRAYER IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 319 of a religious belief or feeling. Political scientists generally view the role of religion vis-a-vis politics as minimal (Lane, 1959), yet in this case the two are so intertwined that an association would seem almost axiomatic. Our expectation, therefore, is that personal religiosity should have a relationship with attitudes about returning prayer to the school which is stronger than the "minimal" association which might otherwise be anticipated when investigating religion and politics. It is also necessary when considering this issue to look at various motivations which may work in concert with or in opposition to religiosity. With such a large number of persons approving the return of prayer to the public schools, it is clear that people with a wide variety of social characteristics share this attitude.4 Thus, while no isolated, peculiarly distinctive subgroup favoring prayer in schools exists, certain social characteristics which predispose many individuals towards acceptance of school prayer can be illuminated. The first clue comes from those who are most vocal in pushing for constitutional amendments: southern evangelicals, a group who Perkins et al. (1983) report favor allowing prayer in public schools by a margin of 94 to 6 percent. Accordingly, social and political conservatism, region of residence, and denominational affiliation are key variables. Finally, persons who are generally less tolerant, are tradition oriented, or are localistic and parochial in world views are expected to oppose recent Supreme Court decisions concerning school prayer. Objectives and Methods This investigation seeks to develop a profile of those who favor and oppose prayer in public schools. We also wish to establish the relative importance of three variable clusters in predicting one's orientation toward this issue. Attitudinal, demographic, and religious variables are simultaneously used as predictors with discriminant function analysis. Broad religious groupings which reflect ideological differences are used as control categories to specify further the relative importance of the predictor variables within contrasting theological contexts.