S/O - Baccalaureate - Prayers at School Events

Can I ask a genuine question.....apart from Dani-Mani who is not bothered about it everyone else seem to be so dead set against it,can you tell me why? Why does it bother people so much? I understand that there's a separation of church and state in the US but surely a prayer at the beginning of any event, not just schools isn't going to convert anyone to any religion is it? 

Please don't start an argument about the for and against religion, that wasn't why I asked. It's purely curiosity because posters have expressed such strong views about the subject.

At DS's Baccalaureate in 2004 I'm pretty sure there was a prayer. It was held in a church and it was student run. In CA. Not sure what they do now.

As I said in a long, roundabout way in my previous post, I resent the assumption that we're all Christian. We aren't. ETA and that if we aren't, we should be!

That's in addition to the solid legal reasons given by myshelly above.

ETA #2 and if I were in a country such as the UK where there's a state religion, it wouldn't bother me so much. But the U.S. was built on the concept of freedom of religion, and imposing prayers of the majority religion on everyone, regardless of their feelings about it, does not honor that concept.

Thank you,I appreciate you answering me. I certainly never envisaged No 3.

Oh, it goes on way more often than people would think.  It's as bad here (maybe even worse in some aspects) in SC as it was in TX, and when my (non-religious) kids began school in SC, I had to caution them not to draw attention to their non-belief, or to say much (if anything) about it at school.

I don't think it would bother me nearly as much if the type of prayer offered varied...one time a Baptist prayer, one time a Catholic prayer, one time a Jewish prayer and so on.

But in this area, it's always a Baptist prayer - full of Jesus this and Jesus that. It excludes anyone who isn't the (local) majority religion in an area where they are ALREADY excluded in many ways because social life here (including non-school sports) revolves around the (Baptist or non-demon) Churches. The assumption in this area is not only that you are Christian but that you're a SAVED Christian or you need to BE saved (in other words, being Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, Episcopalian also leaves you on the outskirts - especially Catholics who many sincerely believe aren't Christian).

Public schools (and government meetings where the same thing happens) shouldn't be in the business of excluding people  - and the law of this country is that there should be a separation of church and state...I've lived where that wasn't the law and quite frankly, felt less excluded there (as a Catholic - in a protestant country) than here.

And there's pressure to conform - to stand and bow your head in prayer...even if it's against your personal beliefs, even if you don't believe in Jesus Christ, even if you see if as worshipping a false God, even if.... my children are banned from carrying their rosaries at school because they 'might be used as gang symbols' but they are expected to bow their heads and pray (or at least appear to do so) when a Baptist preacher or a teacher or another student leads a prayer. A friend's son (they are Jewish) was forbidden to wear his yarmulke at school (no hats in school rule) but again, he has to listen to a pray to Jesus.

Originally from Texas. Small conservative town where if you weren't Southern Baptist, Pentecostal and/or went to church you were a minority and we had a "moment of silence" there was also a yearly thing called "meet me at the pole" where kids went to pray if they wanted. It was before school started..so not school hours. This is a public school.


Funny I'm up North in Pa now and I've been to a few of the local public HS functions here and there was prayer being said.

We don't have prayers at school events, but we do have a religious baccalaureate.  As I said in the other post, the faculty has no part in the baccalaureate so it avoids some of the issues with a school sponsored religion.  We have a Fellowship of Christian Athletes but they meet at each others' homes for activities.  My older DS was involved and enjoyed it, even though he was pretty much agnostic later in high school.  There is also a Meet You at the Pole event every year, but it is before school starts and faculty and staff are welcome to attend but they are not paid to do so.  That does not bother me either.  However, when I was in high school, I ran track.  I grew up in NE PA, where there was a very high concentration of Catholics.  Before every meet, we had a team prayer.  It was always a Hail Mary followed by the Catholic version of the Lord's Prayer.  I was the token Protestant on the team, along with one girl who was Jewish. I can still remember how awkward and uncomfortable it was and that is what makes me opposed to organized prayer for school functions where you are kind of forced to participate.  

because it is not inclusive, they typically end with "in Jesus name, amen" which is not what jewish, buddhist, muslims, Hindu....want to be a part of.

It is presumptuous to think that everybody prays the same way and the same people who pound prayer into everyone else would lose their shit if there was a nob-Christian prayer/blessing given

Graduation, yes. Football games and the like, no.

We live south of the Mason-Dixon.

In our area, separation of church and state apparently doesn't exist.

No, I am in WA and there is no prayer at our school events. I grew up in CA, also no prayer.

Colorado here too, and once in a while a prayer is said, but it is rare.  I think it just depends on the presenter.