In the holy quiet of this hour --
This is sacred time that cannot be taken from us ---
These few minutes of calm in an often-hectic week,
This island of serenity in an ocean of events,
This peaceful interlude in the midst of a violent world.
We sit together -- a company of believers in life.
If we are still, we can hear a great communal breathing...
We sit here to receive the blessings of life --
The memories that drift across our minds,
The hopes harbored,
The dreams dared,
The longings given voice...and space.
May we take this time,
Here and now,
To cherish our gathering.
May we savor this attention to the cares of our lives,
And be renewed for the living of our days.

-- the Rev. Richard Gilbert (adapted by LGW)

As a kid I prayed in school. Fast. I can say three "Our Fathers" in the amount of time it takes to eat a Twinkie. The way you do it is, you run "onearthasitisinheaven" and "leadusnotintotemptation" all together. It's as rich in meaning as the multiplication tables.

I'm not making light of prayer here, but of so-called school prayer, which bears as much resemblance to real spiritual experience as that freeze-dried astronaut food bears to a nice standing rib roast. From what I remember of praying in school, it was almost an insult to God, a rote exercise in moving your mouth while daydreaming or checking out the cutest boy in the seventh grade...

But the current conservative mania for a constitutional amendment guaranteeing school prayer doesn't have much to do with prayer anyway, but with a time, a place, an ethos that praying and pledging allegiance at the beginning of each school day represent. It is an attempt to resuscitate an America that died a natural death and, like most dear departeds, is now shrouded in the rosy tones of selective memory. As a member of the East Stroudsburg, PA, school board said to a local reporter of his support of school prayer: "The country has certainly gone downhill morally since they took it out."

Prayer in schools represents a return to those good old days. They were days in which 12-year-olds did not carry guns, in which children did not mouth off to their elders, in which divorce was rare and marriages stuck for life, in which condoms stayed in wallets and out of schools.

They were also the days in which black men were strung up from tall trees, women poured caustic cleansers inside themselves rather than face pregnancy, and nobody talked about daddy's drinking. 'Queers' were (considered) sick, women irrational and real men taught their sons to use their fists and never mind about their feelings...

The surface of that America gleamed as bright as a breakfront freshly rubbed with paste wax, with no notice taken of what sort of mess might be inside. Some of it truly shone: Main Street, church suppers, the industry, the neighborliness, and the embrace of extended family. But it was also an America.... in which what was handed down from generation to generation was distance and silence. It was an America in which the family...could have terrible secrets, but no one would ever know it to look at them.

The issue of prayer in schools...is just a symbol substituted for substance...I only wish a moment of spiritual rote recitation before class would put a halo around the head of a kid, or begin to solve our social problems. It would make being a parent, and a citizen, so much easier. But learning to forgive those who trespass against us is not that simple. A state of grace owes more to home than school, and much much more to ..every day acts than to 90 seconds before classes. (Excerpted)

Picture This: God and the Devil are walking along the shore talking over the way of things...a human being is walking yards in front, chasing the waves on the sand, finding sea shells...suddenly the human leaps up high in the air and grabs a bit of truth out of the sky. God says to the Devil, "Now what are you going to do? The human being grabbed onto some truth." "No problem," the Devil replies, "I'll just tempt the human to organize it."

School Prayer. An attempt to bring "morality" into the forefront of our children's minds. One might quickly wonder, "according to whom?" School Prayer. An attempt to organize our children's priorities toward better ways of being with one another and just plain better ways of being. One might quickly ask, "better than what?" School Prayer. An attempt to focus our children's sights toward the American Dream of one nation under God. And the next obvious question is, "whose God?"

If we have organized prayer in our public schools, would our children be able to ask these simple questions -- "Whose morals, whose ways of being, or whose God?"-- freely and without fear of alienation, heckling, favoritism or harassment? Unlikely.... And that's downright scary.

Rev. Jane Rzepka, born and bred Unitarian Universalist, remembered a Junior High School classroom discussion on religion. "A classmate, a girlfriend, stood up," she writes, "pointed at me, and said that her mother would not allow her to play with me any more because I was not a Christian, and that no good Christian should." A devastating Junior High moment that did not lead to persecution, but has remained a painful memory for her. It does not take much imagination to understand that such zeal could manifest itself into horrible divisions, closed minds and narrow irreconcilable world views.

"When I was in high school," she goes on to say, "I complained to the principal about the Annual Easter Assembly. Next thing I knew, " she said, "I was called down to the guidance counselor's office and asked if I weren't ashamed to belong to the Unitarian Universalist Church." The guidance counselor -- the one entrusted with helping the child formulate plans and priorities, the one given opportunity to encourage teens to delve into the difficult journey of identity for his or her steps toward further education and adulthood. "Aren't you ashamed," this person bearing this precious privilege said, " to belong to the Unitarian Universalist Church...."

I remember a day in Junior High, during lunch in the cafeteria, when I told my good friend that I did not know if I believed in God. She snapped back: "What do you believe in, then!" I had never witnessed her so angry. I had never felt so defeated. Pre-teen years are fragile years in terms of identity, the young are working themselves through primarily in relationship. Peers are extremely important. Religion had caused our first seriously harsh exchange. We've each grown a great deal since then -- each finding our own and each other. She a non-churched, lapsed Catholic plant physiologist who finds the mystery and wonder of existence at the intricate, infinite molecular level and I a Unitarian Universalist minister who, according to my god child, "Does God".

Can you imagine, even in the proposed, organized moment of silence and solemnity, how many may notice those who do not give the sign of the cross? How many may learn the sign and do it just to avoid problems? What if a Moslem child would noticeably face the east, kneel and bow? Could she or he do that freely, without judgement?

There is a millennia of wisdom that has brought this nation to the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights. Separation of church and state protects people's private religious lives from public purview and opinion. It is that way because religious difference and debate has caused acrimony, anti- Semitism, bigotry, genocide and terrified, damaging silence. It is that way because a large number of the founders of the United States of America were escaping religious persecution in Europe. It is that way because no one person or system has all the answers.

Another image, offered by Ben Sargent: A Protestant Minister, wearing the pastoral collar and holding a Bible stops to talk to a member of the Christian Coalition painting a sign that reads: "Government Sponsored Prayer Now!" The pastor speaks to this earnest messenger: "When you pray, don't be like the hypocrites -- they love to say their prayers where everyone can see them, and they have their reward...But when you pray, go into a room by yourself, shut the door, and pray to your (father) God who is in secret, and your (father) God who sees in secret will reward you..." "Oh Yeah," replies the protester, "And what counter-culture anti-family secular humanist said that?" "Just guess..." the pastor responds. It is, of course, attributed to Jesus. The book of Matthew Chapter 6, Verse 5 & 6.

"When you pray, go into a room by yourself... shut the door." (Matthew 6:6)

Ironically, the protester is describing Jesus. He was counter cultural and in many ways, though not all, a religious humanist. As a matter of fact, some of our earliest Unitarian and Universalist forebears saw Jesus in such a light -- as someone who summoned our best selves to create a just and compassionate world on earth...to "do God" practicing acceptance of difference, and non-judgmental leadership.

A little over a year ago, I was interviewed on a local radio show in Chauttauqua, New York, as co-founder of Inward Springs, a liberal religious periodical. The interviewer was trying to trip me up ( Chautauqua is a religiously conservative area). He told me a story about a student who presented the Lord's Prayer for show and tell, telling the class that he prayed this way every day at home. The teacher did not criticize his choice. "Why is that wrong?", the interviewer asked me. "It isn't." I replied, "the child should be encouraged to bring whatever is important in his life to share with the class. What would have been wrong," I added, before he could move on to another subject, "is if the teacher had said to the class: Johnny is right to pray the Lord's prayer everyday. This is what we all should be doing. It is then that the teacher would have been violating religious freedom."

It must never be forgotten that people in authority positions have a great deal of power of influence. What's tricky and often distracting in the discussion of school prayer is the argument that people against organized school prayer are either against prayer itself or against the exposure of religion. But there is a difference between teaching aspects of religious beliefs and practicing religion. One approach, the study of religions, serves the gathering of information for one's own discernment of ideas. The other, practicing corporate prayer, mandates participation in an event that endorses one way of being. Now, it is also true that a subject can be presented in such a way as to bias the information gatherer. But practicing religion, for example, in organized school prayer, leaves little room for neutrality, except, of course in the way Anna Quindlen described: in mindless rote behavior, which teaches a kind of detachment, that, ironically, leads to decreased responsibility in one's behavior in community. School prayer, then, does fewer people good than might be hoped and more people damage than is intended.

I have some very vivid memories of observing school prayer primarily at sports events. There was a high school that was part of our region that we regretted playing with each season. Not because of skill, but because of style. This school's female teams were notorious in their lack of sportsmanlike conduct and fair play. In field hockey, we would often give the visiting team our locker room during half time. After playing with this team that had visibly and loudly prayed together on the sidelines before entering the field, we would enter a ransacked locker room, spit and obscenities on the blackboards, and dirt and spit on shower floors. In basketball, we encountered similar experiences, though this time on the court. The usual huddle and joint vocal encouragement ( the "one, two, three go -- or get this team"...whatever) would include for this high school a petition prayer to Mary loud enough for all to hear. On court, in play, this team was so adept at fouling without being seen, it seemed they trained that way: there was certainly a passion for breaking the rules without being caught. The focus was on tripping up the other player over and above a well-played ball game. There was also a passion for foul language. The words that came out of these women's mouths who had just fervently prayed were of a different league.

I remember wondering whether these women felt a kind of freedom to misbehave because they had covered their sense of responsible behavior in their group prayer. Whether they were covered, so to speak, because they had supplicated themselves jointly. Or, if competition and engagement outside of the school unleashed repressed emotions and frustrations expressed with determination and creativity against their opponents. I didn't think, really, that their praying made them feel that we were inferior beings, though we were treated with a kind of disrespect that would point to that assumption.

School prayer does not necessarily make or encourage children to be moral, respectful, fair-minded, humble, compassionate, accepting, God fearing individuals. As a matter of fact, in my experience, I have found the opposite to be more true.

This is not to single out Christianity. I attended a liberal Christian seminary in order to learn what this religion that has profoundly influenced Western Culture is about, and I found much wisdom in the depth and breadth of that faith. And although I am not Christian, I feel fortunate to have encountered deep feelings for justice and compassion in witnessing some Christian prayers. However, it was my choice to understand and embrace the imagery. It was my choice to expand my knowledge of the faith assumptions. And that makes all the difference.

Public prayer lends itself to religious chauvinism. If Newt Gingrich repeats what he said some years ago that he wants to restore school prayer for the sake of "re-establishing the Creator at the center of American polity"; for the sake of our future, for the sake of our freedom and for the sake of our forebears, pay attention. If you hear catch phrases like "Christian nation", "profamily", "moral absolutes", "traditional American values" in any dialogue concerning School Board elections or constitutional amendments: for the sake of our future, for the sake of our freedom, for the sake of our forebears -- pay attention. If you hear James Dobson of "Focus on Family" say that 'the Constitution was designed to perpetuate a Christian order' and the wall of separation between church and state is 'a lie of the Left' or if you come across Pat Robertson talk about that mythical original Christian government which has been subverted by 20th century liberals and free thinkers: For the sake of our future, for the sake of our freedom, for the sake of our forebears -- pay attention.

The amount of violence and lack of regard for life that we see in our youth today is alarming. The amount of violence and lack of regard for life we see in adults today is alarming. And wouldn't it be wonderful if earnest daily-organized prayer could mend the open wounds and fix the diminishing civility. But it can't. There's no such thing as easy answers, just like there's no such thing as easy money. The degradation of justice and compassion in our society has far more to do with what we model in our actions than what we teach each other to say.

I am humbled by the task this Wednesday to offer an interfaith invocation at the Summit on Fighting Hate Crimes -- a public gathering. What I hope to do is inspire, but I need to be careful. I need to organize the prayer with respect for other ways of praying. I need to speak aloud my truth without alienating others. I'm honored to do this, for there is nothing inherently wrong in speaking what you believe. It would be wrong, however, if I tell others to believe the same as I. The most I can do and am compelled to do is to state my case in such a way that others will be moved to agree. But people don't have to be there. They are not required by law to attend this meeting. And that one fact, again, makes all the difference.

So, yes, pray whenever you are able and encourage your children to do so for themselves, as that compelling teacher Jesus taught, in the privacy of their own lives. So may it be. Amen.

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