Blog Four-Thank God for School

I chose the article "The Case Against School Prayer". It adresses the issue of whether or not students are allowed to pray in public schools. The author, Annie Laurie Gaylor, insists that schools must not allow government-fostered prayer. She believes is dishonest to call prayer voluntary if it is required or encouraged by school officials, even though requirement and encouragement are two very different things. She appeals to the reader using big claims. "To introduce religion in our public schools builds walls between children who may not have been aware of religious differences before." If she read what she wrote, the word religion, defined as "a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects" would not limit a child's view of religious differences, but expand it. The author needs to get off the general word "religion" and update it to "Christian religion" which is what she's really arguing against, which is proved when she states that "even Jesus was against school prayer".

http://www.ffrf.org/nontracts/schoolprayer.php