[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 1 (Tuesday, January 7, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E36]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        VOLUNTARY SCHOOL PRAYER

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JO ANN EMERSON

                              of missouri

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, January 7, 1997

  Mrs. EMERSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce a constitutional 
amendment to ensure that students can choose to pray in school. 
Regrettably, the notion of the separation of church and state has been 
widely misrepresented in recent years, and the Government has strayed 
far from the vision of America as established by the Founding Fathers.
  Our Founding Fathers had the foresight and wisdom to understand that 
a Government cannot secure the freedom of religion if at the same time 
it favors one religion over another through official actions. Their 
philosophy was one of evenhanded treatment of the different faiths 
practiced in America, a philosophy that was at the very core of what 
their new Nation was to be about. Somehow, this philosophy is often 
interpreted today to mean that religion has no place at all in public 
life, no matter what its form. President Reagan summarized the 
situation well when he remarked, ``The First Amendment of the 
Constitution was not written to protect the people of the country from 
religious values; it was written to protect religious values from 
government tyranny.'' And this is what voluntary school prayer is 
about, making sure that prayer, regardless of its denomination, is 
protected.
  There can be little doubt that no student should be forced to pray in 
a certain fashion or be forced to pray at all. At the same time, a 
student should not be prohibited from praying, just because he-she is 
attending a public school. This straightforward principle is lost on 
the liberal courts and high-minded bureaucrats who have systematically 
eroded the right to voluntary school prayer, and it is now necessary to 
correct the situation through a constitutional amendment. I urge my 
colleagues to support my amendment and make a strong statement in 
support of the freedom of religion.

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