    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book I)]
    [May 30, 1998]
    [Pages 853-855]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    The President's Radio Address
    May 30, 1998

        Good morning. I want to talk to you today about the role of faith in
    our lives and in the education of our children.
        Our Nation was founded by people of deep religious beliefs, some of
    whom came here to escape oppression because of their beliefs. Their

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    trust in God is enshrined in one of our most treasured documents, the
    Declaration of Independence. Today, Americans are still a profoundly
    religious people, and our faith continues to sustain us.
        Our Founders believed the best way to protect religious liberty was
    to first guarantee the right of everyone to believe and practice
    religion according to his or her conscience and, second, to prohibit our
    Government from imposing or sanctioning any particular religious belief.
    That's what they wrote into the first amendment. They were right then,
    and they're right now.
        But resolving these two principles has not always been easy,
    especially when it comes to our public schools. Just as our religious
    faith guides us in our everyday lives, so, too, do our Nation's public
    schools strengthen the moral foundation of our society. We trust our
    schools to teach our children and to give them the knowledge and skills
    they need to succeed in life.
        But schools do more than train children's minds. They also help to
    nurture their souls by reinforcing the values they learn at home and in
    their communities. I believe one of the best ways we can help our
    schools to do this is by supporting students' right to voluntarily
    practice their religious beliefs, including prayer in school, and to
    pursue religious activities on school grounds. Studies show that
    children who are involved in religious activities are much less likely
    to use drugs. In a world that increasingly exposes children to images of
    violence and immorality, common sense tells us they are more likely to
    stay out of trouble and live up to their full potential when they're
    spiritually grounded.
        There's no question that the issue of prayer in schools is a complex
    and emotional one for many Americans. It has long been a matter of great
    controversy in our courts. But nothing in the Constitution requires
    schools to be religion-free zones where children must leave their faiths
    at the schoolhouse door.
        To help clear up the confusion about what kind of religious activity
    is and must be permissible in public schools, in 1995 we issued
    comprehensive guidelines to every school district in America. These
    guidelines represent a very broad consensus of many religious groups.
    Here is what is at their core: students have the right to pray privately
    and individually in school; they have the right to say grace at
    lunchtime; they have the right to meet in religious groups on school
    grounds and to use school facilities, just like any other club; they
    have the right to read the Bible or any religious text during study hall
    or free class time; they also have the right to be free from coercion to
    participate in any kind of religious activity in school.
        Now, since we've issued these guidelines, appropriate religious
    activity has flourished in our schools, and there has apparently been a
    substantial decline in the contentious argument and litigation that has
    accompanied this issue for too long.
        The guidelines have encouraged communities to develop common
    understandings about what kind of religious activity is permissible in
    schools and help them to avoid costly lawsuits and divisive disputes.
    For example, after parents sued the school board because their son was
    wrongly punished for praying quietly in the cafeteria, St. Louis used
    the guidelines to adopt more explicit policies for the future. In
    suburban Atlanta, where schools hold workshops and distribute the
    guidelines to teachers at the beginning and middle of every school year,
    disputes about religious activity have all but disappeared.
        To make sure our national guidelines are consistent with current
    court cases, so that more school districts follow these communities'
    lead, we are reissuing the guidelines with minor modifications, and
    we're mailing them to every school district in the country. I call on
    all districts to make sure the guidelines are understood and used by
    school principals, teachers, parents, and students themselves.
        Helping communities to find common ground about religious expression
    is the right way to protect religious freedom. There's also a wrong way:
    amending the Constitution. Some people say there should be a
    constitutional amendment to allow voluntary prayer in our public
    schools. But there already is one; it's the first amendment. For more
    than 200 years, the first amendment has protected our religious freedom
    and allowed many faiths to flourish in our homes, in our workplaces, and
    in our schools. Clearly understood and sensibly applied, it works. It
    does not need to be rewritten.
        George Washington once said that Americans have, and I quote,
    ``abundant reason to rejoice that in this land, every person may worship
    God according to the dictates of his own heart.'' Americans still have
    cause to rejoice that this most precious liberty is just as strong today
    as

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    it was then, and it will still be there for our children in the 21st
    century.
        Thanks for listening.

    Note: The address was recorded at 12:11 p.m. on May 29 in the Oval
    Office at the White House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on May 30.