Anti-prayer letter misses the constitutional mark
By GuestDear Editor:
Regarding Sue Harrington’s October 25 letter celebrating the removal of prayer from the Canton High graduation, she refers to the issue of “separation of church and state” as if this phrase is embodied in the U.S. Constitution — which of course it is not. The phase comes from a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1802. It has no legal or constitutional meaning. The relevant wording from the First Amendment is: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof …”
Having a prayer said at a graduation is certainly not making a law, but the banning of the prayer certainly prohibits the free exercise thereof. Indeed, until the 1962 U.S. Supreme Court decision banning prayer in school, students offered a prayer or read from many religious sources, so as not to be respecting a religion. A moment of silence for the atheists, though, did not placate them. They demanded that the free exercise to pray be terminated. And the Supreme Court erroneously agreed. I remember this because I read from the Bible many times to start the school day when I attended Brockton Public Schools.
The Supreme Court has erred before and reversed itself. Maybe with the recent addition of two Supreme Court justices who are strict constitutionalists, a reversal may be on the horizon. For this, many of us pray.
Larry Overlan
Chairman, Republican Town Committee
Short URL: https://www.thecantoncitizen.com/?p=44473
Posted by Guest
on Nov 3 2018. Filed under From One Citizen to Another, Opinion.
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