Prayer and the Public Square

 A belief in a Higher Power goes all the way back to the Founding Document of the United States, that is, the Declaration of Independence.  The very first sentence of the second paragraph refers the endowment of all people by their Creator with certain rights, which cannot be taken away.  Human beings by virtue of their humanity have rights; and among such rights are life, freedom and the opportunity to pursue happiness. This is what the signers of the Declaration believed.  They believed that such rights are not granted by any government, but are endowed by God, the Creator.  Such rights cannot be denied except through due process of law, such as when a person is found guilty of a crime and is executed (the denial of life), or put in jail (the denial of freedom).  Thus, the very founding of the country was based upon theism.  There cannot possibly be any other understanding of  America.  John Adams pointed out that a republic cannot possibly work except that it be rooted in certain moral and even ontological absolutes, which must be religious in nature.  Justice William O. Douglas, certainly no conservative, said that “we are a religious people.”  Every president has spoken of faith in God in their inaugural addresses.  An atheistic America is simply absurd.

Now the Establishment Clause, which is followed  directly by the Free Exercise Clause in the First Amendment, clearly has to do with the non-establishment of a state church, such as existed in all the countries of Europe at the time.  What Jefferson referred to as the “Great Experiment” was precisely about seeing if you could really have a government without the undergirding  structure of a state church or a state religion.  In the Western world, such had never been tried before!  Well, we tried it and it has worked out pretty well.  So far.  The Establishment Clause has to do with the non-establishment of a state religion; it has nothing to do with a prayer before a football game or at the beginning of a city council meeting for goodness sake! Anyone who thinks that the Establishment Clause prohibits prayer at the beginning of a public meeting, or at the beginning of the day in a  public school classroom, or at the beginning of a high school football game is thinking foolishly.  Prayer can begin a city council meeting, or a session of the House of Representative or a session of the Senate.   The Structure of Liberty will not fall down if there is a prayer in any of these situations and many others.

Liberty is, however, very much in jeopardy  whenever and wherever religion is removed from the Public Square to be replaced by the absolute stupidity, arrogance and childishness of atheism or agnosticism.

In 1963, we simply had to remove prayer from the public schools, lest Freedom perish!  So said the Supreme Court in Abington School District v Schempp.   In 1973, the same Court of nine lawyers – not the first persons one thinks of as paradigms of virtue and humility – in Roe v Wade decided that the Constitution provides for the right of a woman and her doctor to kill the unborn child in her womb! One of the most reprehensible and despicable decisions ever handed down by any court or governing entity!  Although the Supreme Court has handed down some other decisions almost as despicable – Dred Scott v Sanford and Plessy v Ferguson come to mind.  Now in 2013, the same Court says that same gender marriage is permissible, thus going against thousands of years of tradition!  My point is that no one should be overly impressed with decisions of nine mortals in black robes! 

My question is:   After the 1963 decision on prayer in the public schools, how have things been going in America?  How are we doing?  I say we are going back to the way things were before the Christian Gospel began to shape the Western world.  The killing of the unborn on a vast scale. Can infanticide be far off?  The abuse of women and children, which is precisely what millions of births outside of marriage amounts to. Hedonism.  Cruelty. I believe we are witnessing a return to paganism in the Western world.

And then there are in our culture huge amounts of  filthy language, filthy entertainment, robust laughter, and thus affirmation, of stupid, arrogant little dweebs like Bill Maher.  There is the drug culture which is still destroying huge numbers of lives. And much more:  The diminishment of the Work Ethic.  The diminishment of Free Enterprise by crony capitalism, greed, fraud and criminality on a vast scale. A highly corrupt media. A national government which few trust and even fewer respect.  And yes, finally, the diminishment of the power and influence of the Mainline Churches by their own stupidity, cowardness and corruption.   My own denomination, The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, since its founding 25 years ago, has lost well over a million members.

So, by golly, we got prayer out of the public schools, and off the football field, and out of the high school graduation exercises.  Now if we can just get it out of the City Council Meeting and the State Legislatures and the Congress!  The powers of evil never give up.  Get rid of God in the Public Square totally and we will have whatever Satan’s heart desires.  After 50 years since the prayer decision and 40 years since the abortion decision we are far along on the way back to paganism.  It was not long ago that the heartland of Lutheranism and a bastion of Catholicism underwent a very rapid transformation called Nazism.  Germany in the 1930’s descended very quickly from a Christian culture into total chaos, in which there existed no concepts of the sanctity of  human life and the inalienable right of every person to be free.  We have a lot more experience with democracy and liberty than the Germans had in 1933, when Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany.  I am not sure we are innately smarter or less by nature sinful and unclean.  Germany produced Bach, Beethoven, Brahms and Adolf Hitler.  The Third Reich happened because the Church was not doing what it is supposed to do.  The USSR happened because the Church was not doing what it is supposed to do. Same with slavery and segregation in the United States.  Same with what has been happening in America during the past fifty years.    

So, how have things been going these last fifty years?  Only an idiot or a pagan could possibly say we are better off morally and spiritually today than when prayer was not considered a subversive activity certain to undermine the edifice  of liberty! 

Pastor Myron Nysether

Our Savior’s Lutheran Church

Mesa, AZ