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Matt Gaetz wants students to have the right to pray in school - a right they already have [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2023-08-15
“Being a Humanist means trying to behave decently without expectation of rewards or punishment after you are dead” ― Kurt Vonnegut
If you are an American public school student and want to pray, go ahead. There is no law against it — as long as you do not disrupt school activities or interfere with the rights of others. In the 1960s, the Warren Court clarified that the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause made it unconstitutional for state officials to compose an official prayer and encourage public school students to recite it ( Engel v. Vitale 1962). And it also prohibited school-sponsored Bible readings in public schools ( Abington School District v. Schempp 1963). But it did not deny the individual student the right to speak to their God
Rep. Matt Gaetz, who has a law degree from William and Mary, although he lost his law license for unpaid fees, should know this. Whether he does or not, I cannot say. Regardless, he is acting as if he does not by promoting legislation in Congress he says would codify the right to pray in public schools.
His rationale for his redundant law is the hope of drawing “people into more empathy and kindness.” If Gaetz is a man of prayer — the bookies offer long odds on that saintliness — he is no exemplar of the outcome he predicts. Take, for example, his observations on pro-choice advocates.
“I find these people who go out on these pro-abortion and pro-murder rallies odious and just ugly on the inside and out, and I make no apology for it.” And, "Why is it that the women with the least likelihood of getting pregnant are the ones most worried about having abortions? Nobody wants to impregnate you if you look like a thumb."
Even in explaining how his bill will make children more compassionate, Gaetz shows his sneering dismissal of other people.
“I think that more space for prayer for students in schools is probably better than creating more space for, you know, the next pansexual poetry hour in Portland,” he added, warning about “degenerate content.”
If this is the empathy and kindness prayer produces, then no thanks. Conservatives are already teaching hate to children. We should not make it worse for America’s youth.
Gaetz’s gratuitous bill is not a serious attempt to right a wrong or usher in a golden age of American school religiosity. It is a cynical exercise in base-riling messaging. Even if Gaetz does not know he is relitigating settled law, he must know his bill is going nowhere in the Senate. His self-serving actions are merely to tee up a few cheap shots and pleasure the MAGAs.
He is also eating the Roberts Court’s dust. They have already moved on from individual student rights and are starting to break down the prohibition against institutional religious indoctrination. In Kennedy v. Bremerton (2022), the court ruled a school denied Coach Kennedy his first amendment rights because he was not acting as a school representative when he led a voluntary prayer event at the 50-yard line after every football game.
Justice Gorsuch offered an absurd defense of this religious exercise by saying nothing in the record indicating students felt coerced to pray. Did Neil go to high school? Students who want to play on school teams take everything the coach says as a divine pronouncement. Which aspirational athlete is going to deny their coach the opportunity to proselytize?
A simple thought experiment reveals the sheer expedience of that argument. Would the devoutly religious conservatives on the court have waved away objections to an atheist coach offering their thoughts on the belief there is no God? (Note: The writer, as an Ignostic , takes no position on the subject)
It is understandable — if inexcusable — that proto-fascists are desperate to get religion into schools because the usual outlets for the practice are suffering the same fate as shopping malls — a decline in attendance.
In 1945, 75% of Americans said they belonged to a church, mosque, or synagogue. In 2000, the number was still 70%. Today it is less than 50%.
The number who actually attend services is significantly lower. Today, only 31% claimed to have gone to church in the last week.
This decline in attendance has led to a reduction in the number of worship sites. In 2019, 3,000 new Protestant churches opened — but 4,500 closed. The Catholic Church is in even worse shape .
In social issue after social issue, American conservatives and the GOP have been behaving antithetically to the desires of the average citizen. It is time for them to stop saying they are acting in the interests of the American people - because God hates liars. So much so, He made it one of his commandments.
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