By Mark D. Tooley, Institute on Religion and Democracy
June 1995 – America’s oldest churches have joined the American Civil Liberties Union and other secular opponents of public religiosity to fight a constitutional amendment allowing voluntary, student-led school prayer.
The New York-based National Council of Churches (NCC) and its Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Episcopal, and United Church of Christ supporters are lobbying hard on Capitol Hill to oppose the school prayer initiative. In a letter to President Clinton, they warned that school prayer was an assault on “everyone’s religious freedom.”
At a Capitol Hill press conference, the NCC complained that school prayer “distracts” from more “critical issues of our day.” A United Methodist spokesman regretted the “misplaced fervor” behind school prayer and listed “social justice ills” more deserving of attention: jobs, universal health care, housing for the poor, education.
There are some good arguments against the kind of prayers that a constitutional amendment likely would allow in public schools. But distraction from the NCC’s secular, political agenda is not one of them.
The Protestant reformers who founded most of the NCC churches stressed faith before works and would lament their descendants’ preference for politics over prayer. Most Americans tell pollsters they believe our nation’s ills are spiritual and will be disappointed that America’s most senior churches are offering only material solutions.
Polls show over 70% of Americans, including members of NCC churches, favor voluntary prayer in public schools. But the NCC establishment is not concerned about the views of millions of Americans for whom it claims to speak.
This indifference by the NCC has likely fueled the dramatic membership losses of its major churches. In 30 years United Methodism has declined by 20%. The Presbyterian Church (USA) sank by 25%. The Episcopal Church shriveled nearly 30%. The Disciples of Christ shrank by more than 40%.
Meanwhile, the overall U.S. population grew 25%. The level of church attendance has stayed consistent, but church goers have found more appealing, non-NCC churches. The NCC now numbers only one-fifth of U.S. Christians. Roman Catholics and more conservative Protestants comprise most of the rest.
Perhaps more telling, Sunday school enrollment at NCC churches has collapsed by over 50%. The NCC told President Clinton that student prayer should be left to houses of worship. But fewer and fewer students are praying in NCC churches. Their parents might be supporting prayer in public schools to fill the spiritual void that NCC churches have left.
Is the NCC too busy to meet spiritual needs? Besides fighting school prayer and public Nativity scenes, the NCC is working to support the Clinton Administration. “We now have a president who in many ways is putting forth legislation that is consonant with some of the things we have said,” chimed NCC chief Joan Brown Campbell, a regular White House guest. On many issues, such as health care and welfare reform, NCC churches are further left than Clinton.
In contrast, most NCC church goers are more conservative. A recent poll shows mainline Protestants preferring Republicans over Democrats by 49% to 34%. United Methodism, the NCC’s largest member, polled its members and found 69% calling themselves conservative.
Most of the 47 million Americans who still belong to the NCC’s 32 denominations do not want detailed political guidance from their churches. A Gallup poll found that 56% of mainline church goers want their denominations to stay out of politics. They are looking for salvation, peace and hope. If not found in their churches, they will follow so many others to look elsewhere.
ABC News’ Peter Jennings described the NCC’s stance as a “significant” blow to the school prayer idea. In fact, the school prayer debate probably will be a blow to the NCC, further undermining its claims to speak for millions, and showcasing Americans’ plea for the spiritual renewal they have not found in the sagging churches of the NCC. 
