Randall Murphree
AFA Journal editor
July-August 2012 – More than 35 million public school students may begin their day with an opening prayer in the classroom – legally! It’s called a moment of silence. According to Gateways for Better Education, 34 states allow it. In fact, some states even mandate it.
Gateways – whose mission is to keep God in our schools – encourages and equips students to actually pray during that moment of silence. Gateways’ School Prayer Card is a business-card sized card students can keep in their pockets or notebooks. During the moment of silence, they can pull out the prayer card and silently pray the prayer.
Atheist student boosts school prayer
“We came up with this idea in response to the recent news that a court in Rhode Island ordered a school to remove a prayer banner that had been posted at a local school since 1963,” explained Gateways president Eric Buehrer. The court order was in response to a lawsuit filed by an atheist student who took offense at the prayer banner.
On January 12, U.S. District Judge Ronald Lagueux ruled that a 4-foot by 8-foot School Prayer Banner hanging in Cranston High School West was unconstitutional. The judge wrote, “No amount of debate can make the school prayer anything other than a prayer.” Here are the words of the prayer:
Our Heavenly Father,
Grant us each day the desire to do our best,
To grow mentally and morally as well as physically,
To be kind and helpful to our classmates and teachers,
To be honest with ourselves as well as with others,
Help us to be good sports and smile when we lose as well as when we win,
Teach us the value of true friendship,
Help us always to conduct ourselves so as to bring credit to Cranston High School West.
Amen
Buehrer did a little research and was amused by the irony of his discovery. “Rhode Island has a law requiring a daily moment of silent meditation in public schools,” he said. The law reads:
16-12-3.1 Period of silent meditation. – At the opening of every school day in all grades in all public schools the teacher in charge of the room in which each class is held shall announce that a period of silence not to exceed one minute in duration shall be observed for meditation, and during this period silence shall be maintained and no activities engaged in.
“Imagine millions of students silently reading the prayer every morning at school,” Buehrer said. “The court in Rhode Island may have removed a dusty old banner that no one read, but the result can be that every morning, millions of students all across the country will pray the prayer that was on that banner!” 
More Gateways resources
Founded in 1991 by Eric Buehrer, Gateways to Better Education develops strategies that focus on academic and religious freedom. Buehrer’s vision is for public schools to be places where students feel the freedom to express their faith and where they gain an appreciation for the Bible and Christianity across the whole curriculum. Gateways equips educators to do this legally and appropriately within existing constitutional boundaries as they relate to history, culture and values.
The late Chuck Colson praised Buehrer as “a unique and much-needed voice in our country. What he is doing to equip parents and teachers is vital.”
To learn if your state has a school prayer law and to download a sheet of the prayer cards for free, visit www.gtbe.org/schoolprayer. To have Eric Buehrer speak in your community, contact [email protected] or call 800-929-1163.
