Example Essay

Prayer should be allowed in Public Schools

The issue regarding the constitutionality of mandatory school prayer in schools in hinged on the separation between the church and the state that has been decreed by the constitution . On one side , there are those who argue that prayer in public school classrooms should be declared unconstitutional because it involves excessive entanglement ' which is prohibited under the doctrine of separation of church and state (Clark 35 . The other view is based more on the argument that such act is permissible because even the Pledge of allegiance

contains the phrase under God (Clark 35 ' It is humbly submitted in this position , however , that the more correct view remains to be that prayer in classrooms should be tolerated as long as it is not mandatory

In arriving at a better understanding of this issue , it is first important to define the constitutional issue at hand . The phrase separation of Church and State , is actually from a letter that was written by one of the founding fathers , Thomas Jefferson , to a group that called themselves the Danbury Baptists (Busher 13 . In the letter Thomas Jefferson wrote that , I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof , thus building a wall of separation between Church and State ' This was of course in reference to the First Amendment of the United States Constitution (Whitsitt...