Nena Arias | January 20, 2020
“Pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:17-18)America’s religious freedom used to be something that was synonymous with our rights as Americans. All that changed drastically in American public schools in the early 1960s when prayer and Bible reading was taken out of our public-school system. It is more than sad to say that this anti-God agenda has continued to progress, and it now threatens to destroy our God-given freedom to worship according to the dictates of our conscience in almost all public places. It is unbelievable that all it takes is for one individual to complain that it offends them and then the rights of the majority are denied. It was never like this.
We would never have imagined before the early 1960s that a presidential order would have to be signed to restore these innate freedoms to our society and especially in our public schools.
This week the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Education announced a proposed rule that will provide guidance on legal protections for prayer and other religious expression in public schools, and we thank God and President Trump for this. The purpose of these updated instructions is to provide information on the current state of the law and to clarify the extent to which prayer in public schools is legally protected.
The update generally addresses principles of religious liberty that relate to religious expression to include prayer, in agreement with President Trump’s executive order and the Attorney General’s Memorandum on Federal Law Protections for Religious Liberty. It is also meant to guide state educational agencies (SEAs) and local educational agencies (LEAs) on how to comply with constitutional and established law. It also discusses the Equal Access Act, which provides lawful protection for religious expression in public schools.
This amendment requires the Secretary of Education to issue guidance to SEAs, LEAs, and the general public on constitutionally protected prayer in public schools. It requires that it respect the current state of the law. It must be certified in writing to its SEA that it has no policy that prevents, or otherwise denies participation in, constitutionally protected prayer in public schools as detailed in this updated report. It’ll be wonderful to return God into our public schools as statistics show how unruly the public-school classrooms have become since God was taken out. It will be even more wonderful when God is invited back into the homes of the American family, which is the first place where he was neglected.
The First Amendment also guarantees students the right to pray individually or in groups on school grounds during any non-classroom time. All students may express their opinions verbally or in writing before or after school, in between classes, during the lunch hour or on the playing field, according to the federal guidelines on prayer in public schools issued in 2003. Liberty Counsel also has a students’ rights handout on its website. In times past it has been unconscionable that a kindergarten child was told she could not pray for her lunch. This is heartbreaking and it must stop! Thank you, President Trump!
The end of religious organizations being discriminated on for award recipients is over. According to the rule the DOJ will not discriminate based on an organization’s religious character. Also religious organizations participating in DOJ-supported programs retain their independence from the government and may continue to carry out their missions consistent with religious freedom protections in federal law, including the Free Speech and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment.
Is it any wonder why the agenda of the left hates President Trump? He is undoing all the damage caused to our God-given and Constitutional rights. Let’s make America godly again!
