Neither Prayer in School nor Christian Schools Will Save Our Children

The bible never said anything about children learning about God through schools. Teaching of children always came from the home, from generation to generation. Mothers and fathers were responsible for teaching their children the law of the commandments and after the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ, nothing changed, children were to learn from the mother and father in the home.

Church leaders and Christians who point the finger of social immorality to “taking prayer out of the schools” are simply looking for an excuse to cover their own failures pertaining to younger generations. The school is not for learning about God, that is what the family and the church is for. School is for learning about the basic fundamentals of life outside the home. The child should already know how to act when they go to school and when they enter the general population of life.

Prayer in school dates as far back as the 18th and 19th centuries when prayer and scripture readings were done before classes. But that changed in 1962 when the Supreme Court ruled that school-mandated prayers in public schools are unconstitutional and violated the First Amendment. As stated earlier, many church and religious leaders disagreed with the change and now blame a culture gone wrong on that court decision. This is weak and a sorry excuse.

Furthermore, even during the earlier centuries that prayer was in the schools, it did not change the fact that injustice, racism, (colored and white water fountains), crime and drugs, and sexual immorality were any better than they are now. The only difference is in the family dysfunction, which has increased today for only one simple reason. The pressure on families by corporate America, and Christian schools do nothing to break that yoke, but only add to the burdens with their curricula.

Unfortunately, economic pressure and other factors are involved in why younger generations went astray during the 1960s and afterward. Many mothers were pushed into the workforce and were less likely to have the time to raise a family; and it only got worse throughout the 1970’s and 80s, when women entered the workforce in masses and wages went stagnant. Before that, families could afford for mothers to stay home on one income. According to the scripture:

“The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.” Titus 2:3-5.

The bible encourages women to stay home and raise their children yet society reversed that trend and the workforce and the women’s movement won-out in the end. As day cares and technology increased, more children were left to fend for themselves and parents began to expect the teachers in the schools to raise their children for them.

Furthermore, working women drove higher divorce rates and when divorce rates increased, this left many children in a state of confusion, despair, and depression rose also. This led to more drug use, delinquent behavior, and teen pregnancy. The church lost control of the younger generation as the years went by and now, they are looking to place the blame on the government school system.

However, the blame cannot entirely be set on the government and its decision to take prayer out of schools, but corporate America and the social pressure of the women’s movement must also take some blame. As corporations drew mothers away from their families and the court’s intrusion into the family through granting divorce decrees and relentlessly enforcing child support laws, these factors all led to many broken families.

The obligation of raising children will always remain with the family. The scripture has not changed, it reads: “Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.” Colossians 3:20, 21. It never says anything about children obeying your teacher or that the government must honor scripture.

Church leaders need to take the battle for our youth to corporate America and working women and leave the government out of it. The government merely regulates the social atmosphere of society, they do not set the trends. Church leaders need to demand that maternal and family leave be given graciously to new mothers and fathers and that wages are increased so families can once again rely on just one income, like it was before the nineteen eighties.

The problem is, these church leaders today are afraid of corporate America because they are both in cahoots together where it pertains to income. As long as people are working, they have money to give to the church. If mothers stayed home, this decreases their profits. They are hypocrites, confused and ignorant of the Word of God.