State lawmaker seeks constitutional right to pray in public

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A state lawmaker wants voters in November to consider a 300-word change to the Missouri constitution that he says will emphasize their right to pray in public.

Critics of the bill being sponsored by Rep. Mike McGhee, R-Odessa, said the extra wording is unnecessary and likely is being offered to drive more conservative voters to the polls for the presidential election.

The state constitution already says residents have "a natural and indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences; that no human authority can control of interfere with the rights of conscience."

While McGhee this week agreed his proposal doesn't rewrite the law, he said clarification is needed so people understand they have the right to pray and exercise their faith in public.

He said he was driven to push the measure after a minister told him students somewhere had been banned from carrying Bibles onto their school buses. McGhee added that schoolchildren had also gotten the idea that they couldn't say grace before eating in the school lunchroom.

McGhee's bill would add that no one could infringe on a citizen's right to pray or express religious beliefs and that the state must ensure anyone can participate in public, nondisruptive prayer. It also would say elected officials and government employees can pray in public as an exercise of their free speech rights.

In addition, public school students could express their religious freedoms at school as long as it was private, voluntary and not disruptive.

"I just want everyone to know that whatever their faith, this is their right," McGhee said.

The measure requires House and Senate approval to get on the November ballot.

Rep. Trent Skaggs, D-North Kansas City, said he doubted the stories of Bible-carrying students being denied bus rides and noted that the U.S. Constitutional already protects those rights.

Skaggs attempted to have the measure switched to the August primary ballot, but it failed on a party-line vote of 85-65 as Republicans said constitutional changes should go before the largest number of voters.

He said he believed Republicans were trying to boost the number of religious conservatives at the polls.

"I think people here are not only playing politics with schoolchildren but also with the sanctity of prayer," he said. "If people are really concerned about this problem, you would solve it sooner rather than later."

The House set McGhee's bill aside but he said he expected lawmakers to return to it Monday.