RULING TAKES SEPARATION OF CHURCH, STATE TOO FAR

The Supreme Court's ban on prayer at school graduations upsets a long-standing tradition at many area schools. The Wednesday ruling strengthened the high court's 30-year ban on officially sponsored worship in public schools. But these graduation prayers are more ceremonial than they are an attempt to promote organized religion. The ruling carries the notion of church and state separation too far.

These short invocations and benedictions at baccalaureate and commencement hardly qualify as religious indoctrination. Most times, they are short, non-denominational blessings. In class, students are exposed to many different cultures and ideas, and religion is just another educational experience.

We're talking about prayers made during graduation ceremonies. They are heard by 18-year-olds who we are about to thrust into the "real" world. These are the same 18-year-olds we say can now vote or be drafted. Surely, if they are mature enough for these activities, they are mature enough to decide the value of prayer in a school ceremony.

This really is a case of not being able to see the forest for the trees. It's another example of the court allowing the concerns of a small minority to override the good of the whole. The ruling forces schools to be non-religious. But that too is a choice, just as if the public schools were teaching religious theory.

We don't blame area superintendents who wish to opt for the status quo. If these prayers have solicited no complaints, why change? Sending graduates out into the world with God's blessing reflects a standard of our community. It says good schools and good churches are important.

At this point, the ruling merely affects elementary and secondary schools. It does not address the same kind of prayers said at university graduations or the start of a city council meeting. Prayers are still allowed at the opening sessions of state legislatures and even Congress. In other words, adults can judge the difference, but not our graduates. That's not giving our young graduates much credit.

The premise is that religion can't be promoted when state or federal dollars are involved. But that doesn't seem to matter when tax supported art or literature denigrates religion. This ruling sanctions a double standard for our nation.

Although the Constitution holds to the separation of church and state, it was a document forged with a notion of Christian values. Those same moral principals were once important to our government. If you don't believe it, just take a close look at those coins jingling in your pocket. That familiar motto "In God We Trust" has appeared on U.S. coins since 1864 and was required on all coins minted since 1955 by an act of Congress. No doubt, this familiar motto will be the next target of some miffed citizen. We have to wonder, where will this nonsense end?