She Hasn't Got a Prayer

First published in The Daily Sentinel, Friday, January 18, 2008

In many ways, Dawn Sherman is your typical 14-year-old. She goes to school, sings in a church choir – and wants to make a difference in the world. But unlike most teenagers, she’s not waiting until she’s a “grown-up.” Dawn is making a difference – at least in her school district – right now. She is party to a lawsuit that’s tearing her school and community apart.

I read about her in a newspaper article from the Chicago Tribune (after it being highlighted at GetReligion.org). The Illinois state legislature passed a “Silent Reflection and Student Prayer Act” last year that allows schools to provide one minute of silence at the beginning of the school day. Dawn objects to the practice; she claims that it violates her rights because, “first of all, the teacher is being made to stop teaching, and I’m being [made] an audience to something that is heavily suggestive in the direction of prayer because of the title of the act. It’s called the student prayer and silent reflection act.”

Something else you should know about Dawn. She is the daughter of one of Illinois’ most prominent atheists, Rob Sherman. The elder Sherman has long been trying to eliminate any references to God from the public square. In the early 1980s, he filed suit on behalf of his son, then a first grader, to stop his school from making him include the “one nation under God” phrase in the daily recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. Sherman has also attempted to remove “In God We Trust” from US currency, had run-ins with members of the Bush Administration over public displays of religion, and once even accosted the president himself over atheists’ rights.

The Tribune article on Dawn Sherman includes an intriguing anecdote from her early years: “Dawn was exposed to her father’s beliefs at an early age. She jokes that when she was still a fetus, her father would whisper to her mother’s belly: ‘God is make-believe. God is make-believe and Daddy is perfect.’”

As US citizens, the Shermans are certainly entitled to think what they want to think, and to act the way they want to act. No one should force religious beliefs down their throats. But the counterpoint is that they should not be allowed to force their non-religious (some might say anti-religious) beliefs down any one else’s throat. And that’s the problem. In Dawn’s estimation, her rights are being violated; and the only way for her rights to be put “right” is for her rights to violate the rights of others. She gets her way, so no on else gets another way.

Quite frankly, if her case is based on what she said in the article, then I am surprised that a federal judge was willing to put a temporary injunction against the statute. Read again what she stated as her reason for objecting: “[it’s] heavily suggestive in the direction of prayer because of the title of the act. It’s called the student prayer and silent reflection act.”

She doesn’t like it because of its title? And she’s got it wrong! The title is actually “The Silent Reflection and Student Prayer Act.” Student prayer does not get top billing, even though she tried to make it so as part of her objection. Furthermore, how many kids in the classroom will have a clue what the act’s title is? Seems many of them have a hard time remembering the date when the colonies declared their independence from England. (July 4, 1776, in case you’re wondering.) Basing an objection on statute titles that will never be spoken in the classroom seems specious to me.

Eventually, this case (or another one like it) will reach the US Supreme Court. A similar law in Texas recently received the green light from the Fifth US Circuit Court of Appeals. A couple in one of Dallas’ suburbs filed suit in 2006 against the local school district and the Texas governor over the state’s minute of silence. On January 5, 2008, the court said that “the primary effect of the statute is to institute a moment of silence, not to advance or inhibit religion.” No decision has been made about whether or not the couple will appeal the ruling.

I find the whole situation sad. What has brought this country to the low point of somebody suing somebody else over everything? Maybe it’s just me, but I thought our courts were designed to deal with real issues of justice, not simply one person’s opinion becoming more important than another person’s opinion. Even as a pastor, I don’t think school prayer is an “Issue” with a capital “I.” Kids could gather together before and after school to pray. They can organize Bible studies, pass notes of encouragement to one another, and do other little things that reflect their faith without causing controversies.

And I pray that in some quiet, loving and non-controversial way, someone will show the Shermans just what God’s love really looks like. Remember, Dawn sings in a church choir. That’s one little step. Maybe others will follow.

As for prayer in schools, I think my grandmother had it right: “As long as there are tests in schools, you better believe there will be prayer in schools!”