In public schools, Texas Attorney General promotes the Lord’s Prayer and appeals Ten Commandments loss, while Trump promises more prayer

Will the U.S. Supreme Court agree to revisit Engle v. Vitale, its cornerstone decision about prayer in schools from 1962?

It’s a question on my mind after many recent events targeting our long tradition of ensuring religious freedom for all in public schools – both by protecting the free exercise of the students and prohibiting government-imposed religion on all.

Speaking at a meeting of his Religious Liberty Commission on Monday, President Donald Trump announced that the “Department of Education will soon issue new guidance protecting the right to prayer in our public schools.” It is unclear what the new guidance will be — during the first Trump administration, similar rhetoric turned out to be more bark than bite.

But this new promise comes at a time when Texas and other states are passing laws and issuing guidance that flouts the clearly established federal law prohibiting the establishment of religion in a public school setting.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, for example, is continuing to push and promote two new troubling laws passed in his state. A federal judge has already halted one in some school districts: a requirement that every classroom post a copy of the Ten Commandments. Paxton has appealed that decision to the entire (en banc) 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals – the same circuit where a similar law in Louisiana was already struck down by an appeals panel.

Appealing to an en banc federal appeals court is generally the last step before asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene.

The other law in Texas, Senate Bill 11, allows school districts to set aside time every day for “prayer and reading the Bible or other religious text.” According to the law, the period of prayer can involve readings from “the Bible or other religious text,” and only students and staff with a signed consent form may participate.

While promoting this state-organized prayer in schools law last week, Paxton was even more explicit about his intentions to overturn Supreme Court precedent that protects students from government-mandated prayer and Bible reading. Paxton said this law in Texas would “begin the legal process of putting prayer back in the classroom.” Even more provocatively, Paxton encouraged school children to use their prayer time by reciting “the Lord’s Prayer, as taught by Jesus Christ.”

Under current law, students already have the full right to pray, read religious texts, and express their beliefs as long as it’s voluntary and does not disrupt instructional time.

Paxton’s use of his government position to push Christian prayers on children makes a mockery of religious liberty and offends the historic Baptist principle of soul freedom. Plus, how could anyone prevent believers from praying? As former BJC Executive Director James Dunn used to say, “As long as there are math tests, there will be prayer in schools.”

What we’re seeing here is legislative overreach. This law is asking students to sign away their rights or stay away – they’ll be excluded from their peers if they pray differently – or chose not to pray at all.

Belonging shouldn’t require a waiver. No student should have to choose between faith and acceptance. Plus, this law asks teachers to monitor who prayed, how they prayed, and whether they filed the right form – yet another thing for our teachers to do.

Students and their parents should be free to choose when, where, and how to pray – and whether to pray! Forced faith is no faith at all.

As BJC Executive Director Amanda Tyler said following the president’s speech this week:

 “The First Amendment protects every person’s right to follow their faith freely, or no faith at all, without government interference. When political leaders suggest that religion is the government’s to promote, they threaten the very freedom they claim to defend. ….

Faith is strongest when it is voluntary.  The Baptist tradition has long insisted that government has no business dictating religious belief or practice, whether in our churches, our schools, or our personal lives.”