Here is an excerpt from a good article entitled “Why School Prayer is so Divisive” in Sojourners magazine. The author, Frank Ravitch, discusses the history of mandated prayer in our public schools. It is well worth reading:
“In the 1840s and throughout much of the 19th century, school prayer and Bible reading were used in an attempt to discriminate against Catholics and other religious groups.
“There are examples of Catholic students being whipped and harassed and priests being tarred and feathered and ridden on rails, which involved parading someone around on a wooden rail. Catholics were even killed when they refused to participate in prayer and Bible reading in the common schools.
Much of this violence was about more than just prayer. A lot of it was fostered by resistance to Irish immigration, anti-Catholicism, and perceived job competition. Yet, school prayer and Bible reading issues often served as significant fuel for this anti-immigrant fire.
“During the 19th and early 20th centuries, school prayer was challenged in court by some citizens affected by it for violating state constitutions. These early cases often found that state-mandated school prayer violated the constitution of the state in question. One of these landmark cases, decided in 1872, is “Board of Education of Cincinnati v. Minor.”
“In that case, Judge Alphonzo Taft, former President William Howard Taft’s father and an Ohio Superior Court judge, upheld a school policy prohibiting school prayer and Bible reading in the already religiously diverse Cincinnati public schools.
It was the unanimous opinion of the Ohio Supreme Court upholding Judge Taft’s decision, which made a strong argument for separation of church and state. Justice John Welch, writing for the court, noted:
“When Christianity asks the aid of government beyond mere impartial protection, it denies itself. Its laws are divine, and not human. Its essential interests lie beyond the reach and range of human governments. United with government, religion never rises above the merest superstition; united with religion, government never rises above the merest despotism; and all history shows us that the more widely and completely they are separated, the better it is for both.”
“Interestingly, some of the religious groups that support school prayer today opposed it only 40 years ago, often for the same reasons suggested by Justice Welch. Some Southern Baptists and evangelicals, for example, viewed public school prayer as an affront to God.”