Title: The First Amendment in Schools: Resource Guide: Religious Expression in the Public Schools - National Coalition Against Censorship
Headings: The First Amendment in Schools: Resource Guide: Religious Expression in the Public Schools
The First Amendment in Schools: Resource Guide: Religious Expression in the Public Schools
Content: promote a particular religion as being superior to any other,
promote religion in general as superior to a secular approach to life,
be antagonistic to religion in general or to a particular religious belief in particular
be antagonistic to secularism, or
do things to advance or inhibit religion. This does not imply that the public schools may not teach about religion. Indeed, “the Bible may constitutionally be used in an appropriate study of history, civilization, ethics, comparative religion, and the like.” Stone v. Graham, 449 U.S. 39, 42 (1980) (per curiam). Schools may teach about religion, explain the tenets of various faiths, discuss the role of religion in history, literature, science and other endeavors, and the like, as long as it has a secular purpose to promote educational goals, and there is no effort to promote or inhibit any religious belief. School-Sponsored Prayer: Prayer and Bible-reading have long been excluded from the public schools. Engel v. Vitale (1962) and School Dist. V. Schempp (1963). Even a moment of silence for “meditation or voluntary prayer,” is impermissible if its purpose is to promote prayer.