In <1993Apr24.214843.10940@midway.uchicago.edu> eeb1@quads.uchicago.edu


I already responded to this on one dimension, but afterthoughts cause
me to make another, independent reply.  The problem with a "moment of
silence" is that it is NOT an even-handed way of "allowing" for religion
amongst students in the public schools.  As I noted before, Muslims need
more than a moment of silence in order to perform the prayers they are
required by Muhammad to do.  And (at least Orthodox) Jewish prayer also
has requirements that are not addressed by this.

There is, in fact, a highly selective BIAS towards Christian prayer in
this "moment of silence" shit.  And that is especially bizarre in that
Christian prayer DOESN'T NEED this stuff -- a Christain may pray totally
incognito AT ANY TIME (to some extent, this is true of Muslims and Jews
as well -- what I intend in my first paragraph is that there *are* some
characteristic forms of prayer in *these* religions which DO need special
times and/or behavior, which cannot be undertaken without an observer 
being able taking note of it.)

A Christian may pray, at ANY time -- silently and without any trace of
his activity being evident to others.  That may or may not be true of the
other religious traditions amongst us: certainly, these tend to have SOME
forms of prayer that WOULD evidence differences from American/Protestant
"mainstream" religion.

All that a "moment of silence" does is to allow THAT ONE tradition which
doesn't NEED it, to have a "special" place set aside in the public schools.
There is NOTHING in Christian prayer that requires public forms, or rugs,
or phylacteries, or anything else at all visible to the outside world.  A
Christian student MAY (and probably does) pray at innumerable times during
the day, without anyone else knowing it.  [That may also be true of non-
Christians -- I am not claimng otherwise].  In the "moment of silence" it
would STILL be difficult for the Jews to gather and daven, for the Muslims
to do their ablutions and find qiblah to Mecca and engage in the prescribed
forms.  But *of course* Christians can do *their* thing -- and therefore,
the provision is nothing but a disguised attempt to encourage just that.

Luckily, there *is* a strong Jewish presence in this country (and I, as
a Christian, revere some of the Jewish teachers I had in public schools),
and a growing Muslim presence as well.  I can only hope that the political
forces consequent on this will PREVENT the imposition of Christian forms
on non-Christians.

As far as I can see (as a Christian) there is NOTHING in this "moment of
silence" campaign but an attempt to use PUBLIC social pressure to FORCE
children to adhere to a pattern that is biased towards Christianity.  And
as a Christian, I *must* protest such coercion.  For what it's worth, I
suspect that the coercion is not really targeted at the non-Christians --
it is yet another case of FAILURE amongst Christian parents in "making"
their children prayerful, so that they want the public schools to teach
what THEY cannot manage to teach, despite having all the opportunity in
the world to do so.

If you have taught your children to pray, they do NOT need a moment of
silence in school.  If you have NOT managed to teach them, the moment
will only embarrass you.  Give it up.