In Theory: Thoughts on NYC’s pre-K prayer plan
Last year, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s “ambitious” free, full-day prekindergarten plan began with 53,000 children. While some programs are found in public schools, many are run by religious institutions and community-based organizations under city contract, according to the Associated Press.
The program began as “a way to address [de Blasio’s] goals of narrowing the wealth gap by saving parents the cost of private pre-K tuition, and jump-starting the academic performance of the city’s youngsters,” the Associated Press reports.
This fall, de Blasio hopes to expand the program to 70,000 children, but the plan requires cooperation and participation of Jewish, Christian and Muslim schools.
As part of the expansion, the public, pre-kindergarten program includes a proposal to allow religious instruction and time for prayer during midday breaks.
But the proposal has already drawn the ire of civil liberties groups that have argued that “allowing a prayer break in a publicly funded classroom may violate the constitutional separation of church and state.”
Q. What do you think of de Blasio’s proposal and the criticism it has already drawn?
--
De Blasio’s idea is a good one, I think, and I’m tempted to ask the civil liberties groups to back off in complaining about a publicly funded institution. But if de Blasio’s schools are allowed a pass on the prayer issue, I fear that we might start down a slippery slope. For example, what if other groups that are publicly funded try to point to de Blasio’s schools and say, “they get public money and get to pray, so why can’t we?”
I’m sorry, but this is a tough and complicated issue. But in the issue of the separation of church and state, I am going to have to align myself with the civil liberties groups. De Blasio’s idea is a good one to start with… but the end result may be something we all come to detest.
The Rev. Skip Lindeman
La Cañada Congregational Church
La Cañada Flintridge
--
I believe the plan addresses a legitimate public need, and I support the idea as long as families have the option of choosing which, if any, of the religious institutions their child’s program occurs in. Certainly it would be wrong to present as the only option a site whose instruction contradicts any family’s particular faith. Christian and other faith-based schools are ready, willing and able to serve our communities. The antireligious bent of a minority of the population should not prevent public access to the help they offer. Our Constitution endorses freedom of religion, not freedom from it.
Jesus has a soft spot in his heart for children. In Luke 17:2, He said: “It would be better for [a man] if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea, than that he would cause one of these little ones to stumble.” When his own disciples were rebuking parents who wanted Jesus to touch their children with blessing, He was indignant and chided them: “Permit the children to come to me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.” (Mark 10:14-15). And it was the children who were not afraid to shout Jesus’ praise in the temple, and Jesus refused to silence them.
Would that we all had such childlike (but by no means childish) boldness regarding matters of faith.
Faith and love will always make the greatest positive differences in people’s lives. Fear and personal intimidation will always prevent them.
Pastor Jon Barta
Burbank
--
When I first read the proposal, I became concerned about an established time for prayer in a public school. Then I remembered my own elementary and middle school experience in Yonkers, New York. We would pledge allegiance to the flag, remembering “one nation under God,” and then my teachers would say, “Let us have a moment of silent prayer.” Each person then prayed in his or her own way, silently. This type of nonmandated prayer is perfectly constitutional. If, however, the teacher or school administration would send out guidelines for prayer, I would see it as a violation of church and state. Of course, with all students praying individually, I am sure God will hear requests for everything from Aardvark rescue to Xylophone repair, but I still remember my Catholic classmates in 1963, genuflecting in deep prayer, trying to heal a mortally wounded president. The only comment made about the prayers of those young men in a public school art class was that they were “alter boys” and one saw their commitment to God and to country. Fifty years later, they are still a positive memory of prayer in a public place. The only line they might have crossed was from secularity into spirituality. May we all be so blessed.
Rabbi Mark Sobel
Temple Beth Emet
Burbank
--
Do prayers and religious instruction during the school day at publicly funded prekindergarden programs, held at and presumably taught by employees of Jewish, Christian and Muslim schools, constitute a violation of our constitutional separation of church and state? Gee, ya think?
This question caps a bad week for atheists, indeed for anyone who likes our secular government and does not relish an established religion, any religion, here.
The head of government of Israel, supposedly the shining example of multicultural democracy in the region, frets that too many of the other are going to vote, and flatly states that they have no place of their own in the region anyway. The fear card triumphs, then he immediately takes it all back and we let him get away with it.
In Afghanistan, where we have poured our treasure and blood for decades, we saw religious citizens (not the Taliban or jihadists or other terrorists) form a mob and stone and beat to death a mentally ill woman for allegedly burning a few pages of a Koran. The head of their Ministry of Religious Affairs — that my tax dollars are going to a country that has such a ministry is depressing right there — opined that if she did that, well, then she got just what she deserved. Turned out it wasn’t a Koran after all. Oops.
There is an argument that says the wars in the greater Middle East are not about religion. I have struggled to understand this tortured logic and while clearly geopolitics and economics are involved, so is religion. Today as I write, we are bombing both sides in the conflict.
If nearly half our federal budget didn’t go for preparation, execution and aftermath of war, we could fund secular universal education and much, much more. The rest of the developed world manages it. Oh, right, we’re fighting the idiotic, hopeless wars for them.
Tax-supported religious schools are a step down this sectarian road, right here in the U.S.
Roberta Medford
Atheist
Montrose
--
The three largest religions in the United States are Christianity, Judaism, and Islam (in that order). New York City reflects this national fact in its own populace, the majority of which is comprised of a 3/4 self-identified Christian population, followed by a Jewish demographic more numerous than any country in the world except Israel, and depending on who you ask, the Muslims have upward of 200 mosques in New York City and growing. So it doesn’t seem especially problematic to me that families identifying with one of these three predominant faiths be assigned the religious institution of their own persuasion, without remotely violating the Establishment Clause. For those with no preference, or of some other religious identity, allow them priority placement in the public-education spaces for their preschoolers, where the atmosphere remains essentially neutral.
It does appear, however, that this whole thing is for what amounts to baby-sitting, as it pertains to, I’m guessing, 3 and 4-year-olds not ready for kindergarten (which I always thought was the actual precursor for basic academics in first grade). So the necessity of doing this eludes me, but if the population wants their tax dollars to fund de Blasio’s “free” all-day prekindergarten program, then so be it. But as I say, there seems to be enough religion to go around to accommodate the few thousand children of New York City’s ostensibly religious residents, and surely there are enough public schools to accommodate all who prefer their children not be exposed to any particular religious reinforcement.
The Rev. Bryan Griem
Montrose Community Church
Montrose